Two field experiments were conducted to determine the safety of repeated applications of several pre‐emergence herbicides in coffee from the recently transplanted stage to 1 year old. Oryzalin and oxyfluorfen had at least a four‐fold selectivity margin to coffee at two locations; these herbicides had a greater safety margin than simazine, atrazine and diuron, which all injured young coffee at 4.5 kg a.i./ha. Oxyfluorfen, atrazine, simazine and diuron provided better control of the weed species than oryzalin. Oxyfluorfen did not provide complete control of weeds in the Compositae family which were completely controlled by atrazine and diuron. Oxyfluorfen and oryzalin were shown to be effective management tools for weed control in young coffee because of their excellent selectivity.