How to Grow Coffee Trees for Beans

Grow your own coffee beans at home

Coffea arabica and coffea robusta are flowering perennial shrubs that are prized for the flavorful coffee beans they produce. Native to Ethiopia, coffee shrubs grow best in areas where the average annual minimum temperature is warmer than 40 degrees F. Unfortunately for gardeners in the United States, this growing requirement makes it necessary to rule out the idea of growing your coffee outdoors. Luckily, both coffea arabica and coffea robusta can be grown indoors as small trees. With the proper care, your coffee tree will start to produce beans in four to five years.

Things You'll Need

• Fresh-picked or green coffee beans
• 3-inch planting containers
• 6-inch planting containers
• Potting compost
• Aged manure
• Perlite
• Grass clippings
• Watering can
• Orchid fertilizer
• Pruning shears

Instructions

1. Purchase fresh, green coffee beans from a reputable green coffee supplier or harvest your own fresh coffee beans from a healthy coffea arabica tree. Remove the pulp from freshly-picked coffee beans and wash the beans in warm water. Spread the washed coffee beans on a paper towel to dry for at least two days.

2. Soak your coffee beans in room-temperature water for at least 24. After 24 hours, drain the water and rinse the beans with fresh water.

3. Germinate your coffee beans in 3-inch planting containers filled with moist perlite. Keep the perlite moist, but well-drained, while you wait for the beans to germinate. Depending on how fresh the coffee beans were, it may take anywhere from two to six months for your beans to sprout.

4. Fill a 6-inch planting container two-thirds of the way full with a growing medium comprised of equal parts potting soil, aged manure and perlite for each of your sprouted coffee beans. Make a one-inch-deep depression in the growing medium in each planting container. Place one sprouted coffee bean, flat-side-down, in each depression. Cover the beans with no more than a half inch of the growing medium. Top the surface of the growing medium with two inches of grass clippings to help retain moisture; remove the grass clippings when your seedlings emerge.

5. Position your coffee seedlings or trees near a south-facing window where they can receive up to six hours of filtered sunlight per day. Maintain a temperature of between 65 and 85 degrees F. in the room where your coffee seedlings or trees are kept.

6. Water your coffee seedlings daily, if necessary, for the first year of growth to keep the growing medium moist, but not soggy or waterlogged. Water established coffee trees approximately twice a week, allowing the surface of the growing medium to dry slightly between watering. Water established coffee trees only once a week during the winter months to encourage them to produce flowers in the spring.

7. Fertilize your coffee trees with a half-strength solution of specially-formulated orchid fertilizer every other week to ensure that your trees will have the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy.

8. Prune your coffee trees, as needed, to maintain the size and shape you desire. If allowed to grow freely, indoor coffee trees can reach height of up to 10 feet. For best results, make sure to use sharpened and sterilized pruning shears when trimming your coffee trees.

Tips & Warnings

• Replant your seedlings in larger planting containers, as needed. Larger coffee trees can be grown in 18-inch planting containers.

• Do not attempt to germinate roasted coffee beans; they will not sprout.

References

• Purdue University: Coffea arabica
• Sweet Maria's: Growing Coffea Arabica at Home
• Coffee Research: Growing Coffee Beans at Home

Resources

• Coffee Research: Arabica and Robusta Coffee Plant
• Coffee Research: Green Coffee Suppliers