Are Used GreenTea Leaves, etc. ok as soil amendments?

Started making green tea for this summer - trying to be healthier.

then wondered if the used leaves (bags removed) could be added to base of plants?
as an amendment.
Ive heavy clay - so my soil needs all the help I can get it.

My Mom's been throwing tea bags into the garden for years...bags and all...they break down eventually. They can go in a compost pile too if you have one.

I agree, I put all my coffee grounds and tea leaves under my roses or in the compost bin. I recall my Grandma putting them under her roses 50 years ago!

.... I just wouldn't use them in container soils.

Al

I have used them in containers, but mostly I have a fern that I pour the remainder of the cold coffee over. It seems to love it!

Things are not always as they seem. Forum discussions frequently center on the question of adding dilute coffee/tea or used grounds/grinds to plants as a 'tonic', but Arabica (coffee) and Camellia (tea) are known for their toxic alkaloid (caffeine) content and their allelopathic affect on plants as well as autotoxic (to their own seedlings) effects on future generations. Caffeine interferes with root development by impairing protein metabolism. This affects activity of an important bio-compound (PPO) and lignification (the process of becoming woody), crucial steps for root formation.

We also know that the tannins in both coffee and tea are known allelopaths (growth inhibitors). There are ongoing experiments to develop herbicides using extracts from both coffee and tea that cause me to want to say they might serve better as a nonselective herbicide than as a tonic. I would not use either on my plants; nor would I add tea bags/coffee grounds to my container soils.

Using them in the garden or in compost would be much less an issue because of the increased volumes of soil or compostables they would be added to, compared to the comparative volume in a container.

Al

Interesting! I have heard of people getting large amounts of coffee form a coffee house, but I never have done that. I use plain ole Lipton tea and Folgers coffee, then only small amounts.

I'm not trying to imply that dumping a little coffee or tea on your containerized plants will kill them, but I am saying it's more likely that it's doing harm than good. In the garden or compost pile is a different application altogether. There, we know it's much less an issue or the effects insignificant enough that we could call it a non-issue.

Al

I would add it, bag and all to the compost pile and let it decompose with all the other stuff. Then, use it in your containers and beds.

I think it also depends on what the plants need. For instance in my area our soil and water is very alkaline. So when I read my fern needed acid and someone told me they watered theirs with the leftover coffee, which I know is acidic, it was a natural fit. Plus I can recall my Grandmas adding the grounds to the soil here 50 plus years ago so I knew it was something that had been done for a long time.

If you distill the issue all the way down to deciding 'what (container) plants (like your fern) need', and lower pH is the verdict, it makes much more sense to me to find other ways to lower the pH or neutralize the alkalinity in your irrigation water without including the alkaloids in coffee or tea - vinegar for example, will neutralize alkalinity and lower the pH of soil solutions safely and with no hazard to plants. BTW - there is not enough acid in coffee to make a measurable difference in the soil solution pH unless you water only with coffee every time you water; and you can be assured that would grossly affect the vitality of, or kill your plants.

Al