Grow Your Own Source of Caffeine | Growing Yerba Mate

Easy to grow and tons of health benefits + a natural source of caffeine. What more can you ask for from a plant?. Yerba mate makes a delicious tea most popular in Argentina. Locally it can be found as the main ingredient in many organic energy drinks. Here are some growing tips we've learned over the years growing yerba mate.

Yerba mate ( Llex paraguariensis )growing tips:

-Best time to plant: Anytime night temperatures are 50-60F every single night consistently and expected to rise in the next month or so. (late spring, summer)

-Sun: All day, this plant will take scorching 120F direct sun all day and loves it. Can it grow in partial shade to full shade? Yes but don't expect to perform nearly as well as in the sun.

-Winter: Hard frost sensitive. This plant will take ambient temperatures down to low 20F's like it's nothing. We have never lost a plant in the winter even when we had our coldest winter (2 years ago 19F). They can even take light frost!!!!. This plant falls in the "bullet proof category".

-Growth rate: This plant once fully rooted in a pot grows like a weed. Once planted in ground, it will take a full calendar year to fully establish itself then it will grow at about 1-2ft a year up to 12-15ft tall. No top growth its first year in ground is normal. Remember though if your plant takes damage during that period, it will reset this 1 year time every time!.

-Root system: Shallow, safe to plant close to structures.

-Structure: This is a shrub not a tree unless pruned otherwise.

-Flowers/fruit: This plant flowers late spring. It doesn't produce edible fruits. The foliage is what you eat anyway.

-Water: Frequent water its first year in ground, concentrate on the rootball only, not filling up the berms 10ft deep and forgetting about the plant for a week...unless you want a dead plant. To be honest, only way to kill this plant is to not water.

[cinnahayat_]

Ive been an obsessive yereba mate drinker for the last few years and just bought my first ever live plant, thanks so much for the growing help!

[JamesCT]

Great to know these love the Arizona heat! I'll have to swing by and pick one up!

[Iquey]

I think yerba mate added to mushroom coffees is going to be a new thing. I love coffee but I know it's becoming an at risk crop due to rainforest fires and climate change. If yerba is Hardy or can live in a greenhouse during winter, it will help us deal with coffee shortages.

[m.g.d]

Thank you! Lots of info and I feel better about buying it. I bought a tall cutting

[Contracrostics]

2:05 = Chihuahua for scale xD Thanks for this video! I want to grow these since I started drinking them, and now I can! May I ask what you do with the leaves when you harvest? Is it just a straight drying of leaves, or do you just make tea with the chlorophyll in it? Any major differences, etc.?

[yvotyme]

I bought a Yerba mate plant from Amazon, it’s about 4 years old, when it bloomed in the fall the flowers are tiny white flowers. Since I have never seen a Yerba mate tree before I often wonder if this one it’s the real tree.

[skashaxx]

I'd love to grow one but have no idea where I can find them in the UK
the temps we get in my are warmer than the 19 degrees you speak of, we are lucky if we get as low as 23 degrees
so it should be able to survive ok here with light frost protection

[valterzc]

These plants can get huge, with trees over 15 meters high. But your plants seems to have smaller leaves than the ones we have in south of Brazil, maybe it is a different variety

[lendlend]

Ok i'm going to buy 30 seeds, maby at least one of them will grow. I just need to have my own yerba mate :D

[rychardeewianpowell]

I am in Tucson Az. and been looking for this bush. Do you sale Yerba Mate Plants. Or do you know of any Greenhouses Here in Tucson that would sales them??

[HolyFamilyHomesteadWV]

Where i live we get legit winter. Can we grow it indoors?

[eric-az]

Can you grow a bush indoors? I live where it snows in the winter which I understand wouldn't work. Can it grow big enough indoors to yield enough for drinking?

[relaxingyourinnerfriend]

You can also ship to Antwerp Belgium and Morocco?

[TrialanError]

Hey Alan. What is your website called?

[relaxingyourinnerfriend]

can it also handle high temperatures of 40 degrees?

[harrystokes]

How much heat does the plant tolerate? (Texas panhandle)

[jpsharma]

Great. I need a sapling. Kindly let me know contact of supplier of this plant.

[lendlend]

So i guess growing this in Poland is not such a good idea? Where it's like -8 sometimes at the winter. Well also i cant get plant's here only seeds, they are so hard to grow.

[tempodocs]

Yerba mate tea is what many Argentinians, Uruguayans and Paraguayans drink instead of coffee! In fact the scientific name is Ilex paraguayensis.

[MrAssassinscreedfan]

got any plants for sale? Im in Tucson.