Germinate the Seeds

• 1). Soak the green coffee seeds in room-temperatures water for about 24 hours. Fill a seed tray, planter pot or other container with damp sand or vermiculite. Ensure that the container has drainage holes in the bottom.
  
  
• 2). Place the coffee seeds on the damp sand or vermiculite, and then spread more of the damp medium on top of the seeds. The seeds should be about ¼- to ½-inch deep in the sand or vermiculite.
  
  
• 3). Water the coffee seeds daily or every other day using a water spray bottle to keep the sand or vermiculite damp. Ensure that the excess water drains freely from the bottom of the container.
  
  
• 4). Remove the coffee seeds from the vermiculite or sand after they germinate and begin to sprout. Handle the young seedlings carefully so that you don't damage them.
  
  
• 5). Prepare a seed tray or planter pot with drainage holes in the bottom by filling it with a lightweight, porous potting soil mixture or a friable loam soil with lots of humus. Plant the germinated coffee seeds about 1 ¼ inches deep with the flat side of the seed pointing downward.
  
  
• 6). Sprinkle the lightweight soil mix over the coffee seed but don't pack the soil down. Spread a ½-inch-thick layer of grass clippings or similar mulch on top of the soil mix.
  
  
• 7). Water the coffee seeds lightly every day to keep the soil mix evenly moistened at all times. Remove the grass mulch from the top of the soil mix after the coffee seeds have fully germinated and sprouted above the soil layer.
  
  

Seedling Care

• 1). Place the coffee plant seedlings in a spot that has full sunlight to partial shade, where the plant is protected from drying winds. Maintain air temperatures of 59 to 75 degrees F, but no warmer than 86 degrees or colder than 41 degrees. Coffee plants also enjoy high humidity.
  
  
• 2). Water your coffee plant deeply and regularly whenever the topmost layer of soil begins to feel dry to the touch. Reduce or stop watering the coffee plant during late winter, and then begin watering regularly again in spring to promote flowering and fruiting.
  
  
• 3). Feed your young coffee plant with a complete granular fertilizer at a rate of 1/8- to ¼-lb. per month. Use a fertilizer formula containing a ratio of 6- to 10-percent nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash with 2- to 6-percent magnesium. Older coffee trees usually require three to four applications of foliar nutritional sprays containing iron or ferrous sulfate per year in spring and summer.