How to make compost with coffee grounds

Coffee grounds and composting | OSU Extension Service

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Coffee grounds are a great addition to the garden and compost pile. Help to recycle this great organic resource and reduce the amount of organics going to the landfill!

Some information about coffee grounds

Coffee grounds are about 2% nitrogen by volume.
Grounds are not acidic; the acid in coffee is water-soluble so the acid is mostly in the coffee.
Coffee grounds are close to pH neutral (between 6.5 to 6.8 pH).
Coffee grounds improve soil tilth or structure.
Coffee grounds are an excellent nitrogen source for composting. They have a C/N ratio of 20-to-1. In informal trials with OSU/Lane County Extension Service, Compost Specialists recorded sustained temperatures of 140 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit for up to two weeks when coffee grounds were 25% of the material in the compost pile by volume.
Anecdotal evidence suggests coffee grounds repel slugs and snails in the garden.

How do I use coffee grounds?

Spread the coffee grounds directly on the soil. Cultivate into the soil. If left to dry out, they can repel water in much the same way as peat moss that becomes dry.
Spread on the soil and cover with leaves or compost or bark mulch.
Add to the compost pile by layering the ingredients using 1/3 leaves, 1/3 fresh grass clippings, and 1/3 coffee grounds.
Add coffee grounds as part of a static compost pile, being sure to always add an equivalent amount of a carbon source such as shredded paper or dry leaves. Mix together well.

Coffee grounds are not a nitrogen fertilizer. In a germination test at the GrassRoots Garden in Eugene, OR, coffee grounds were mixed with potting soil at a ratio of 25% by volume. Lettuce seeds showed poor rates of germination and stunted growth compared to lettuce seeds planted in potting mix without coffee grounds.

Add paper coffee filters to the compost pile as a carbon source. Tear them into small pieces to speed decomposition.

If you are incorporating coffee grounds directly into the soil, add a nitrogen fertilizer at the same time. Coffee grounds encourage the growth of microorganisms in the soil, which use nitrogen for their growth and reproduction. While the coffee grounds are being broken down by the microorganisms, the additional nitrogen in the fertilizer will provide a source of nutrients for your plants. Add paper coffee filters to the compost pile as a carbon source. Tear them into small pieces to speed decomposition. Coffee grounds do not “go bad." For future use, store in a 32-gallon trash container near the compost bin or pile.

General composting tips

Composting with worms
Can I put barbecue ash in my compost or worm bin?
Answers to 3 common compost problems

Want to learn more about this topic? Explore more resources from OSU Extension: Garden Soil and Compost

Compost with coffee grounds

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Composting With Coffee Grounds: A Complete Guide

7 min read

Table of Contents

We have one less reason to feel guilty about your coffee addiction!

Two of my passions in life are drinking coffee (and lots of it) and being environmentally aware.

A question I often get asked is, “How can I compost with coffee grounds?”

You’ll be glad to hear that there are lots of ways you can benefit your garden with coffee grounds. So no need to give up your coffee habit just yet…. your garden will thank you and you can save the grounds ending up in the landfill!

Supplies to Compost Coffee Grounds at Home

Coffee Grounds

Don’t just stop with the coffee grounds produced in your own home. There are lots more sources of used coffee grounds that people are often very happy to give you for free. Coffee shops and restaurants are a great source of free coffee grounds.

Starbucks are probably best known for this having introduced their Grounds for your Garden program in 1995 offering free bags of used coffee grounds to their customers. But just ask in any coffee shop and they are often more than happy to give you their used coffee grounds.

Why not add a can by your office coffee machine and collect those too?

Soil, Compost Pile, or Composting System

You can compost coffee grounds on any scale. So if you don’t have to have a large acreage or a fully developed compost pile, don’t worry. You can compost coffee grounds in a container on your balcony or even donate to a friend, neighbor or local community garden who could benefit from adding extra nutrients to their soil.

Did You Know…

You can grow coffee beans at home but you need patience and a tolerance for poor-quality coffee! Plants take at least 2-3 years to reach maturity and, although you can theoretically grow high-quality beans at home, my experience has been quite different. But the process really makes you appreciate the effort that goes into getting your morning coffee!

