How to Grow a Coffee Plant at Home

If you are willing to try something different, we show you how to grow a coffee plant at home. You can actually keep a coffee plant inside your home as a houseplant.

Coffee plants are great for beginners and experienced gardeners, and your experience with your coffee plant will depend on the individual plant you get.

That’s right, some coffee plants are harder to look after than others, and there is no rhyme or reason as to why some are easy, and some are difficult.

Call it the luck of the draw! If you’re looking for a new plant to give you a fresh perspective on houseplants, the coffee plant is for you.

How To Grow a Coffee Plant

Growing a coffee plant is often the hardest part of keeping one in your home because you need to take extra care to get your plant to an impressive height and size.

The most common way of growing a coffee plant is to start with a seedling rather than a seed, as seedlings come with a much higher success rate.

Step One

Carefully pull the seedlings apart and place them in a bowl of warm water. We would advise you to leave them in the water overnight or for around eight hours to allow them to acclimate.

Once eight hours have passed, plant the seedlings in a 4-inch pot of their own.

Step Two 

Place the seedlings in a bright spot that doesn’t get any direct light, but rather indirect light. East-facing windows are best for this, but you can also place them next to the south- or west-facing windows as well.

Keep the soil moist but not boggy. The soil should not be left to dry out, though, so make sure you’re checking it every day. Using a good draining soil or perlite will help to ensure that the soil doesn’t hold onto water and cause root rot.

Step Three

Wait for your plant to grow! Coffee plants are very slow-growing and can take up to five years to grow up to six feet tall, but they will start to flower and bloom before then. Enjoy watching your plant thrive under the right conditions.

Get A Head Start

If you want to get a head start on growing your own coffee plant then you can buy coffee plants from specialist nurseries. If there isn’t a specialist nursery near you then consider the following plant specialist who have very good reviews.

Last update on 2025-01-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

How to Care for a Coffee Plant

It’s impossible to know how fickle your coffee plant is going to be until you are able to live with it for a few weeks, so it’s important to clue yourself up on how to keep your new plant happy.

Below we’ll walk you through the most important factors to remember about caring for your coffee plant.

Water

Keep the soil moist but not soaking. We would suggest investing in a moisture measurer that is designed for houseplants.

These contraptions are simply put into the soil and will give you a reading of how wet the soil is. You can easily use this to determine whether you need to water the plant, or it can be left alone.

Remember, the coffee plant doesn’t need as much water in the winter as it does in the summer, so a moisture meter can help you ensure you’re not overwatering the plant during the colder months.

Light

The light needs of a coffee plant don’t change throughout its life, so you should always be aiming to give your coffee plant bright indirect sunlight.

Keep the plant next to a window during the spring, summer, and autumn. You might need to invest in a grow light for the winter, but your plant might survive without it.

Temperature

Coffee plants do not like freezing temperatures, so pull the plant away from the window as the seasons change and it starts getting colder.

Pulling the plant into the home will help it remain warm and content. Coffee plants also do not enjoy drafts, so don’t leave it near an open window for a long time.

Humidity

Coffee plants love humidity, so you need to keep the humidity around it high. If you don’t want to keep the humidity of your entire house higher than normal, there are a few ways to increase the humidity around just your coffee plant.

Pebble Tray

Find a tray large enough to fit your coffee plant and a layer of pebbles. Lay down the layer of pebbles before adding the coffee plant on top of the pebbles so it’s balancing on the stones.

Fill the tray up with some water to keep the humidity high in the vicinity of your houseplant.

Mister

Misters are very inexpensive and easy to use. Simply mist your coffee plant with water every day. You only have to mist your plant once daily, which takes seconds to complete.

Propagation

Propagating coffee plants is a great way to share the plant with your friends and family, or simply create a new plant. You can do so with fresh seed, a stem cutting, or an air layer.

Cuttings are easiest and often come with the highest success rate, so we’d advise you to propagate using the cutting method.

Simply take a cutting of the stem during summertime. Choose a straight stem and cut eight to ten inches and cut it with sharp scissors or shears to ensure a clean cut.

Pluck off all of the leaves apart from the two that are at the top of the cutting. Plant the cutting in a four-inch pot and make sure that you keep the soil moist.

Don’t move the plant around too much out of curiosity. It’s very tempting to keep removing the cutting from the soil to see whether roots have formed yet, but this can damage the baby roots and stunt the plant’s growth.

Instead, lightly pull on the stem to see if it is easy or difficult to remove from the soil.

If you feel any resistance, leave the plant alone because it most likely has formed roots acting as an anchor within the soil.

If you continue to pull or put too much pressure on the cutting, you might snap the developing roots, putting you back to square one.

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