HOW TO GROW A COFFEE PLANT FROM SEEDS OR BEANS |The Garden of Eaden

How to grow a coffee plant from seed

When sat with both hands warming over a cup of coffee, I guess many of us have asked whether it would be possible to grow your own coffee plants from seeds, or should I say beans? Of course the bean is the seed! The first thing you would need to do is procure some viable beans. Unfortunately the roasted beans from your favourite coffee provider will not suffice as the heat from the roasting process kills the bean.

Germinating coffee seedlings

Once you have obtained you fresh beans, soak them in tepid water for 24 hours,before sowing into a seed tray containing damp sand or wet perlite or vermiculite. Cover with a thin layer of your chosen substrate to help keep the bean moist. Place the seed tray into a heated propagator and maintain a rooting temperature of approximately 20 degrees Celsius. Be aware that coffee seeds/beans can take anywhere between 1 and 6 months to germinate. Once germination occurs carefully removed the seed with its root intact.

Using 9 cm pots containing a free-draining, soil-based ericaceous compost, carefully pot on the seedlings. Keep the soil most but not waterlogged and consider feeding once a month with a low-pH fertiliser such as Orchid fertilizer. Once the plant has established continue potting on as necessary into progressively larger pots, preferably those with deeper sides such as long-toms.

Place your seedling is a bright room, you may need to supplement your lighting with a solar lamp to prevent weak extending growth in temperate and cooler regions. Water once a week to soak the roots but allow this to drain off. As said previously, do not allow the rootball to become waterlogged as this can cause damage to the root system. Furthermore, maintain a temperature of between 12 and 25 degrees Celsius

Assuming suitable growing conditions are provided you can expect your seedlings to flower in 2-3 years as which point, and if they are fertilised, you can collect your own fresh beans for germination.

For related articles click onto the following links:
HOW TO GROW A COFFEE PLANT FROM SEED
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