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A question to all the wonderful PT gardeners .... has anyone used coffee grounds, mixed with compost or soil, to fertilizer their garden plants, containers, etc.? Apparently, this is an environmentally friendly way to feed plants :)
I would love to hear about your experience - how much grounds do you mix with how much soil and how frequently do you use this mix to feed your plants?
Thanks for your help and suggestions, Betty
I heard about that, too, but never tried it myself. Maybe anyone else knows?
I'd also like to know whether it would be toxic for cats (because for that reason, I never use fertilizer for my poor plants).
Kirsten
I don't know about the toxicity for felines, but I have a friend at work who religiously gathers the coffee grounds from our coffee pot in the shop for his wife's flower beds.
When we lived in Mississippi, our neighbor raised prize-winning roses and always used coffee grounds. She had Boston Terriers and cats and none of them were affected. But, my understanding is that it didn't fertilize -- it raised the acid content of the soil.
LOH and Kuhio,
Thanks for the info - perhaps java enrichs the soil rather than fertilizes it - I'll have to test it out with container plants.
I have wondered about this also and hopefully one of our PT gardeners can share some experience. In the meantime, I googled and found an interesting article about uses for coffee beans and grounds. :)
LOL -- i was just talking about this with my friend today, and she puts coffee grinds and tea leaves in the compost heap.
Aparently, if you go to Starbucks and some of the tea stores in the mall, you can get all the coffee grinds and tea leaves you want for free, since they go through so much in a day making drinks for customers.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, i have as much Alpaca-Pellet manure that one could ever want -- but on a postive note, its chock full of nitrogen and excellent for plants :)
Another great plant fertilizer is eggshells. Whenever you make breakfast or use eggs, toss the shells in a jug of water. Water your plants with the mixture. After a while it can smell pretty nasty, but it works. The whites have tons of nutrients that's good for plants and it's not toxic to pets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by moosmom
Donna
I've heard about using eggshells too - it works does it??? Amazing the things we can recycle if we put our minds to it :eek:
Bengalz,
It sure does!!
BTW, where did you get this saying:
My father used to say that ALL the time!! I thought he was the one who originated it.Quote:
I'm not young enough to know everything
Quote:
Originally Posted by moosmom
LOLOL Perhaps he was the Author!! As far as I know the Author is "unknown" ;) Your Daddy was a wise man :D
I've never used coffee grounds for my garden, but I work at a coffee shop and we never seem to have enough used coffee grounds to go around! We have at least 5 customers a day come and clear us out of our grounds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Frog
Yes! Coffee ground and eggshells are *wonderful* for compost heaps. The only downside is how long it takes to decompose them, but that depends a lot on the individual compost heap and how "hot" it is (that relies on how well you compost). You have to keep a proper ratio of browns and greens, though, so just throwing a bunch of coffee grounds on your plants won't necessarily be the optimum ;)
There is a gentlemen at work who takes used coffee grounds and takes them home to use as fertilizer. He SWEARS by it!
My husband has been putting coffee grounds on my flower beds. I really didn't understand why he was doing it though. Now I know why. LOL, I have a lot of coffee grounds, I drink lots of coffee, I love the stuff!
Willie :)
I was just talking about that with my husband the other day. My husband was telling me about the compost and garden that he and his cousin had when they were kids. He told me that they used coffee grounds in it.
A few years ago a cleaning lady here at work was putting coffee grounds in the plants we have inside and I asked her was she was doing. (I thought she had lost her mind!! ;) )
She told me that they like caffeine and plus the grounds hold moisture and helps disperse water when the plant needs it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pitc9
This is a good thing to know - especially for those times when you're away and the houseplants don't get watered on time :rolleyes: Thanks for the tip :)
Betty
I am not a gardner by any means, as a matter of fact I do believe my thumbs are brown (from clay!! :rolleyes: )
But I have been putting coffee grounds on our Gardinia plant for years now, and every spring it produces big beautiful flowers.
Coffee grounds are not for every plant though - beware - I was told to use coffee grounds on acid loving plants only. And what those are I haven't a clue!!
I have never heard of eggshells..........
My Mom & Grandma Delia always used old tea leaves. I guess that
would have the same acidity as coffe crounds. It really worked ,especially
with indoor plants. :)