Growing Coffee from Seed

Growing coffee from seed can be a rewarding but challenging process. Here’s a detailed guide to help you get started:

1. Preparing the Seeds

Extracting Beans: For fresh cherries, crush the cherry to extract the beans. Rinse the beans and ferment them in a container until the pulp falls off. Wash the beans again and discard any that float.
Soaking: Soak the beans in water for 24 hours to hydrate them and improve germination.

2. Germinating the Seeds

Planting Medium: Use damp sand, wet vermiculite, or place the seeds between moist coffee sacks.
Planting: Sow the seeds flat side down in loam soil with high humus content. Add rotted manure, bone meal, or dried blood to the soil. Cover with ½ inch (1 cm) of mulched grass to conserve moisture.
Watering: Water the seeds daily, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged.

3. Growing Conditions

Temperature and Light: Coffee seeds require a warm and humid environment with temperatures between 68 to 86°F (20 to 30°C). They thrive in partial shade, so provide filtered or dappled sunlight.
Indoor Growing: If you live in a region with cold winters, consider growing coffee plants indoors under artificial lighting.

4. Transplanting Seedlings

Repotting: Once the seedlings are about 5 in tall, repot them into larger pots with porous, low pH soil rich in nitrogen. Use orchid fertilizer sparingly to maintain the low pH and add minerals.
Outdoor Transplanting: When the plants are about 30 to 40 cm tall, transplant them into the garden in a shady spot or grow them indoors

5. Care and Maintenance

Watering: Water the plants once a week, allowing the soil to drain. During the week, water again with fertilizer.
Patience: It takes two to three years for the coffee tree to flower and produce cherries.

6. Harvesting and Processing

Harvesting: Pick the ripe red cherries from the coffee plant.
Processing: Squeeze out the beans, wash, and dry them. Once dried, the beans can be roasted and ground for brewing.

Growing coffee from seed requires patience and attention to detail, but the reward of enjoying homegrown coffee is well worth the effort. Happy gardening! 🌱☕