coffee grounds

I hear a lot of talk about coffee grounds. In fact, our Starbuck's gives them away (but I never get there in time). What do they add to the soil other than organic material? PLMK.

Does this mean you didn't get answers to all your questions on your earlier thread?

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/697867/

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/707823/

It means I couldn't find them. Perhaps I do not understand the search abilities on DG very well.

The search function is a bit clunky to use. I thought you might have a new question.
:)

My spousal unit seems to think it is not worth saving the coffee grounds for the little punch they give. I know they have nitrogen, but how much? Do you really get results from this or is it just another compost item to improve soil?

Here's a link with the fertilizer values for coffee grounds:

http://starbucks.co.uk/en-GB/_Our+Stores/_Community+Programs/Grounds+For+Your+Garden.htm

here's one other reason i save mine.... 1 less thing going to the city dump.

I was in the grocery store the other day and say a woman with a satchel pull out about 6 or more other cloth satchels. She put all here groceries in her own satchels and I also noticed she had a lot of loose veggies, not pre-packaged ones.
It looks like Americans are really beginning to think about their enviroment again. Folks that remember WWII and all the quotos on so many items have the mind-set to cut back, but it's gonna be hard for the rest of us. At least this woman is trying.

GM, how do you use the grounds? Compost? Directly in the beds? Veggie beds as well?

I do all of the above.

dump by the bag full in my compost.
sprinkle in flower beds and work it into the soil,
and since i only do tomatoes - i sprinkle around them too... though they are in my south flower bed.

As tcs said, all of the above. We'll put a lot in the compost when it's available. I've also used it as a mulch layer. If you mix it with cocoa hull mulch, the garden will smell like a cafe mocha!

Yum! That sounds good to me, a cafe mocha! Reason enough to garden and none of the calories! LOL!

None of the calories until the aroma inspires you to bake up a storm of goodies to go with the coffee. LOL!

To me, the best thing about coffee grounds is that they count as a "green" addition to your compost pile. And those greens are a little hard to come by in the spring.

Another use for the grounds: I spread them around my acid-loving plants – azaleas, blueberries, rhododendrons. The grounds are slightly acidic and besides helping to lower the soil pH, they foster the humus-rich soil texture these plants really love.

In late summer and fall, I dig coffee grounds right into the vegetable garden after removing early-season crops, such as peas and spinach.

thanks, everyone!

Remember, if you don't want your plants to be stressed, use de-caf.

How about alert?!

Espresso.

Espresso is all mine get ;) From the latte machine into the garden.

naje nube a diyabke! Oppps! fingers on wrong keys....Make mine a double!

Another benefit of using coffee grounds in your garden.

All the caffeine keeps the worms up most of the night and they get twice as much work done.


early_bloomer

Sounds like animal cruelty!

Maybe that's why my worms seem a plenty and very , very active this spring. Perhaps they like this new Hawaiian stuff I've been using ;) in the hopper.

Are they doing the Hula? in their little grass skirts?

That's it! Can't you just picture it? LOL!

Don't know what it says about me, but yes I can! :)

Someone said they use them for their tomatoes. Are they high in phosphorus? If not, how much would it help? You don't want too much N in tomatoes - you'll end up with lots of leaves and no fruits.

I'm not into arguing, but some folks will argue that coffee grounds do not acidify. Some studies have shown that the brewed coffee is acidic but that washes out the acid. The remaining grounds are neutral pH.

Karen

I have also read that. I will check the pH of my grounds. I'm not looking to acidify my soil any more anyway. I'm just interested in the organic goodies it adds. And the aroma!

Here's the lab analysis of nutrients in coffee grounds, as per Sunset magazine:

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/edible/article/0,20633,1208232,00.html

that's a bit higher in nitrogen than the Starbuck's analysis gave it. Maybe a bit more worth the trouble of saving your coffee grounds.

I wonder if the nitrogen/nutritional content varies with the variety/source of coffee bean used. Soils vary around the world and this affects the flavour, so why not the fertilizer value. We only buy oceanic (sumatran, java, kona) or african (ethiopian, yemeni) coffee beans as we find the taste of american grown coffees too harsh and acidic. Others prefer the taste that we dislike. Wonder if we could get Starbucks to test distinct varieties.

The real low P validates my question of why it would be useful for tomatoes. The N is no doubt slow release so I don't know how much green growth it would stimulate. Like other organic amendments, it's a good additive for the soil that improves it over time.

That study just does the SBs grounds. Now, I know that a drip machine at home, or those days that you have a little extra patience and break out the percolator, pulls more of the caffiene out than an espresso machine does, would that also apply to the nutrients? I always add the coffee filter w/grounds to my compost bucket with other scraps, and my gf picks up the bags when she can on her trips to SBs.

In a previous thread there was some discussion about coffee grounds molding. What happens if you go ahead and throw the molded coffee grounds in your compost pile? And if you are wondering-yes I have two bags from SB that I put under the table in my shed and forgot! :)

Apparently nothing bad happens. I did it last year (and they were very moldy!) and used the compost and nothing died when I top dressed my flower gardens or used it in a lasagne bed.

HTH,
Suzy

I've always thrown coffee grounds on my garden to feed the nightcrawlers. They stay up all night anyway. I understand that worm poop is a great fertilizer. I got the idea from my dad who fed his fishing worms coffee grounds to keep them healthy. It can't hurt because my garden soil is loaded with nightcrawlers. I throw in the filters too since I use newspaper anyway as mulch and the worms seem to love the newspaper too. The robins nest nearby in the pear tree to take advantage of the surplus. When I toss the robins worms, they run right up to me and eat them.

I would love to be able to look up some of these different kinds of worms people talk about --

red wiggles, night crawlers, vermicomposting worms, etc. What kind are the regular round worms that reside in Indiana? If you give me the Latin names, DG would have them in the bug files, wouldn't they?

Can anybody post these?

Suzy

The red wiggler worms that are commonly used in worm bins are called Eisenia foetida.

McDonalds uses Starbuck coffee, I believed. Since they do high-volume at their stores, asked the manager that you're interested in coffee grounds for your garden. I'm sure they'll be gladly to give it to you to free up their garbage dump. I wished more restaurants into composting to save our landfills

Linda