Has anyone tried growing a coffee plant from seed indoors?

William Shatter

Well-Known Member
Ive got a few different kinds planted, underneath a lil cfl bulb at the moment, patiently awaiting sprouts, can take up to 2.5 months apparently tho. I have a 200 watt sunblaster, would anyone recommend putting the trays under there or is that too hot? I mean they're from hot climates right? Btw I should mention that I live in BC, Canada.

I got kona coffee and arabica or however its spelled.

Anyone tried this?
 

TheFuture

Well-Known Member
Ok, first of all, for coffee you are going to have patience. Everything with Coffee is slow. You can grow it indoors under good, warm light but with a 200w Sunblaster I cannot imagine it doing that much. Coffee does better when not grown in direct sun so it doesn't need a blasting 1000w, but I would suggest a 400w HPS at least. Would it survive under the Sunblaster? Yes, but it will most likely grow 4x slower than it already is going to.

It takes between 2.5 to 6 months to germinate a Coffee bean, depending on who and where you got your seed from, if it was a recent crop or not, if you have a cherry versus a fermented and dried bean, etc. You say you have them planted so I would just wait patiently for them to pop up. You need pretty well draining soil. I use Pro-Mix BX for everything since it drains really well and I can add other stuff like Coco coir if I need it to retain more moisture. I suggest that. Go and get a Hydrofarm Seedling germination mat to warm your pots/media and to speed up that germination.

When your seedlings sprout, keep the soil more on the drier side. If you were to fill it to the point of it being max capacity and running off, try to keep the medium at about 60% of that weight or less, but not completely dry. If you prepare your medium with earthworm castings and humates and amend to ph of between 5.0 and 6.0 you should be pretty good to just water it the rest of the year until it gets bigger and needs additional nutrients. When you get root strikes on a 4" pot, you should transplant to a 10 gallon container (really, a 20 gallon container. It's a tree.) so you don't have to move it again and feed it with about 1000ppm of nutrients which should last through that year. Outdoor they need 3 feet depth for roots. Indoor you really should use a Smart Pot to get self terminating roots that make a nice solid rootball to put into the 10 gallon planter.

Irrigate uniformly over 7-9 months and then stop watering except if the plant looks like it will die for 2-3 months. This dry stress period is extremely necessary to ensuring a good flowering period. For the Kona Coffee to get the total appeal you should purchase and crush up some Hawaiian volcanic pumice for the micronutrients and terroir it will produce in your coffee plant, and foliar mist it often. Think of it this way, how is it supposed to taste like Hawaiian Kona if it is grown on the opposite side of the world in Canada? You feed your soil. The plant is an indicator of how good the soil is. Sometimes, plants need really crappy soil to survive and by giving it everything you THINK it needs you actually kill it off. Coffee is not like Cannabis. It is mostly a set it and forget it kind of plant.

Does not tolerate frost. Needs temperatures between 20 and 24C (68 to 75F) for optimum growth. Arabica requires an elevation of at least 1000m above sea level and it appears most of BC is above 2000m. If you can keep the coffee plant at the lower end of the temperature spectrum you will achieve a slower but much more cuppable, palatable bean. Colder and Bolder.

It's a little challenging but a fun plant. You can expect to produce about 2 ounces of coffee per season perhaps. Fully grown outdoor trees can produce 6 ounces per season.

I have only grow a couple but I own a coffee shop!
 

William Shatter

Well-Known Member
hps hey, so it doesnt want the daylight (5600k) it would do better under the soft white 2700k? (talking about cfl's, what I have on hand at the moment)
I will be upgrading my lights soon enoguh, but for now thats what I got. I also have about 12 or so 23 watt cfls in both spectrums, I could rig those up around it if need be.
 

GrowUrOwnDank

Well-Known Member
Ok, first of all, for coffee you are going to have patience. Everything with Coffee is slow. You can grow it indoors under good, warm light but with a 200w Sunblaster I cannot imagine it doing that much. Coffee does better when not grown in direct sun so it doesn't need a blasting 1000w, but I would suggest a 400w HPS at least. Would it survive under the Sunblaster? Yes, but it will most likely grow 4x slower than it already is going to.

It takes between 2.5 to 6 months to germinate a Coffee bean, depending on who and where you got your seed from, if it was a recent crop or not, if you have a cherry versus a fermented and dried bean, etc. You say you have them planted so I would just wait patiently for them to pop up. You need pretty well draining soil. I use Pro-Mix BX for everything since it drains really well and I can add other stuff like Coco coir if I need it to retain more moisture. I suggest that. Go and get a Hydrofarm Seedling germination mat to warm your pots/media and to speed up that germination.

