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Coffee Plant Care

Coffee Plants are best known for coffee beans. A seed found inside the plant’s fruit is roasted and eventually brewed into our daily Cup of Joe. But few realize this tropical species makes an excellent houseplant. With broad, sturdy green leaves, and thick, hardy stalks, the coffee plant makes a bold statement in any room. If well taken care of, it will also produce delicate white flowers that eventually evolve into clusters of plump cherries.

How to care for your Coffee Plant

Use these instructions to care for a Coffee Plant. This guide will tell you how to water a Coffee Plant; its light, temperature, humidity preferences and any additional care it might need to help it grow.

Coffee Plant
LIGHT

Your Coffee Plant prefers bright indirect sunlight, having developed in the lower levels of Ethiopian forests. Too much direct sunlight can brown the leaves.

WATER

Your Coffee Plant enjoys frequent waterings. Water when 25% of the soil volume is dry. Water until liquid flows through the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot and discard any water that has accumulated in the saucer.

HUMIDITY

Your Coffee Plant loves a humid environment. Make sure to give them a daily misting, or add a humidifier nearby. Browning leaves could be a sign of low humidity.

TEMPERATURE

Coffee Plants prefer temperatures between 65–80°F.

FOOD

Fertilize your Coffee Plant once a month during spring and summer with a liquid fertilizer diluted to half strength.

TOXICITY

Coffee Plant leaves are toxic to both pets and humans.

ADDITIONAL CARE

Coffee plants don’t need much pruning, but you should do some trimming every spring to ensure thick growth for the coming year.

Grow Beyond Expectations

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What's a Coffee Plant?

Botanical Classification: Coffea Arabica

About

The Coffee Plant is a type of flowering shrub native to the Ethiopian highlands. It’s best known as the source of coffee beans that are used to make our vital morning coffee. It has a lot of features that make it an attractive house plant, including beautiful white flowers and berries that contain the coffee “beans.” Coffee plants can get quite large when grown outdoors. They will start bearing fruit after three to five years, and can continue to produce fruit for roughly 50 years.

Coffee plants are fairly easy to take care of. They prefer shade and indirect sunlight, as well as temperatures around 70-85 degrees. Because coffee plants are from tropical, humid forests, you should always keep their soil moist and frequently mist their leaves.

Fun Fact

Coffee is native to Ethiopia, but as the name Coffea arabica suggests, it really took off in popularity in Arabia. One of the major ports of coffee trading in antiquity was the city of Mocha in Yemen— it’s from this word that we derive the coffee term “mocha”! Coffee is now grown all around the world, notably Brazil and the island of Java (hence coffee’s nickname, “java”).

Pictured Left: Coffee Plant

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