Coffee grounds

Have you been pleased with the one that you purchased? How long does it take to make compost for you??

I gotta tell ya... i think the verdict is still out on it.

with all i added last year.... after it sat all winter, I did find i had good compost in the spring.

BUT -- what i really do love about it, is the compost tea i get out of it... it drips into the base
it's not always easy getting the tea out, as it's a bit awkward -- but my plants LOVE it.

Thanks for the info and the links..............
Genna

I fix myself a pot of coffee every morning. When I clean the pot out, I take the coffee, filter and all, walk out back where all my flowers are and dig a little hole next to some lucky plant, plop the coffee and filter in the hole, and cover it up. I think between that and using the litter from the chicken house, my flowers are pretty happy campers.

Sounds like a good idea - I dumped a couple over the weekend in a flower bed that I am redoing - just put them down and covered with compost. Never thought about planting beside a particular plant. Does it mess up your mulch and cause you to end up with grass and weeds?? I am already fighting grass enough.....

Thanks!
genna

No, not at all. I mulch with sawdust, chicken litter, hay...whatever I have at the time. I mulch very deep. I just pull the mulch aside, dig a little hole, plop in the coffee, cover up, and no ones ever the wiser.

gen -- i do that with banana peels ... bury them near my rose bushes.... just dig a hole and dump it in... you can even do the entire banana. [i read somewhere that they are good for roses.]

I like to throw coffee grounds on the Gardenias...they love it. They are also good for the Cycad Mites (actually, bad for the mites, good for us) as the mites go into the ground under the Cycads and come out at night to suck. They can't go thru the coffee.

We throw all of DHs filters and coffee grounds into a pile...and there are no filters in the bottom...

I'm surprised to see no reference in this thread to coffee grounds as a slug and snail deterrent. Don't you worry about slugs in North America? Sprinkled around my lettuces they certainly seeem to deter the dreaded creatures. However they do lose their potency after a few wet days. We don't have Starbucks here. Are we missing anything?

You mean other than $5 cups of delicious coffee?? LOL!
Starbuck's grounds are really strong, dark, and very fine. After they dry they are almost like fine seeds. I would think the larger grit home brew grounds would be a better deterrent. And oh yes, I have snails bad in the spring. However I don't put out coffee grounds in the flower beds until later in the year; fall and spring my compost bin gets them. Maybe I need to try spreading them out earlier.

how ever I've attempted to deter the snails in my flower beds... not much has helped.

I've used the combination of egg shells and coffee grounds, and yes, i use Starbucks - from the stores and from home
and that year, my hostas still got munched. 2007 was much worse than last year though.... they chewed just about everything but my ferns .... 2008 was not as bed.... do not know what the difference was.

I've not found coffee grounds to have any effect on slugs, either. The best thing I've ever found for slugs is iron phosphate (brand names Sluggo, Escar-Go). It works like a charm.

Karen

Yes....those are real killers! I used them a few years ago when I had them so bad they were climbing up the walls and fences.

Having tried everything!!! for the African Moon Snails here...I have resorted to Sluggo. Now I just find empty shells and that makes me really happy. I like coffee grounds because of the loseness of them...and I mix it all together in my Bokashi bucket! I do save pickle juice (olives etc) for the gardenias ... nothing like a shot of acid in the morning!!!

We're getting away from the start of the thread I know; but in the UK ferrous sulphate is used rather than phosphate. I didn't find it much use personally. Methaldehyde pellets and liquid work well; but they're soon degraded by rain. Here in Finland pellets contain methiocarb. It's very effective; but banned in UK because it's more dangerous to wildlife and pets. Nemaslug works; but it's also weather dependent, and certainly in Europe very expensive.

As for coffee grounds; I can only speak from personal experience; but I appreciate that a sample of one is not statistically significant, and there could be other variables.

Someone said they poured leftover coffee on their plants. On all your plants or are there some plants that you shouldn't pour coffee on?

Probably...but no idea which. Orchids I reckon won't like coffee...it is very acid.

DH won't let me use his coffee grounds...he dumpts them in a pile and wants to test the grounds for oil. He read that the spent grounds actually contain a lot of oil and he is experimenting for biodiesel!!! Maybe we could drink ourselves jittery to save the economy!!!!!

in the summers, I will pour my left over coffee in to my "pots" of annuals.

so far, never had a problem... OH impatiens too.

I have a neighbor in wisc, and every year he has the most stunning pots of Impatiens... we asked him once if he fertilizes -- he said all he uses is coffee grounds. So i began watering mine with coffee... occasionally i'll work some grounds into the soil.

Remember that the acid is in the coffee, not so much the grounds....

Ya know, I read these statements like Coffee is acid--- they don't give the average reader any clue that they're nowhere near like sulfuric acid,,even vinegar. They couldn't be, or coffee would be so acid too, wouldn't it?
Same problems with calling compost things green or brown.

Starbucks did an analysis of spent coffee grounds.

http://starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp

For what it's worth.

I teaspoon of lime per 5 pounds of grounds. Yeah, go to the Southern States store and buy lime by the teaspoon !!! HA HA HA
I would say that's very weak acid.

Here is a site that gives the ratio also; coffee near the bottom.
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-3-79-112,00.html

I've dumped buckets (literally) of grounds on my flower beds. After perfunctorily working them into the top inch or two of soil, everything went swimmingly. Thanks to all the worms that came to dine on the grounds, the heavy clay soil's much looser and more fertile.

