Arabica Coffee Plant

1. Planting: Arabica coffee plants are self-pollinating, but will give you a better harvest with an additional plant nearby. For the best results use well-draining soil and choose a location with filtered sunlight for your plant. An east-facing window is ideal.

Select a pot that's about twice the size of your plant's shipped container, use organic soil, and place your plant in its pot. Keep the humidity up around the coffee plant by setting it on a water-filled pebble tray in its early stages. A light misting with a water bottle in the evenings is great for a more mature plant.

2. Watering: Water once weekly with warm water until it comes out of the bottom of your pot. If you're not sure when to water, simply check the surrounding soil about 2 inches down.

FGT Tip: If the leaves curl upwards, or seem crispy and dry, this can be a sign of under-watering. Drooping leaves that appear too heavy for the plant to hold up that turn a shade of dark brown or black indicate overwatering.

3. Fertilizing: Potted plants need to be fertilized every two weeks during the growing season with a low concentration of fertilizer. The best results come from using a formula like 10-10-10 or an orchid fertilizer.

4. Pruning: Remove any low-growing branches or leaves near the base with a sterilized cutting tool.

5. Harvesting: The cherries of your Arabica coffee plant take roughly nine months to fully ripen. The best way to harvest is by selective picking, where you select the best, ripest cherries for harvesting by hand. Coffee cherries don't mature all at the same time so it's necessary to pick them over the course of several days to remove your ripened cherries. The cherries are considered ripe when their skin fully turns red.

Squeeze the cherries in order to get the seeds or coffee beans out.