Coffee Grounds as Plant fertilizer?

[Bengalz]

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

[Kirsten]

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

[Lady's Human]

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.

[kuhio98]

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.

[Bengalz]

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.

[sirrahbed]

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.