http://www.care2.com/greenliving/coffee-grounds-perk-up-soil-and-plants.html
Coffee Grounds Perk Up Soil and Plants
Adapted from Yankee Magazine's Panty Hose, Hot Peppers, Tea Bags and more for the Garden: 1,001 Ingenious Ways to Use Common Household Items to Control Weeds, Beat Pests, Cook Compost, Solve Problems, Make Tricky Jobs Easy, and Save Time (Yankee Books, 2005).
What to do with your coffee grounds? You can use them straight up as mulch on plants that love an acid soil (azaleas or blueberries anyone?), in potting soil and more. Here are five ideas for using coffee grounds and more:
Coffee grounds have long been a favorite addition to compost piles. But did you know that they are also an excellent amendment to potting soil? They’re lightweight, porous, high in organic matter and attractively dark. Plus, if your soil is alkaline, their natural acidity helps balance the pH. A good source of used grounds is your local coffee shop, where they’re usually happy to give them away.
You’ll be surprised at all the other uses you can find for them.
Grounds make a dark, attractive mulch around acid-loving plants, such as azaleas, hydrangeas, hollies, and blueberries.
Slugs don’t like caffeine, so a mulch of coffee grounds, which retain much of the chemical, will help keep the slugs away from your hostas and other vulnerable plants. Just be sure to spread the coffee grounds no more than 1 inch deep around the plants. In cool, moist weather, an unsightly but harmless mold can form on the mulch.
Keep grounds on hand for mixing into potting soil. Spread them out on newspaper for a day or so to dry then store them in a plastic bag.
If you have grounds from only a pot or two of coffee, add a spoonful or two to houseplants and a cup or two to larger container plantings. Work the grounds lightly into the soil.
Put a paper filter full of coffee grounds in the bottom of a plant container or planting hole to nourish new plants.
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10 comments
add your comment »Thanks so much for this article which I came across today. We have a daily supply of coffee ground which I usually add to our compost bin, so it's nice to know that I can use them directly as insect/slug repellent too. Thank you!!!
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If you guys are adding coffe grounds to your soil I do hope you all are using shade grown coffe. The shade grown coffe helps protect the rainforest while other coffe is grown in feild that use to be a rain forest. So help save the rain forest and use shade grown.
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I've been adding coffee grounds to both my compost & potted plants for many years & it's a wonderful balancer for our alkaline soil. It is important to work the grounds into the soil a bit, or they will form a crust over the top & seal out water! At work, I am putting the grounds in the landscaping beds in the parking lot which get chronically over-watered by the clueless landscapers, & it is improving the drainage.
Darla, thanks for the great tip about spray for aphids 7 white flies! I'll have to try that...do you think it will work on red scale, too?
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My coffee grounds have been going in my compost bucket for over ten years—along with the filter paper, when we use one.
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Sorry for the multiples...I keep remembering things after I hit send..FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE TEA INSTEAD OF COFFEE...you can use soaked black tea leaves from the bags or the loose kind in the same way to make the spary bottle solution. You may have do do it a tad more frequently, but it will work the same way.
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The caffeine in coffee grounds helps oxygenate the soil, too! A great natural garden solution! ***Please note that coffee grounds can kill or make cats & dogs very sick, so keep you animals indoors until you have tilled it into the soil!
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I live in Southern California at the beach, so I rarely have the humidity problem, but I have been using coffee grounds for many years. I first began using them for my rose bushes which adds a great boost & now mix my used coffee grounds into my entire soil garden & potted plants including my Hydrangea's. I also just discovered another very good use for them if you have "green worm" (the not nice caterpillar that is bright green & matures into brown moths that eat your cloth). Recently, they attacked & nearly killed my potted Spanish Lavender. I was mystified since nothing usually bothers Lavender & I planted them for the bees. In 2 days my gorgeous, healthy plant was brown & covered in them. Take your coffee grounds out of your filter after you brew your coffee & add them to water in a spray bottle, then spray the affected plant thoroughly (always in the evening after the sun is not shining on them). This will work for caterpillars, aphids, white fly & other similar destroyers.
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I am in Central Fl and use coffee grounds with success in this hot/humid environment. They are the best for palms and sub tropical plants!
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I remember my mother( who will be 90 this year) telling me that the colour of hydrangia blooms could be influenced by coffee grounds. Sometimes you see bushes with blooms that are blue-blue...sometimes blooms will be varigated to the pink hue. As an adult I live in Alaska, for over30 years, and cannot grow a hydrangia where I live. So I have never personally applied this bit of information to confirm...but my Mother is a very smart woman.
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My Azalea's are in need of a pick me up, so I am going to try the coffee grounds. I read another article stating the coffee grounds may introduce a fungis to the plant (which is not good) - has anyone experienced this problem. I am in Texas, a very humid climate and I have some concerns of fungi growing. Let me know, as I am in search of the perfect azalea plant!
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