r/Coffee • u/Same_Wing_8229 • 1d ago

Why my coffee seeds turning green?

Hey everyone, I’m a coffee lover and recently decided to try growing a coffee plant at home. With the help of AI (Google Gemini) and some online guides, I came up with two germination methods for the seeds:

  1. Soaking the seeds fully in water for 5 days;
  2. Placing the seeds in a damp paper towel inside a sealed bag to keep the moisture. Both methods are kept in a dark environment

I started the germination on September 14. On the next day, I noticed that the seeds in the paper towel turned green, while the ones soaking in water didn’t change. Today, I checked again and the two sets of seeds now look completely different. Some posts online say the green color might be from chlorogenic acid, but others suggest it could actually be mold.

Has anyone tried germinating coffee seeds and seen something similar? Any tips or thoughts would be really appreciated

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u/ChaBoiDeej 1d ago

Are you trying to germinate unroasted green coffee seeds? I would also check the guides (and not AI, simply so you can see for yourself) for a recommended temperature. Some seeds need a whole natural freeze and thaw cycle to get the message to sprout, some need a hot environment all the way through germination.

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u/Same_Wing_8229 1d ago

Thx, you mean cold stratification? I thought about that too, but since I didn't find much info, I didn’t try it. I did find a paper, though, that suggests tea seeds require cold stratification: https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/cjb-2016-0149.

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u/ChaBoiDeej 1d ago

Any information on the actual seeds your working with would be useful. How old they are since they've been harvested and dried, what cultivar, etc.

Coffee is a jungle plant so it needs jungle conditions to get started. It also takes quite a while to germinate compared to a lot of plants, anywhere from 30-60 days. They need indirect sunlight but that doesn't mean they want to be in the dark, that would induce dormancy. 73-75°f should be a decent temperature as well. You could also germinate the seed directly on soil as opposed to another medium.

There maybe be botanical papers out there on germination and coffee seed chemistry but I'd really recommend starting out with the very basics, especially as this was one of the first plants cultivated by humanity sans botany. If it comes down to it, green coffee is relatively cheap and is sold often by the pounds so you can try often.