How to Compost With Coffee Grounds

Before you add coffee grounds to your compost pile or garden there are a few things you should know:

Coffee grounds add organic matter to your soil. This improves your soil’s water retention, aeration and drainage. Furthermore, coffee grounds will encourage microorganisms that are beneficial to plant growth and attract earthworms and other biota to your soil.
Coffee grounds are not acidic. In the past, there have been concerns that as coffee is acidic, coffee grounds must also be acidic and therefore should only be added to acid-loving plants. However, studies have shown that the pH of coffee grounds is fairly neutral. The acid in coffee is water-soluble so the acidity mainly ends up in your cup of coffee.
Used coffee grounds still contain small amounts of caffeine. Caffeine is not a great addition to your garden or your compost pile. However, the amounts are likely to be fairly low and will be diluted by the other items in your compost pile and/or soil. The dislike of caffeine can actually be used to your garden’s advantage.
Coffee grounds have been shown to deter slugs and snails. It is unclear whether this is because they can’t tolerate the small amounts of caffeine in the coffee grounds, or whether they don’t like the coarse surface, or a combination of both of these. Simply put a barrier of coffee grounds around the plants you wish to protect. There is also small amounts of evidence that used coffee grounds can help to deter ants and cats from your garden too, although there are better ways of deterring both.

There are a number of options for composting with your coffee grounds. Your preferred composting option will vary depending on the size of your garden, whether you have a developed compost pile or whether you have another method of composting your green waste.

You may even find that your method will vary through the year depending on how active your compost pile is, how much plant coverage you have in your garden and how much coffee you are drinking.

Add Coffee Grounds Directly to Your Soil

This works well for smaller amounts of coffee grounds, i. e. those produced from brewing coffee once a day. If you are producing larger quantities of coffee grounds, picking up extra coffee grounds from local cafes and restaurants, or have coffee filters in your coffee grounds we would suggest using one of the other methods.

Sprinkle your coffee grounds onto the surface of your soil and mix in well. Alternatively, add the coffee grounds to the surface and cover with leaves, compost, or mulch.
Do not simply add the coffee grounds to the surface of your soil. If they are left as a layer on the surface, they can dry out and form a caked layer preventing water from infiltrating into your soil.

Note that coffee grounds are not a nitrogen fertilizer, despite having lots of nitrogen in them. Before that nitrogen is released, they need to decompose. If you are adding coffee grounds directly to your soil then you may need to actually add a nitrogen fertilizer at the same time.

Coffee grounds will encourage the growth of microorganisms in the soil that use nitrogen to grow and reproduce. While the coffee grounds are decomposing into the soil, there may therefore be a slight reduction in nitrogen available to your plants.

In fact, a germination test at the Grass Roots Garden in Eugene showed reduced germination rates and stunted growth for seeds in potting compost mixed with coffee grounds compared to only potting compost.

Add Coffee Grounds to Your Traditional Compost Pile Or Tumbler

If you are adding coffee grounds to your traditional compost pile or compost tumbler, it is important to treat them as green compost material; they are about 2% nitrogen by volume. The coffee grounds will need to be balanced with sufficient brown compost material such as leaves, or shredded paper.

One suggestion is to add approximately a third leaves, third grass clippings and a third coffee grounds to your compost pile. Mix the coffee grounds well into your compost pile and continue to tend your pile as usual, regularly turning and aerating the pile to ensure that it remains aerobic.

Limit your coffee grounds to no more than a third of the overall volume of your compost pile. This is not normally a problem; even for the most ardent coffee drinkers among us!

Paper coffee filters will be easily broken down in your compost pile too, so feel free to throw those in at the same time as the coffee grounds. They provide a valuable source of carbon.

Add Coffee Grounds to Your Bokashi Composter

Bokashi composting provides a fast and easy way to compost all of your food scraps, including coffee grounds and filters. The bokashi composting process provides a very effective method to turn your coffee grounds (and other food scraps) into high quality compost in just 4-6 weeks.

Simply add the coffee grounds to your kitchen composter every 1-2 days and sprinkle with bokashi bran. Treat the coffee grounds in exactly the same way as the rest of your food waste to your bokashi indoor composter.

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Add Coffee Grounds to Your Worm Bin

Despite coffee grounds being unpopular with slugs, snails, ants, and cats, worms are very attracted to them. So you can freely add your coffee grounds and filters to your worm composter. As with any new item in your worm bin, you may want to introduce them gradually so that your worms can become accustomed to them.

Composting coffee grounds is a great way to benefit your soil (and garden) and save them from ending up in a landfill.

Small quantities can be added directly to your soil.

Larger quantities can be incorporated into your existing compost whether it’s a traditional compost pile, compost tumbler, bokashi composter, or worm bin.

No need to feel too guilty about your coffee habit… your garden will thank you!

