How to Grow Coffee Beans: Surprisingly Easy Tips for Success!

If you’re an amateur gardener, coffee enthusiast or just curious about how to grow coffee beans, I’m here to tell you it’s possible!

But hey, it’s not guaranteed that your coffee plant will always produce beans for the perfect cup! That’s not the main aim here, though. With the right guidance you cangrow your very own coffee plant to add to your indoor collection.

In this comprehensive (but simple) guide, I’ll take you through the journey of growing a coffee plant at home. I’ll focus on simple, applicable tips, from choosing the best coffee varieties to maintaining the right growing conditions.

Let’s do this!

Growing Coffee Beans at Home: Is it Possible?

You betcha! Anyone can grow coffee beans at home! But here’s the deal – the process requires the right information, some skill and lots of patience.

If you live in the US or Canada and are wondering how to grow coffee beans outdoors, it might not be possible. In these regions, coffee plants grow best as house plants.

Remember, only tropical Coffee Belt countries have the ideal conditions for coffee farms. The high temperatures, high humidity levels and abundant rainfall year-round help coffee to thrive.

In temperate regions outside the USDA hardiness zones 10-11 (like in Hawaii where Kona coffee grows), coffee plants just won’t do well.

So, let’s answer this question once and for all: Can coffee plants grow in North America? The answer is, yes!

As long as you ensure the following indoor conditions, you’re good to grow a coffee plant at home anywhere in North America:

Different Types of Coffee Bean Plants

Coffee plants fall in the Coffea genus of flowering plants under the Rubiaceae family. They are native to tropical African and Asian countries in the Coffee Belt. The fruit (coffee cherry) of the coffee plant is sweet and high in caffeine content. Inside this fruit are two coffee beans (seeds).

However, there are exceptions. Peaberry coffee, a type of specialty coffee, has one instead of two seeds inside each coffee cherry.

Coffee trees generally bloom 3 to 4 years after planting. Each coffee plant produces highly-scented white flowers a few months before they bear fruit. These green fruits ripen turning yellow, orange, crimson and finally, a deep red. At this point, they’re ready for harvest.

Coffee beans must undergo coffee processing to yield green beans ready for roasting. They are either wet-processed, dry-processed, honey-processed or semi-washed to produce parchment coffee. This coffee dries further before being roasted.

In its native habitat, a coffee plant can grow up to an incredible 26 feet (8 meters) tall. But in a plantation, farmers prune coffee trees to between 4.9 and 6.5 feet (1.5 and 2 meters). This makes it easier for them to prune and harvest ripe coffee cherries.

Common Coffee Plant Species

It may surprise you to know that there are several species that make up coffee plants. According to Kew Science, botanists have identified an incredible 124 species so far!

There are four main commercialized species:

Choosing the Best Coffee Plant Species for Your Home

When thinking about how to grow coffee beans for harvesting, you should first consider your preferred flavor profile and tasting notes in the final cup. In this case, an Arabica plant would be ideal. However, if you don’t intend to brew coffee and just want an indoor plant, the world’s your oyster!

Consider planting the dwarf variety, Coffea arabica ‘Nana’, which peaks at a mere 12 inches. Alternatively, choose the aesthetic shrub-like Coffea magnistipula. These look good, fit nicely inside your home and are easier to maintain. You may also consider the caffeine-free Coffea charrieriana if you have caffeine sensitivities.

How to Grow Coffee Beans: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now to the crux of this post: how to grow coffee beans from seed.

The ideal way to do this is to harvest your coffee seeds directly from the fruit, pulp these cherries and harvest the seeds inside. Of course, you’ll need to dry these beans in the sun for a few weeks before you can grow them.

However, harvesting seed from coffee cherries may not be possible outside coffee-growing regions. If you live in the US, you could source green beans online from certified seed suppliers.

How to Grow a Coffee Plant at Home from Seed

Once you receive your coffee seeds:

How to Grow Coffee Plants at Home from Seedlings

Other than growing a coffee plant from seed, you can buy certified seedlings and grow a coffee plant from them. Find seedlings at reputable supermarkets or gardening centers, such as Lowes or Home Depot. Alternatively, source seedlings from certified suppliers online.

Let’s now look at how to grow coffee beans from seedlings:

How to Propagate a Coffee Plant at Home

Before we look at coffee propagation, we should first ask: why propagate coffee plants in the first place?

