So who would have guessed that coffee is a fruit and it grows on a tree hey?
Well for all of you DIYers you can take your ‘home’ brew coffee one step further than roasting your own coffee in the shed.
Or maybe you just want to add a nice looking house plant with a backstory to your collection.
Either way, coffee plants are a thing – even in Blighty.
Can I grow a coffee plant in my house?
You certainly can.
I personally have a coffee plant in my house that I have owned for over 4 years which lives in my conservatory.
Although I didn’t grow it myself, it was gifted to me from a friend that had bought some seeds/beans back from Peru and germinated the coffee at home.
How to grow coffee beans at home?
Well, firstly you need to find a seed (or a bean).
Coffee beans should actually be called coffee seeds, they grow on coffee plants as a pair that are in the centre of a coffee cherry which is usually red.
These raw beans (usually referred to as green coffee) is then exported to coffee consuming countries before it is roasted into the coffee beans that we know and love.
Although one would assume you’d be able to nip down to your local roaster and ask to buy a few green beans to attempt to grow a coffee plant at home, these beans (or seeds) will not be able to germinate.
Once the coffee cherry is picked at origin it is processed and dried in various ways which takes the moisture level of the coffee bean below a certain point which it then is unable to grow.
Instead you’ll need to find somebody that either has a flowering coffee plant and is willing to share their seeds with you or somebody that has access to coffee cherries.
Once you have a coffee seed, it is similar to growing any other plant. Use a fairly deep pot and keep the soil moist.
Working On A Colombian Coffee Farm
