{"id":3787,"date":"2022-02-19T00:49:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T06:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/?page_id=3787"},"modified":"2022-02-25T16:34:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T22:34:51","slug":"coffee-grounds-as-fertilizer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/soils-supplements\/coffee-grounds-as-fertilizer\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Grounds as &#8220;Fertilizer&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"3787\" class=\"elementor elementor-3787\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-740b162 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"740b162\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-127ed73\" data-id=\"127ed73\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-543896b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"543896b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.6.8 - 27-07-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>I get the question occasionally about using coffee grinds to help fertilize certain plants.\u00a0 And while I do recommend it, it\u2019s not really more than adding an amendment to the soil.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been doing it, and you like the results I\u2019m not here to change your mind, but I would like to clear up a couple of misconceptions about its use as a \u201cfertilizer.\u201d\u00a0 I also remind folks that \u201cThe Dose is the Difference\u201d because using too much can lead to other problems.\u00a0<\/p><p>Coffee grounds are about 2% nitrogen by volume, so while it\u2019s great at greening things up it\u2019s not helpful in making plants pop with blooms.\u00a0\u00a0 And here\u2019s the biggest misconception: Coffee Grounds are <em>not highly acidic<\/em>.\u00a0 They are actually closer to neutral than most people think, between 6.5 to 6.8 pH.\u00a0 The acid is leached into the cup of coffee.\u00a0<\/p><p>I also advise working the coffee grounds into the soil, because if they are left to dry out on top, they will crust up and create a sort of impenetrable layer that water won\u2019t percolate through.\u00a0 (Did you see what I did there? Coffee &amp; Percolate?!)\u00a0 By working coffee grounds with the soil, it really ends of acting more as a soil amendment, improving the tilth and\/or structure with its tiny little bit of fertilize. \u00a0Just sprinkle it around the drip line of plant you want to fertilize it with, and use a steel tine rake or hand-rake to scratch it together with the soil. \u00a0If you use them on indoor plants, the crusting up aspect isn\u2019t quite as problematic as outdoor usage.\u00a0<\/p><p>You can also add them to a compost heap.\u00a0 Despite their color, for the purposes of composting they\u2019re a \u2018green\u2019, or nitrogen-rich organic material. Make sure to balance them with enough \u2018browns\u2019 \u2013 carbon-rich materials such as dried leaves, woody prunings or newspaper. Your compost heap\u2019s tiny munchers and gnawers will process and mix them effectively, so using coffee grounds in this way is widely accepted to be safe and beneficial.\u00a0<\/p><p>By the way, many vermicomposters (Worm Ranchers, if you will) say that their worms love coffee grounds, so small quantities could also regularly be added to a worm bin if you have one. Paper coffee filters can go in too, but shredded a bit.<\/p><p>Then there is anecdotal evidence that coffee grounds work as a natural insect repellent. \u00a0In other words, there\u2019s really not a lot of empirical research, rather word of mouth advice. Again, I\u2019m saying \u201crepellant\u201d, so don\u2019t think of it as a natural insect killer.\u00a0 And it only repels certain insects, namely slugs, snails, ants, pill bugs and sow bugs. An oft-repeated nugget of advice is to spread used coffee grounds around plants that are vulnerable to slug damage. There are two theories why: either the texture of the grounds is abrasive, and soft-bodied slugs prefer not to cross them, or the caffeine is harmful to slugs so they tend to avoid it.\u00a0 To run pests off effectively, use anywhere from 2 \u2013 5 lbs. of coffee grounds per 100 square feet for insect control purposes.\u00a0 Now, if that sounds like a lot, and it is, remember that coffee shops give away bags of coffee grounds every day.<\/p><p>One final warning, so you don\u2019t errantly throw coffee grounds away if they don\u2019t look pristine, so to speak, is that coffee tends to develop a green or blue-green fungus that looks like mold. Don\u2019t worry &#8211; that\u2019s good. The green fungus is really beneficial (Trichoderma species) while the blue-green one is reported to be moderately beneficial. In any case, moldy coffee is great to use directly in the garden and compost piles. \u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I get the question occasionally about using coffee grinds to help fertilize certain plants.\u00a0 And while I do recommend it, it\u2019s not really more than adding an amendment to the soil.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been doing it, and you like the results I\u2019m not here to change your mind, but I would like to clear up <a href=\"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/soils-supplements\/coffee-grounds-as-fertilizer\/\" class=\"read-more inline\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3792,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_theme","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3787\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randylemmon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}