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How to use coffee pomace - coffee grounds as fertilizer or scrub

Average coffee consumption is between 3 and 12 kg per person per year. But few people know that this drink is worth appreciating not only for its taste. After all, coffee grounds are beneficial. This is an important component that can and should be used in everyday life.

It is easy to make fertilizer, pest control, deodorant, and a face and body mask from the cake. And these are just some of the ideas: how to use the leftover coffee from the coffee machine. After all, cake consists of moderately solid particles, and also contains a lot of trace elements and antioxidants. It is an indispensable helper in everyday life.

Coffee grounds as a fertilizer

Cake contains a lot of trace elements. Therefore, gardeners use coffee as a fertilizer. This approach allows you to saturate the soil with useful substances without chemicals:

nitrogen;
magnesium;
potassium;
calcium;
phosphorus.

Coffee residues from a bean coffee machine are also rich in other trace elements. Therefore, cake is used as an organic fertilizer for plants. But you can’t just take it and put it in the soil. Make compost from spent coffee. Several methods can be used for this:

Mixed with soil in pots. In this case, the coffee extract is added with care. Its amount should not exceed 10% of the soil.
Compost. Dried coffee grounds are also used as a fertilizer in combination with the remains of grass, plants and food waste. When collecting compost, do not forget to add a little cake there (no more than 20%).
Intervention in the soil in the garden. Use only dried coffee grounds. As a fertilizer, it is scattered at a distance of 30-60 cm from the trunks of trees or shrubs. Then, be sure to loosen the soil.

Important: never pour coffee waste from the coffee machine directly into the ground. After all, cake has a pH of 5.5-5.9. Its use in its raw form will lead to soil acidification. To avoid this, the thick must be dried beforehand. Then its pH softens to 6.5-6.8.

Now the owners of suburban areas and just lovers of indoor plants know exactly what to do with coffee cake. But in order not to harm the plants, you should remember the prohibitions:

do not immediately pour the thick with coffee residue into the ground - it must first be dried;
Millicano coffee bean waste is not used in horticulture;
cake after coffee with milk or cream should not be used as top dressing.

Don't forget: if you are using coffee grounds as a fertilizer, it is important to follow the correct watering technique. The soil should dry out well. If the surface is always kept wet, midges can start.

The benefits of coffee grounds for plants are invaluable. In addition to saturating the soil with minerals, the cake attracts with such useful properties:

soil drainage, improvement of aeration;
optimal composition, rich in beneficial microorganisms;
attract earthworms, which increases soil productivity;
pest repellent.

As you can see, the benefits of coffee grounds for plants have been proven. It is an important component of complex fertilizers and an effective mono-element. The main thing is to use it correctly.

Coffee grounds for flowers

Cake is used as a basic element of complex top dressing. Use coffee as a houseplant fertilizer if you're into azaleas, begonias, camellias, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and other flowers. To get the result, it is important to use coffee correctly. Fertilizer for plants is used in accordance with the following recommendations:

Dried cake only . Also, do not forget to pre-mix the flower coffee with earth or compost.
Drain . Dried coffee grounds for flowers are used during planting and transplanting plants into pots. It should be poured in a thin layer (no more than 1-2 tablespoons) directly on the expanded clay.
For transplant adaptation . Changing pots is stressful for plants. To reduce it, coffee is used as a fertilizer for flowers. Just add to the soil mixture 1-2 tbsp. l. dried pulp, and mix thoroughly.

Don't forget: coffee is a fertilizer for flowers that love acidic soil. Therefore, it can be used for almost all indoor plants. The exception is geranium and pelargonium.

Useful for coffee roses, peonies, lilies, hostas, tulips and ornamental shrubs. For perennial herbaceous plants, chrysanthemums, asters and dahlias, such an additive is rarely used.

But is it possible to fertilize flowers with coffee grounds without using other additives? Experienced flower growers agree with the benefits of cake. But they recommend using it as a supplement to standard dressings.

Coffee grounds as a fertilizer for the garden

Experienced gardeners know exactly which plants coffee grounds are good for and which vegetables/fruits do not like them. If you want to saturate the soil with microelements, you should use a mixture of cake and compost, ash or soil.

Coffee as a fertilizer for the garden is chosen for the following crops:

cucumber;
pepper;
tomato;
radish;
potatoes;
bow;
greens.

Coffee pomace is also used for strawberries, blueberries, lingonberries and cranberries. These plants respond well to soil acidification, begin to grow actively and bear fruit intensively.

