Growing Coffee from Seed: Germination to Harvest

Seed Sources

• Fresh cherry: Pulp, wash, ferment, dry on mesh (not direct sun). Bite test: soft inside, dry outside.
• Green coffee beans: Buy from recent crop. Fresh seeds germinate in 2.5 months; older take 6 months. Plant many—low success rate.

Germination Steps

1. Soak seeds 24 hours; drain.
2. Sow in damp sand, wet vermiculite, or between moist coffee sacks.
3. After germination, plant flat-side down in loam with high humus (rotted manure, bone meal, dried blood) or light porous soil. Don't compact. Mulch with ½ inch grass; remove when sprouted.
4. Water daily—moist, not wet.

Seedling Care

• Transplant to porous, low-pH, high-nitrogen soil. Orchid fertilizer sparingly maintains pH/minerals.
• Indoors under artificial light. Water weekly + fertilize weekly. Keep moist, well-drained.

Long-Term

• 2–3 years to flower.
• To induce bloom: reduce water at winter start for 2–3 months, then water heavily in spring.
• Harvest, pulp, ferment, dry, roast—then enjoy.

Painstaking but rewarding for coffee lovers.