I haven't seen any indication of harm caused by acididity.

I put all my coffee grounds, filters and all, into my worm bin. They seem to love it. I've also decided coffee grounds helps keep the darn Argentine ants out of my compost bins, since apparently they don't like coffee. I've had some (temporary) success using coffee as an organic ant deterrent.

LOL! I guess that is why coffee is such a good crop in Argentina!

Thanks for added input and the links. Guess I'm gonna start pouring coffee on some unsuspecting plant every day. I have plenty to spread it around to. Since I am constantly adding to the bin, I was wondering how in the world you could know what the ratio is in the pile. The chart from the OG site will help me keep up I think. As long as I add a loose balance of each, sounds like I can make it work.

It needs to be kept slightly moist. I have a problem with not enough greens some time of the year, then other times no browns, leaves, etc. So I keep my veggie/fruit trimmings in the freezer until I have enough browns to add to. Doesn't hurt and gives them a head start on decomposition.
I have started this year giving my leaves that cover my sleeping flower beds a headstart too. I blown or rake the leaves out, mulch them and add them back in the bed. Hopefully it will keept them from blowing away as easy and allow faster decomp. I throw the coffee grounds in my composter and also in all of my flowerbeds. I have beds full of nice fat earthworms! Too bad I don't go fishing; but the Robins love my yard.

I'm getting better about watching the moisture level. Since I have a tumbler, I put a container under it to catch the "tea" that comes out like someone else mentioned. It's looking good, but I think I will need to add more dry stuff. Local restaurant has been giving me their veggie waste lately.

I bet you get a lot of veggie waste from there. Maybe you need to contact an office for their shredded paper to keep up. LOL!

Ask that same restaurant for their cardboard boxes. Cardboard's a very high-carbon "brown" material.

Feeling antsy. Checked on my raised beds today. I had started the amending routine back in November with the usual suspects: leaves, shredded paper, LOTS of coffee grounds (thanks S'bx!), and Alfalfa pellets. I felt too hyper to stay indoors, so out to the garden & what a nice surprise! The first bed I had amended had the most wonderful soil, so much so, that I took the opportunity to heel in quite a few plants that had not made it to their final destinations.

A couple points of interest:
Temperature - my compost thermometer is broken, so the non-scientific data is from laying my hand on the surface, to 3" under the surface, to 6" and to 1': pleasantly warm at 6-12".

Worms: most were in the 3 - 6" strata, and lots of them. When I checked another of the beds, the worms were deeper. Another bed (one that I finished first week in December) had the greatest number of worms at 6", right where the coffee & leaves interfaced.

Also - 2 days ago, mulched with 2-3" of grounds in a large planter, and the worms are already working it.
This is all non-scientific, but I have found it interesting to see it up close & personal, and I am continually fascinated at the work that is being accomplished unseen.

I made another S'Bx run today - apparently I am the coffee ground queen! No one is collecting grounds - perhaps the local gardeners here are sane, and quite warm, without any soil building to do!

I was the one who posted that I was pouring diluted (50%) coffee into my hydrangea and camelia pots.

Just for kicks...I throw pickle and olive juice from the jars on the Gardenias...they love it!!!

My Swedish grandmother used to bury 10 or 12 cloves of garlic in our indoor gardenia plant we had as a child...and it made it bloom all over for a long time!!!! NO...they didn't smell of garlic!!!

Katye- all interesting.
I may be the only queen at my Sbx too. We are few and far between? At least for winter.

Well, Sheila, it is a small chinese restaurant in a small town, but it's enough to help a lot. Since there's only two of us at home, I don't have as much "green" stuff as I use to. And I haven't quite got them saving everything yet, but I'll keep encouraging them to save all the veggie waste.

Yes, PuddlePirate, I do need to do that, hadn't thought of it. But I had done some calculations using that chart on the OG link above and decided I need to add some newspapers or cardboard.

Aloha, I think garlic must be good for everything. We eat a lot of garlic. I pickled four gallons of garlic. That may make it not as potent medicinally, but it sure is good to eat.

Gymgirl, have you ever found any plant it isn't good to put it on?

We don't have a Starbuck's here, but I think I'll go ask the folks at the Huddle House. I know they'll think I'm crazy, but that's never stopped my or DH before. I think folks around here already think we're a little different.

Thanks for the suggestions and input.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 1:21 PM

You have given me great ideas...going around the beg for coffee grounds (.....)

LOL - we don't have a starbucks.....wonder if McDonalds has bulk grounds?? we don't really have any type of coffee house..... small town......

Well, I have been treating different plants to my coffee filters but I haven't seen any change - of course, most things are dormant currently....didn't realize I could use the coffee itself! ^_^

Thanks!
Genna

No such thing as wasted coffee in my house.

A small independent coffee shop opened up in my neighborhood some months ago. They have been gracious in saving grounds for me. I gave them a 5 gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid to collect the grounds and filters. I pick up about 2 to 3 times/week and the bucket is 1/2 to 2/3 full each time. Since it's a small shop they don't generate a lot but it's a whole lot more than I would otherwise have.

I need to find another free 5 gallon bucket to make the exchange easier. No luck yet in getting a second one.

Karen

A lot of times you can get buckets from restaurants, too. I've gotten pickle buckets from Burger King, and lately my DS has been bringing me 5-gal soy sauce buckets from his favorite Japanese restaurant.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 4:19 PM