Coffee grounds are popular among gardeners as a fertilizer for cucumbers. After all, these vegetables are extremely sensitive to growing conditions. The cake attracts earthworms. They improve the quality of the soil, saturating it with beneficial bacteria and improving ventilation.

Important: when using coffee in the garden, always mix the grounds with grass or compost. In no case do not pour cake directly onto the ground. Indeed, after watering, it can form a crust, which will impair the ventilation of the roots.

Coffee as fertilizer for seedlings

Seeds need energy to germinate. Therefore, many use coffee as a fertilizer for seedlings. It can be applied in several ways:

Seed preparation . Just mix them with dried coffee grounds. This coffee fertilizer will speed up germination.
When transplanting to a bed . Dried coffee cake is used as a fertilizer when planting seedlings in the ground. Sprinkle some grounds on the bottom of the prepared holes and top it with compost, a layer of 1-2 cm.
When sowing seeds in the soil . Create grooves 2 cm deeper than you did before. Evenly sprinkle the dried coffee cake (no more than 10-15 g per linear meter). Coffee fertilizer is covered with soil, a layer of 1-2 cm. Such top dressing is used when growing root crops: carrots, radishes, beets.

Dried coffee grounds are widely used as garden fertilizer. But it is worth remembering that such top dressing is prohibited when growing asparagus.

Coffee grounds against pests

Insects and other garden dwellers cause damage by destroying crops. In order not to use aggressive chemicals, summer residents use coffee from ants and other pests. Specifics of application depend on the type of insects to be repelled:

Ant coffee in the garden. Many believe that these inhabitants are useful. But ants love to set up real aphid farms right on your site. This is detrimental to all plants. Applying coffee from ants in the garden is easy. It is enough to cover the anthills and the surrounding area with dried cake.
Against bronze and slugs . They feed on buds, leaves and crops. To scare off pests, coffee waste is poured with boiling water and infused for 3-4 hours. The cooled liquid should be poured into a spray bottle and sprayed onto plants. Roses, strawberries, wild strawberries and cabbage are subject to processing.
From os . They love to eat ripe grapes. To ward off wasps, coffee grounds and saltpeter are used. Prepare the mixture for fumigation. To do this, for every 20 g of cake, use 1 g of saltpeter. Place tin containers around the perimeter of the vineyard and set fire to the mixture poured into them. Processing should be carried out once every 2 weeks.

Helps coffee grounds against ants and other insects. Cake is also used to scare away yard cats who decide to mark the site. Mix the grounds with orange peel, and scatter in places where an unpleasant odor is concentrated. This processing will prevent the appearance of repeated marks.

Coffee grounds in cosmetology

Coffee pomace is used in the beauty industry. This is a coffee mask for cellulite, a cleansing scrub, as well as face and hair products. After all, coffee is rich in antioxidants. It effectively cleanses and tones the skin.

Coffee grounds are also used in cosmetology due to their unique texture. Fine cake is strong enough to eliminate dead particles. But at the same time, coffee waste has a delicate texture and does not damage the skin. This allows you to use the thick as scrubs and masks.

Beauticians are sure: the benefits of coffee grounds are undeniable. After all, ground coffee beans have a range of positive effects:

deep cleansing of pores;
antibacterial effect, reduction of inflammatory processes;
normalization of local water balance, so cellulite coffee cake effectively eliminates orange peel;
rejuvenating effect and smoothing of small mimic wrinkles;
toning - the skin becomes fresh and elastic;
odor removal - cellulite mask with coffee refreshes, which is very useful if you have problems with excessive secretion of sebum.

But for the use of coffee grounds to be beneficial, it is important to properly prepare it by combining it with other ingredients. Oil, cream and useful components should be added to it.

Coffee grounds body scrub

Good cleansing is the key to healthy skin. Therefore, the scrub from the waste of the coffee machine should be prepared correctly. Popular recipes:

Basic . To make a coffee grounds body scrub, simply mix the coffee grounds with the cream, oil, or body lotion that suits you.
With sea salt . Mix pomace and salt in a ratio of 1 to 1. Do not forget to add a little olive oil (20 ml for every 300 g).
With honey . This is an effective coffee pomace cellulite scrub. Mix 200 g of honey and 100 g of coffee grounds. The composition is applied to the skin with massaging movements, and left for 5-7 minutes. After the product should be thoroughly rinsed with water.

The same recipe as the coffee grounds scrub for cellulite with honey can be prepared with a yoghurt-based composition. It is suitable for those who are allergic to bee products. There are many more ideas on what to mix coffee with for a scrub. You can use cottage cheese, oatmeal, fruit puree, cosmetic clay, etc.

