Coffee plants grow essentially in subtropical areas, they love hot and humid atmospheres. Can we grow a coffee plant in the USA? The answer is yes, with a few constraints: you need to grow it indoors and try to recreate favorable conditions.
Let’s go for our best tips to get started growing a coffee bean plant!
What do I need to grow a coffee plant?
If you want to start from scratch you need nonroasted coffee beans! Those are the fresh coffee beans coming straight from the coffee bean plant. Either you have access to a coffee bean plant or you can buy them in specialized stores, garden centers, or on the internet.
These green coffee beans are the seeds of your future coffee plant. Depending on their freshness it will take from 2 to 6 months to see the coffee beans germinate once planted.
If you think it’s too long or too risky (you need to plant many seeds to get one coffee plant) just buy a just baby germinated coffee plant and start from there.
Growing your coffee bean plant
Remember you will need to grow your coffee plant indoors or in a greenhouse.
In spring, soak in warm water a handful of green coffee beans with their membrane for 24 hours. Then place them in a tray with potting soil, sand for seedlings, and water. Your plants must be at 25ºC or 77 ºF, so place them in a small greenhouse or cover them with transparent plastic. The best place is close to a heat source.
Keep the soil a little moist, but not too moist so as not to drown them. Normally fresh coffee beans germinate after 2 months if they are fresh, it can take up to 6 months when they come from an older crop. You then put your coffee bean plant in your brightest room but without direct sunlight. Continue watering them to keep the soil moist.
From there it will be from 3 to 4 years before you can start harvesting coffee beans. One coffee plant will give you around 4 000 coffee beans a year. Now that seems like a lot!
It turns out that once roasted, you’ll end up with only a pound to two pounds of coffee. Still, this is enough to make a few real homemade espressos, iced coffee, frappe, or pumpkin spice latte… check out our coffee recipes to make yourself a completely homemade coffee drink.
Tips for a successful coffee plant growth
Here are some tips to grow a coffee plant nice and healthy :
- Use a potting mix with sand and put some gravel at the bottom of the pot.
- Keep your coffee plant at a temperature of around 25ºC or 77ºF away from draughts.
- The growth of a coffee bean plant is better in full light without direct sunlight.
- Water regularly as soon as the substrate is dry and moisten the leaves of your coffee plant in summer.
- You can put your coffee plant outside as soon as the temperature rises around 25ºC or 77ºF.
- To grow a coffee plant healthy and well developed, re-pot it several times in the first year.
- Use fertilizer once or twice a month if you want to speed up the growth and reduce the risks of the coffee plant not growing well.
