How to Grow a Coffee Plant at Home

You can grow a coffee plant at home as a houseplant, and with patience it can even give you a few homegrown beans. Start with a young Coffea arabica plant, or with fresh, unroasted coffee seeds, in a pot with drainage and a rich, slightly acidic potting mix. Give it bright, indirect light, temperatures of about 60 to 75°F (15 to 24°C), soil that stays evenly moist but never soggy, and extra humidity. A healthy plant usually flowers after 3 to 5 years, and its white, jasmine-scented flowers turn into red coffee cherries about 7 to 9 months later.

Which Coffee Plant Should You Grow?

Almost every coffee plant sold as a houseplant is Coffea arabica, and it is the best choice for growing at home. Arabica is self-pollinating, so a single plant can set fruit on its own, and it tolerates the cooler temperatures of a house. Robusta (Coffea canephora) is hardier in the tropics but needs cross-pollination from a second, different plant to make cherries, and it prefers more heat, so it rarely fruits indoors. Learn more about the two species in Arabica vs Robusta.

Buying a young plant from a nursery or garden center is the easiest way to start. Growing from seed is cheaper and fun, but slower: expect a year or two before you have a sturdy plant.

How to Grow a Coffee Plant From Seed

1. Get fresh, unroasted seeds. Roasted beans, and even old green coffee from a roaster, will not grow. Coffee seeds lose viability within a few months, so buy seeds sold for planting, ideally still in their parchment. See the anatomy of a coffee bean.
2. Soak them in room-temperature water for 24 to 48 hours. Discard any that float.
3. Plant them about half an inch deep, flat side down, in moist seed-starting mix or a damp mix of peat or coir and perlite.
4. Keep them warm and moist, above about 65°F (18°C), ideally 70 to 80°F, using a heat mat if needed. Cover the pot loosely with plastic to hold in humidity.
5. Be patient. Fresh seeds usually sprout in about 2 to 3 months, older ones much later. The seedling pushes up with the seed still on top, like a little bean “hat,” then opens its first round leaves.
6. Pot it on into its own small pot once it has a couple of pairs of true leaves.

How to Care for a Coffee Plant Indoors

• Light: coffee grows naturally in the shade of taller trees, so it likes bright light without harsh direct sun. Too much sun scorches the leaves; too little and it grows leggy and will not flower.
• Watering: water thoroughly when the top inch of soil feels dry, and empty the saucer. Soggy soil causes root rot, while letting it dry out completely makes the leaves droop and brown.
• Humidity: dry indoor air causes brown, crispy leaf edges. Group plants together, use a pebble tray or run a humidifier, especially in winter.
• Temperature: keep it between about 60 and 75°F (15 and 24°C), away from heaters, air conditioners and cold windows. Long spells near 40°F (5°C) make it drop leaves, and frost can kill it.
• Feeding: use a balanced liquid houseplant fertilizer at half strength every 2 to 4 weeks in spring and summer, and stop or cut back in winter. Pale, yellowing leaves can mean it needs feeding or that the soil is not acidic enough.
• Repotting: move it to a pot one size larger every year or two in spring. A larger root ball supports a larger plant and, eventually, flowers.
• Pruning: pinch or cut back the top to keep it bushy and a manageable size; an unpruned plant can reach 6 feet or more indoors.
• Summer outdoors: it can spend summer outside in a shaded, sheltered spot once nights stay above about 55°F (13°C). Bring it back in well before the first cold night.

Common Coffee Plant Problems

• Brown leaf tips or edges: usually low humidity or irregular watering.
• Yellow leaves: overwatering, poor drainage or a lack of nutrients.
• Brown or black patches: sunburn, cold damage or, if spreading, root rot.
• Drooping leaves: the plant is too dry or, if the soil is wet, the roots are rotting.
• Pests: check under leaves for spider mites, mealybugs and scale, especially in dry air. Wipe them off or treat with insecticidal soap.

Flowers, Cherries and Your First Harvest

A well-grown arabica plant usually flowers when it is about 3 to 5 years old and a few feet tall, often after a short dry or cool spell. The small white flowers smell like jasmine and last only a couple of days. Arabica pollinates itself, but indoors you can help by gently brushing each flower with a small paintbrush. The green cherries then take about 7 to 9 months to ripen to deep red.

A potted plant produces only a small crop, often enough for just a few cups, but it is a rewarding way to see where coffee comes from. To turn your cherries into coffee:

1. Pick only fully ripe, deep red cherries.
2. Process: squeeze the two seeds out of each cherry, soak them in water for a day or so until the sticky coating rinses off, then dry them in the sun or a warm, airy spot for one to several weeks, until they are hard and rattle in their parchment. You can also dry the whole cherries, like a natural-process coffee; the dried skins are cascara.
3. Hull: rub off the dry parchment to reveal the green beans.
4. Roast: roast in a skillet, oven or home roaster until brown, let the beans rest for a day or two, then grind and brew. See our tips for roasting coffee at home.

Want to see how it is done on a larger scale? Read about Costa Rican coffee and the people who pick it in Costa Rica’s coffee pickers.