Coffee propagation is a cost-effective way to get more coffee plants. It’s also useful for creating new coffee varieties and disease-resistant hybrids every few years.

You can propagate coffee plants from seed, stem-cutting, grafting or in-vitro propagation. In most cases, coffee experts propagate Arabica plants from seed. 

To propagate coffee plants at home, I’ll discuss the simpler stem-cutting method. 

You’ll need the following items:

Here’s how to do it:

Caring for a Coffee Plant: Useful Tips and Tricks

Now that you’ve grown your own coffee plant, what’s next? Naturally, your priority will be to care for your coffee. With the right amount of love, you may be lucky enough to nurture a coffee plant that produces cherries and – hey presto – coffee beans!

Let’s go through some essential tips on how to care for your coffee plant at home.

Light 

Always place a coffee plant in a bright, draft-free spot with indirect light. An east, south or west-facing window with filtered sunlight in your living room is ideal. You may also place your coffee plant in a conservatory or greenhouse.

It’s perfectly okay to take your coffee plant outside in the spring and summer months, but only at temperatures exceeding 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius).

Place your plant in full shade for at least two weeks before exposing it to full sun to acclimate it.

I must caution you here, though: too much direct sunlight will make the glossy green leaves turn brown. What’s more, too much sun may also cause plant-killing leaf scorch or leaf burn.

Soil Conditions

Ideally, you should choose a soil or potting mix formulated for tropical plants. Alternatively, add sphagnum peat moss to a regular houseplant mix. This will help create the acidic soil conditions that coffee plants love.

Water your plants every fortnight, but don’t do so blindly. Feel your plant’s soil or potting mix and only water when the top layer or 25 percent of your potting mix feels dry.

Temperature and Humidity Levels

Coffee plants love warm and humidity-stable conditions that mimic their native habitat. Keep temperatures at 60 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 24 degrees Celsius) and humidity of between 60 and 80 percent. Consider using a humidifier or placing a pebble tray filled with water near your plant to maintain humidity levels.

Fertilizing Your Coffee Plant

Feed your coffee plant with a balanced liquid feed, preferably an organic 30-10-10 foliar. Apply this fertilizer every fortnight to maintain your plant’s growth in the March to September growing season.

You may also apply coffee grounds to your plant twice a year (once in spring and once in winter). To do this, take 1 – 2 teaspoons of used coffee grounds and work it into the soil or potting mix. Don’t forget to mulch your coffee plant as well. Rice straw, pine bark or compost mulch will help keep the soil moist.

Pruning

Pruning your coffee plant in the spring before fertilizing it encourages healthy growth. Plus, it’s vital for controlling your plant’s size and shape. It also promotes coffee cherry production, enhances sunlight penetration and improves air circulation.

When pruning coffee plants, remove damaged and yellow leaves, lower leaves and suckers. Also, do away with dead or diseased branches and if you want a bushier plant, prune the top of the main shoot.

Pollination

An important thing to know is that Arabica plants are self-pollinating. In contrast, Robusta flowers are self-infertile and will need hand-pollination.

Potted Coffee Plants

You should re-pot an indoor coffee plant every couple of years. The best time to do this is in spring or early summer. Always re-pot a single plant from a smaller to a larger pot size to accommodate the new growth in the roots.

Pest Management

Finally, and most importantly, keep an eye out for pests. Common coffee pests include:

Most coffee farmers use conventional pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that aren’t organic. However, in the home, this may not be your jam. I’d recommend going fully organic.

70% neem oil in a gallon of water or caffeine from used coffee grounds (yes, caffeine) are excellent natural insecticides. An organic store-bought fungicide like triadimefon is also useful.

Remember, although coffee plants are a good addition to the home, they are also toxic to humans and pets. This is due to their solanine content, which is also present in deadly nightshade. Because of this, be careful with your coffee plant around children and pets in the home.

Final Thoughts: Growing Your Own Coffee Plant Is More About the Process

In conclusion, growing coffee plants at home isn’t just for those lucky enough to have a green thumb. Anyone with a passion for coffee can learn how to grow coffee beans at home.

Select the right coffee varieties and nurture your coffee plants and you may just strike the jackpot and harvest ripe cherries. At the very least, your coffee plant will be a beautiful addition to your indoor plant collection.

Growing Coffee FAQ