Thursday, November 4, 2010

Growing Coffee Plants Indoor

Growing Coffee Arabica plants indoor is easy, but do you have the patience to wait 3-4 years until will harvest yor first beans from your own coffee plant?

The botanical name is "Coffea Arabica", other names used being "coffee shrub of Arabia", "mountain coffee" or "arabica coffee" and is one of the 90 members of Coffea genus from Rubiaceae Family, originally to the Arabian Peninsula, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Coffea Arabica Plants in October 2010
 Coffea Arabica Plants in October 2010
Is said that they are vigorous growers (almost 1.5m high) but based on my experience, after one year, my coffee plants have only 40 cm high.
They are very ornamental plants and may live on for 60 years.

Coffea Arabica Plants in March 2010
Coffea Arabica Plants in March 2010




















I'm enjoying their glossy, wavy at the edges, dark green leaves. I keep them in bright light, no direct sun, on the shelf next to my books, because the coffee "tree" is actually a variety of tropical evergreen shrub. The room temperature is somewhere between 20-23°C. I planted them in Miracle-Gro Potting-Mix with some Turface MVP (soil conditioner), to provide a good drainage.

Diagram of Coffee Arabica
Diagram of Coffea Arabica - courtesy of Wikimedia.org

Coffee plants produce white star-shaped flowers, with sweet scent similar with jasmine smell, but only after 3 or 4 years.
Coffea Arabica flowers are followed by green fruits, each having 2 seeds inside, which are turning the colour to red, then almost black when ripped ("cherries" are ready for picking in few months).
Arabica Coffee Bean Plant -4" pot- Grow & Brew Your Own






I fertilized them only once a month with an all purpose fertilizer (10-10-10). Also I misted occasionally with warm water and I cleaned the leaves gentle with a damp cloth to avoid leaf staining. My plants were propagated from seeds, and was very fragile.  I re-potted them in nice ceramic pots in March and I tried to train few of them as a bonsai, but I lost some because were snapped when I wired them. I keep one plant wired for a month, carefully bending the trunk over one rock, but I removed the wire too early and the plant returned to its original position very quickly.

Coffee Plant in October 2010
Coffee Plant in October 2010

Coffee Plant in March 2010
Coffee Plant in March 2010


















I'm waiting to yield my first Organically Coffee Beans and to drink a real cup of coffee from my house plants ;-)

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9 comments:

Xenia said...

How cool to be able to brew your own cup of coffee, that beats Starbucks any day! :)

Have a great weekend!

Kelli said...

wow! I wouldn't have thought you could do that.
visiting you on my blog hop, home you can come and say hi to me at http://lookingoutabrokenwindow.blogspot.com and http://picnpaste.blogspot.com

SalemMomma said...

I would so love to grow my own coffe plants. Except for the fact that they would never grow to maturity, since my cats will eat everything that's even remotely plant like.
Happy Friday! I'm your newest follower, hope you can stop by for a visit!
http://www.staying-me.com

Mother Moon said...

something I definately need to look into.. it would be just too cool to grow your own coffee....

jen said...

I've given this a passing thought. I would LOVE to be able to grow my own beans. How many cups of coffee will a tree produce each year? I'm assuming I need a BUNCH of them.
Great info!!!

Excited to follow all your adventures now, swinging by from the blog hop.

The Survival Mama

Darlene said...

That is very cool. I'm currently trying to grow a pineapple plant and avocado. I'm your newest follower.
http://enelrad-darlene.blogspot.com

Mama said...

Thanks for Buzzing by my blog for Following Friday! Returning the love!

~Busy Buzzer
Buzzing the Day Away

Anonymous said...

Hate to break it to you but your coffee is far from organic if you have grown the plant in miracle gro soil. :(

Unknown said...

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