Important: after the preparation of cosmetic products, there are often leftovers. But how do you properly store your coffee scrub? To do this, it is necessary to properly prepare it. Be sure to dry the cake before use. Only then mix the ingredients. Excess scrub should be placed in a glass or plastic container and put in the refrigerator.

Coffee grounds face mask

Many beauticians use only anti-cellulite coffee masks. But the cake has a lot more useful properties. Therefore, experienced craftsmen recommend using face masks based on coffee grounds:

Rejuvenating . Mix 1 tablespoon of flour with uncured cake. Pour in the thick until the mixture becomes pasty. Then, add 1 raw egg yolk to the composition and mix thoroughly, whisking lightly. This coffee mask is applied for 10-15 minutes.
Cleanser . Mix 15 g of dried pomace with grated apple. The mask is applied for 10-15 minutes.
Moisturizer . Mix 15 g of cake with grated cucumber on a coarse grater. This face mask with coffee grounds restores water balance.

Important: before using coffee pomace, it must be dried. The exception is a rejuvenating mask. In other cases, the thick is added to the composition of cosmetic products without excess moisture.

Coffee cake for cellulite

Orange peel on the thighs and buttocks gives a lot of inconvenience. An anti-cellulite mask with coffee will help get rid of it. It is better to apply it immediately after bath procedures on warm and well-cleansed skin. In this case, the product is not left on the body, but gently massaged on the surface. This improves local metabolism.

Using coffee pomace against cellulite is easy. It is enough to choose 1 of the popular recipes:

Oatmeal . This is an effective anti-cellulite mask with coffee. Oatmeal should be well ground. Then, mix 4 tbsp. l. oatmeal with 2 tbsp. l. dried coffee grounds. To the mixture, add 1 tbsp. l. unsweetened yogurt or sour cream. Do a massage with this mask for 10 minutes.
Essential . Dried coffee grounds for cellulite are often used in combination with aromatic oils. For 100 g of cake, add 5-6 drops of essential oil with your favorite aroma. If the consistency is too crumbly, 1-2 tsp will help correct the situation. olive oil.
Anti-inflammatory . Mix the cake with the pulp of aloe leaves. This anti-cellulite coffee body mask effectively cleanses, eliminates orange peel and promotes skin rejuvenation.

Now you know what can be done with coffee waste to eliminate aesthetic problems. After all, cake has a complex effect, restores the hydro-lipid balance and eliminates excess subcutaneous fat. It is an important assistant in the fight against cellulite.

Coffee cake for hair

The special texture of coffee grounds allows for gentle scalp care. You can use coffee grounds for hair in its pure form. Simply apply it to the hair at the roots and gently massage into the scalp. So you eliminate the remnants of pollution, get rid of excess sebum and dead skin particles.

A coffee pomace hair mask is also useful. Several recipes can be used to prepare it:

For oily hair . Mix 3 tsp. cake with 1 tsp. honey and chicken egg. Do not forget to add 100-150 ml of pasteurized milk to the mixture. Apply the composition to the curls and wrap your head with a towel for 20-30 minutes.
For dry and brittle hair . A real salvation will be a hair mask made from coffee and olive oil. She is easy to prepare. Mix 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds with 50-100 ml of olive oil. Now apply the composition on the scalp and gently massage. Rinse off with shampoo.
For dull and lifeless hair . Mix 1 tbsp. l. coffee and hot water, 2 chicken yolks and 2 tbsp. l. cognac. Apply the mask to the hair along the entire length, spread evenly and leave for 1-2 hours. Then, wash off with your favorite shampoo.

Now you know what to do with old coffee to improve the condition of your hair. If you want to increase the effectiveness of the mask, you should add 1 tbsp to the traditional recipe. l. burdock oil.

Home use of coffee grounds

The use of coffee in everyday life is not limited to cosmetology and gardening. Also, cake is used in such situations:

Odor absorber for refrigerator. It is a safe and effective natural deodorant. It will get rid of the unpleasant odor.
For covering scratches . Owners of wooden furniture know where to use coffee grounds. Boil the cake, creating a rich broth. Then blot the areas with scratches, chips and other damage to the wood with the composition until the difference in tone disappears.
Stain . It is safe and completely harmless. Therefore, a decoction of cake is used to give a golden hue to fabrics, Easter eggs and paper.

