How To Grow, Care Indoor Coffee Plants

Coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world, behind only petroleum, and has become
mainstay of the modern diet. Believed to have originated in Ethiopia, coffee was used in Middle East
in 16th century to aid concentration. Legend has it that Kaldi, a Goat herder in 9th century Ethiopia
discovered the energising effects of coffee when he saw his goats getting excited after eating some berries from a tree. He told the local monastery about this and the Abbot came up with the idea of
drying and boiling berries to make a beverage. He threw berries into fire when the unmistakable aroma of what we know coffee drifted through the night air. The roasted beans were raked from
the embers, ground up and dissolved in hot water - so was made the world's first cup of coffee.
Different stories have emerged about its search and growing in Middle east, Europe, U.K, USA and other countries in Africa over a period of time. The history of coffee in India dates back in around
1600 A.D. when a Indian sufi saint Baba Budan went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, brought beans from
Yemen and plant them in Coorg, South India in 1670. Since then coffee plantations have become
established in South India. 

How to grow: -
Coffee plants require care to get them to the desired height and health. One can find seedlings
in stores or online. The seedlings come in a group of four to six plants about four inches tall.

Steps to be followed to grow them are -
1)  Separate the seedlings and leave them in a bowl of warm water overnight. Next day, separate
      them each into their own 4" pot.
2)   For growth process, keep them in indirect sunlight so that they can be placed near window of
      the house. Water the plant and keep the soil moist but not drowning. Organic potting soil be
      used to start out and ensure that pot has geed drainage. 
3)  When plant reaches 8", repot it to a larges pot. Repot again once more when it reaches 24", which
      take about one year after start of growing plant.
4)  With enough care, watering, repotting and the right indoor conditions, plant could reach a height
      of 6' which will take anywhere between three to five years. But at that time it could start to                 flower and those flowers will eventually pollinate and become a fruit - Coffee cherry that yields
     the bean inside. This phase lasts about six months. Coffee cherries ripens slowly.For first five
     months, they will be green and rock hard. Then they will begin to lighten and turn pink and then
    Cherry red , then Dark red to purple. Dark red is when cherries are picked up.   
The plant itself is a pretty sight in any home and is joy to take care of and maintain. Coffee tree is an
evergreen and it does not shed its leaves. They are on the tree year around. 



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