Abstract: Nursery experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of removal of parchment and soaking of coffee seeds in pure water for different durations on emergence and early growth of coffee seedlings. A split plot design of three replications was employed with seed types (seeds with parchment and clean coffee) and soaking hour (soaking seeds for 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 h and control) in pure water were assigned as main and sub-plot, respectively. Emergence of seedlings was significantly (p<0.01) affected by coffee seed type (clean coffee vs. coffee with in parchment) where better emergence response was obtained from clean coffee. Forty five, 75 and 90 days after sowing 18.46, 56.70 and 84.70% emergence was obtained from clean coffee, respectively while only 1.86, 15.40 and 49.41% emergence was obtained in the same period, respectively, from coffee seeds sown in parchment. Better emergence occurred from seeds soaked in water against non-soaked ones 45 and 60 days after sowing. Moreover, leaf area and total dry matter weight differed in response to different soaking hours. The seedling vigor index also showed a statistical difference (p<0.01) between coffee seed types where clean coffee resulted in higher value (313.13) over the parchment coffee (232.48). The same parameter resulted from coffee seeds soaked for 72 h was better (p<0.05) when compared to non-soaked seeds and seeds soaked for less than 72 h. The study revealed removing parchment and soaking coffee seeds in water enhances emergency and subsequent growth of coffee seedlings.