Coffee Grounds as Plant fertilizer?

**sirrahbed** · 05-20-2007, 03:16 PM

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.

**Blue_Frog** · 05-20-2007, 06:43 PM

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

**moosmom** · 05-20-2007, 08:04 PM

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.

**Bengalz** · 05-20-2007, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by moosmom

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.

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

**moosmom** · 05-20-2007, 08:33 PM

Bengalz,

It sure does!!

BTW, where did you get this saying:

I'm not young enough to know everything

My father used to say that ALL the time!! I thought he was the one who originated it.

**Bengalz** · 05-20-2007, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by moosmom

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.

LOLOL Perhaps he was the Author!! As far as I know the Author is "unknown"

Your Daddy was a wise man

**Uabassoon** · 05-20-2007, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by Blue_Frog

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

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.

**Giselle** · 05-21-2007, 02:11 AM

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

**Jessika** · 05-21-2007, 03:52 AM

There is a gentlemen at work who takes used coffee grounds and takes them home to use as fertilizer. He SWEARS by it!

**trayi52** · 05-21-2007, 06:39 AM

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

**BitsyNaceyDog** · 05-21-2007, 07:59 AM

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.

**pitc9** · 05-21-2007, 10:33 AM

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.