How To Grow Your Own Coffee Tree

How To Grow Your Own Coffee Tree FARM HOME Food Make your houseplants serve both form and function by growing a coffee tree in your living room Coffee makes for a hardy indoor plant that might even provide enough beans for a cup or two of joe The coffee plant Coffea arabica produces glossy green leaves It boasts a compact growth habit making it well-suited to pots They also aren’t as rare as people assume You’ll find coffee trees for sale in larger nurseries and houseplant catalogs Coffee plants do best in well-draining slightly acidic potting soil adding peat moss works well Keep the plants moist but not soggy by thoroughly watering them every week or two Never let the soil dry out completely Keep your coffee plant in a warm 70 to 80 F room with bright indirect light Coffee is an understory plant so it does best without direct sunlight Too much light will brown the leaves Higher temperatures will promote faster growth but hurt coffee production as the cherries need to ripen at a slow steady pace Consider moving your coffee plant outdoors when the weather is consistently above 86 F Otherwise it’s best left indoors A daily misting will boost humidity as can putting the pot in a shallow pebble-filled tray Placing a humidifier nearby can also work Coffee plants benefit from balanced fertilizers You can limit feedings to four times a year with a diluted liquid fertilizer Likewise pruning should happen in the spring Though the trees easily reach over 25 ft tall in the wild pruning keeps them under 6 ft —often much smaller The goal is to encourage dense bushy growth Remove any old dead and bare branches and leaves growing directly from the bottom of the trunk You’ll encourage dense bushy growth by cutting the stems at a 45-degree angle about 1/4 in above a leaf joint Keep the tree alive for 3 to 5 years and you’ll soon notice small fragrant white flowers dotting the branches They typically bloom between April and May with the flowers lasting a month or longer If you’re growing Coffea arabica these blooms may turn into small reddish-black pods called cherries Other varieties won’t produce fruit without access to pollinating insects Each cherry contains two coffee beans They’re ripe and ready for harvest once they’ve turned entirely red You can expect a handful or two per plant a little short of the 4 000 beans required for a pound of roasted coffee Let them dry in a single layer in a space with plenty of ventilation tossing them at least once a day to prevent the bottoms from rotting Within 2 weeks you should be able to slough off the leather skin and pulp to access the pale green beans inside You can roast the beans at home in a hot dry wok stirring constantly until they reach an even brown—don’t let them burn! Once cooled you can grind the beans and brew them to your preference Coffee trees are available from many online retailers such as Amazon or www fast-growing-trees com Prices vary by size and average $30 to $60 for small potted trees

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