Hi All,
I have sourced a huge amount of used coffee grounds.
Question:
Is there too much coffee grounds that can be added to soil?
My plan is to add the grounds to the in-planter composter because worms love them and they help their digestion. I also plan to add them to the root watering system (buried bottles).
I have 2 non established planters. The planters are 1 meter x 1.2 meter x 0.6 meter. I am planning on filling them to around 0.4 and saving 0.2 for mulch.
I have approx 10kgs available daily of the stuff, for FREE, so it’s important to know what too much is.
I don’t want to over fertilise with coffee grounds if that is possible. I assume that it is.
I also fertilise with a water soluble seed weed solution and the planters have been fertilised with Blood Fish and Bone.
Keen for your input.
Thanks
by Ill_Lawyer_8484
7 Comments
Uncomposted coffee grounds are highly acidic and probably lack the NPK ratio and trace minerals that most plants need. If they’re strictly in the lower half of the compost bin where hugelkulture is commonly done, hopefully it’s fine. Use a quality soil/compost to fill up the rest of the bins.
Ahh, finally a crossroads of my two addictions. Excited to see how this goes.
Big composter here (I enjoy making the dirt as much as growing and doing stuff with peppers).
Bad news, you might have too much for your peppers or planters. I can’t co-sign into putting undiluted grounds on new or fruiting plants. Too much acid and some say caffeine can be bad for the worms and plants if not diluted.
Good news, you can never have too much much.
Coffee grounds are a big part of my compost routine, but too much can be too much straight into dirt. If you have room, start a compost heap. I generally have two, one as active and one I’m drawing from. I do roughly 3/1 carbon to nitrogen using mostly leaves and freshly cut grass. All my coffee grounds (i drink a pot a day), eggshells, veggie waste are supplemental to the leaves and grass. If it starts to stay wet or smell ammoniamy (tm lovm) add leaves. I also throw “old” dirt into it (inactive beds, etc). I mix mine daily, but it needs to be done once a week. Also water and heat are musts, but in the summer in NC heat isn’t a problem.
As for the good news, you can put coffee grounds anywhere in a yard, except when PH is an issue. I’ve got a friend who spreads 50 lbs weekly on his grass. Grounds will keep some bugs away and will not really hurt grass, trees, shrubs.
I received about 100lbs of coffee grounds from our local shop. I did a few pots with it mixed into the potting soil and found they were significantly heavier when water since they’re a lot more fine and dense than a coco/peat type of medium. This is all new to me so I don’t have any test results since season is just starting here.
Boil a huge pot of coffee and then you can use them.
I thought coffee grounds were bad for peppers?
I like MI Gardener for their expertise:
https://youtu.be/mogRm6TAQH8?si=ZCfH0dRCY4Y6ml8b