How Can I Grow Coffee Beans?
Though coffee is becoming more popular, production has decreased in Central and South America. From 2008 to 2010, coffee prices have risen and are expected to get even higher. To avoid these high prices while enjoying the freshest coffee, home gardeners can purchase green coffee beans and grow their own plants at home. Coffee plants thrive best in humid, shady environments between 59 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and should be grown inside if outdoor temperatures are lower. Each coffee plant can produce 2 to 10 pounds of beans per year. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Green coffee beans
- Sand or vermiculite
- High-humus, friable loam soil
- Flower pots with drain holes
- Artificial plant lights
Instructions
-
-
1
Order green coffee beans from a supplier. For faster, more successful germination, request beans younger than 4 months old.
-
2
Soak the beans in water for 24 hours. Moisten sand or vermiculite and allow the excess water to drain. Then, sow the beans in the sand or vermiculite.
-
-
3
Remove beans from the sand or vermiculite after germination. Plant them 1/2 inch deep, flat side down in pots filled with loam soil. Sprinkle soil over the planted bean.
-
4
Water the beans every day, but not excessively. Only add water until it starts to leak out of the hole in the bottom of your pot.
-
5
Transplant fully germinated beans in a low-pH, high-nitrogen sandy soil if planting outside. Dig a hole three or four times the diameter and three times as deep as the pot containing the plant. Water the plant immediately. If growing indoors, leave the plants in their original pots, transplanting to larger pots when necessary.
-
6
Set up artificial lights over your plants if growing indoors.
-
7
Water indoor and outdoor plants twice a week. First, water the plant as normal, then add water and dry fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphate, potash and magnesium. Add a total of 1/8 pound of fertilizer every other month. When the tree grows larger and bears coffee cherries, use one or two pounds a month.
-
8
Significantly reduce watering from January through February. Resume watering as normal in spring. In two to three years, the plant should flower in the spring and may produce cherries. Cherries contain coffee beans, which should be fermented, dried and roasted before making coffee.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
