How to Grow Coffee Plants From Unroasted Beans

If you can't start your day without an eye-opening cup of coffee, consider growing your own coffee plant. Homegrown coffee costs much less than a bag of beans or a cup from a coffee house, and growing this exotic plant presents a satisfying challenge to the adventurous gardener. Most coffee beans bought in stores are roasted and unsuitable for planting. To grow your own coffee, you need to use raw, unroasted beans.

Raw coffee beans
Vermiculite
8 inch container
Plastic wrap

Instructions

- 1
  Pour raw, green coffee beans into a bag or container. Fill the container with lukewarm water and set it aside for 12 to 24 hours.
- 2
  Pour out the water and examine the beans. Look for beans that have a small white bump, or embryo, on the end. Set these beans aside and discard the others.
- 3
  Fill one large container with vermiculite per bean you want to plant. Place one bean in each container and cover it with 1/2 inch of vermiculite.
- 4
  Water the coffee bean and cover the top of the container with plastic wrap. Add more water to the container twice per day. Germination takes about 60 days.
- 5
  Prepare a larger container or garden bed for the bean once germination occurs. Dig a 1/2 inch hole in loam soil. Put the germinated bean in the soil with the flat side facing down. Fill the hole with soil, but do not press it down.
- 6
  Continue to water the germinated coffee bean. You will usually see a coffee plant seedling emerge from the soil in a few days, but it can take up to several weeks. When the seedling emerges, add fertilizer to the soil, if desired. Orchid fertilizer and manure are ideal.
- 7
  Harvest coffee cherries from the plant in two or three years. When winter begins, slow down watering. Resume normal watering in spring to prompt flower production. Hand-pollinate flowers, or allow insects to do so, to produce the cherries that contain beans.

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