When your seedlings sprout, keep the soil more on the drier side. If you were to fill it to the point of it being max capacity and running off, try to keep the medium at about 60% of that weight or less, but not completely dry. If you prepare your medium with earthworm castings and humates and amend to ph of between 5.0 and 6.0 you should be pretty good to just water it the rest of the year until it gets bigger and needs additional nutrients. When you get root strikes on a 4" pot, you should transplant to a 10 gallon container (really, a 20 gallon container. It's a tree.) so you don't have to move it again and feed it with about 1000ppm of nutrients which should last through that year. Outdoor they need 3 feet depth for roots. Indoor you really should use a Smart Pot to get self terminating roots that make a nice solid rootball to put into the 10 gallon planter.

Irrigate uniformly over 7-9 months and then stop watering except if the plant looks like it will die for 2-3 months. This dry stress period is extremely necessary to ensuring a good flowering period. For the Kona Coffee to get the total appeal you should purchase and crush up some Hawaiian volcanic pumice for the micronutrients and terroir it will produce in your coffee plant, and foliar mist it often. Think of it this way, how is it supposed to taste like Hawaiian Kona if it is grown on the opposite side of the world in Canada? You feed your soil. The plant is an indicator of how good the soil is. Sometimes, plants need really crappy soil to survive and by giving it everything you THINK it needs you actually kill it off. Coffee is not like Cannabis. It is mostly a set it and forget it kind of plant.

Does not tolerate frost. Needs temperatures between 20 and 24C (68 to 75F) for optimum growth. Arabica requires an elevation of at least 1000m above sea level and it appears most of BC is above 2000m. If you can keep the coffee plant at the lower end of the temperature spectrum you will achieve a slower but much more cuppable, palatable bean. Colder and Bolder.

It's a little challenging but a fun plant. You can expect to produce about 2 ounces of coffee per season perhaps. Fully grown outdoor trees can produce 6 ounces per season.

I have only grow a couple but I own a coffee shop!
Now that's some impressive coffee science. When I first saw the thread I was all like man, I'm gonna try that shit too!

Then I read the coffee science and was like meh. That's a lot of work. Good luck OP.
 

TheFuture

Well-Known Member
Hahaha, yeah it's a little tougher and way slow.

For now those CFL should do fine, mostly to warm the pots.
 

William Shatter

Well-Known Member
Does not tolerate frost. Needs temperatures between 20 and 24C (68 to 75F) for optimum growth. Arabica requires an elevation of at least 1000m above sea level and it appears most of BC is above 2000m. If you can keep the coffee plant at the lower end of the temperature spectrum you will achieve a slower but much more cuppable, palatable bean. Colder and Bolder.

It's a little challenging but a fun plant. You can expect to produce about 2 ounces of coffee per season perhaps. Fully grown outdoor trees can produce 6 ounces per season.

I have only grow a couple but I own a coffee shop!
Where did you read that bc is mostly 2000m above sea level? Cuz I was unsure about that so I googled it and it said we are 20 meters above sea level. That seems hella low tho? lol
 

TheFuture

Well-Known Member
I just looked at the map and then referenced a wikipedia article on British Columbia. I know nothing about your geography but my eyeball trained on the sentence: " Seventy-five percent of the province is mountainous (more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level); 60% is forested; and only about 5% is arable" Apologies if it was erroneous. The topographical map looks pretty high-relief and BC cities look inland. *shrug*

Hehe.
 

ChuffinHoolies

Active Member
I have a little arrabica tree I was gifted a year ago. Has just spit out her first branch this summer. I keep it indoors mostly shaded as I read they don't like direct sunlight. I would like to know more about how to grow it so this thread is neat. I also live in BC. IMAG0435.jpg
 

William Shatter

Well-Known Member
wicked man! mine are still waiting to sprout, got 10 arabica seeds and 7 kona coffee seeds. Been planted roughly 1.5 months now. Patience is a virtue!
I also got cocoa seeds, 1 cocoa plant, dwarf banana, olive trees, and sacred japanese cedar (bonzai style) and virginia tobacco, all in the same box... very interesting lil grow
 

ChuffinHoolies

Active Member
Aw man jelouse, I want an olive tree too.
My coffee tree sits on the desk in my living room gets maybe an hour of sun per day. I water once a week? Lol. I should probably research how to better care for it.
 
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