Can I sprinkle coffee beans around my plants?

At one time I ground my own coffee beans. Last year I decided to give it up and buy ground coffee and gave away my grinder. Now I've found a few small bags of coffee beans in my pantry. Can I sprinkle them around my acid-loving hollies and clethras? The hollies are 3 feet tall and the clethras are about one foot tall. If so, how much should I use per plant? Would the caffeine shock the plants? Would this be the wrong time of year to do it?

The caffeine might make them a little jumpy, but hey, we all like alert plants, right?

Seriously, it should be fine as long as you're not putting a ton of them on - they are a little heavy on the oil side, so I wouldn't put more than a handful on each plant.... but most of my experience is with the ground-up-coffee-already-made-from type.

If you're worried about them at all, you can always throw 'em in your compost pile and let them cook with the rest of the stuff!

Thanks for answering. I guess I'll sprinkle a few around. I was just concerned about it harming the plants with too much acid or something.

Well, you can be safe and put them next to roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, or anything else that appreciates acidic soil. Here's a list from U of Arkansas:
Azalea (Rhododendron)
Bayberry (Myrica)
Blueberry (Vaccinium)
Camellia (Camellia)
Clethra (Clethra)
Ferns
Gardenia (Gardenia)
Heath/Heather (Erica, Calluna)
Holly (Ilex)
Hydrangea, bigleaf (H. macrophylla; for blue flowers)
Leucothoe (Leucothoe)
Magnolia (especially sweetbay: M. virginiana)
Mountainlaurel (Kalmia)
Pachysandra (Pachysandra)
Pine (Pinus)
Rhododendron (Rhododendron)

That makes me feel a little better about it. I have 5 hollies and 5 clethras. And if there are any beans left I still have 4 roses. Although the top soil is neutral to slightly acidic, the subsoil under them all is clay. Thanks for easing my mind. The beans will be returning to nature tomorrow morning.

>big smile<

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