Knowing how to use your coffee pomace will save you money and help the environment. After all, this material is absolutely harmless and safe. It will easily replace popular chemical compounds, and will bring much more benefits.

90,000 for which plants are suitable, how to use cake and ground in the garden and garden

Content:

1. For which plants are
2. Methods of use
  - Watering
  - Mulching
  - compost compon For seedlings
  - Pest control
3. Where not to use
4. Helpful tips

Many people start their day with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, and after this daily ritual there is always a pulp that can simply be thrown or used in the trash coffee grounds as a fertilizer for indoor plants, flowers and gardens.

The answer to the question of whether coffee grounds can be used as fertilizer is obvious: of course you can! But let's take a closer look at what benefits this brings to plants.

By adding coffee grounds to the soil, especially clay and loam soil, its structure becomes looser, drainage capacity and air exchange improve. In addition, coffee attracts earthworms, which also contribute to loosening the soil.
The smell of coffee can repel harmful insects. He doesn't like cats either. If you sprinkle coffee grounds on garden beds with coffee grounds, you can not worry that uninvited visits from your pet will damage tender plantings.
It is believed that fresh coffee has an increased level of acidity, and top dressing with such characteristics is not suitable for every plant. However, to avoid acidification of the soil, it is enough to shed thick water and then apply in the garden or vegetable garden.
Coffee grounds as a fertilizer are rich in minerals and trace elements. Potassium and phosphorus contribute to good flowering and abundant fruiting. Nitrogen activates the rapid growth of plants. Copper helps to resist a number of diseases. And although the total amount of useful substances in coffee cake is about 2–3%, which means that it can hardly be considered a full-fledged fertilizer, the use of grounds as an organic plant food is fully justified.

What kind of plants is coffee fertilizer suitable for

And yet, sleeping coffee is a nutrient that is not suitable for every plant. Therefore, before you widely use it in your garden, you need to study for which plants it is most effective to use coffee grounds as a fertilizer. It is most useful for flowers that prefer a low pH level - azaleas, hydrangeas, heathers and rhododendrons. Due to the large amount of potassium in the composition, coffee grounds can be used as a fertilizer when growing vegetable crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Feeding fruit trees with sleeping coffee will also help to significantly increase their fruiting. Magnesium, which is part of coffee, is useful for berry bushes. Magnesium and potassium will help to get a high yield of root crops, while nitrogen is indispensable for green crops.

Roses, palms, ficuses and ferns, as well as violets and asparagus, respond best to coffee fertilization. When using coffee grounds as a fertilizer for houseplants, it is recommended to shed and dry it first. If you simply pour the rest of the coffee from the cup into the pot, most likely there will be no benefit, but on the contrary, the soil may become covered with a crust and begin to mold. To prevent this, you need to mix the prepared thick with soil suitable for this type of plant.

Coffee with sugar or milk should not be used for horticultural, horticultural and flower crops, since sugar attracts ants, and milk provokes the development of putrefactive processes in the soil, which can damage the root system of plants.

Methods of use

Watering

Used coffee must be diluted with a sufficient amount of liquid before it can be used as a fertilizer for watering plants. To prepare a solution for 10 liters of water, 1 cup of grounds is required. Cake is poured with a small amount of water and left to swell for about a day. After swelling, the amount of liquid is adjusted to the calculated amount and used for watering plants.

After feeding the plants with coffee grounds, it is advisable to water the soil again, but with clean water. This technique will allow the minerals to be slowly released, nourishing the plants. When planting bushes, you should spill the ground with coffee solution at the rate of 1 liter under the bush.

Mulching

Coffee grounds can also be used for mulching crops to protect soil from drying out, repel pests and improve soil structure. However, it must be remembered that when using the grounds as mulch, as in the case of using coffee cake as a fertilizer in the garden in the country, it should be thoroughly dried to prevent the development of mold.

Soil supplement

Dormant ground coffee as a fertilizer can be added to the planting hole or hole before planting to improve soil structure. This technique makes the land more drained and loose, which ultimately has a positive effect on plant health and yield. When used on light soils, the thick acts as a binder. In this case, top dressing is applied to the upper soil layer at the rate of 200 ml per 1 m².

Compost

To speed up the maturation of the compost, it is enough to spill each layer no more than 10 cm thick with coffee infusion. Coffee grounds perform the function of nitrogen components that trigger an exothermic reaction inside the compost heap, in other words, heating it up, due to which the compost matures much faster. This method is so effective that some summer residents specifically purchase inexpensive varieties of ground coffee and sprinkle layers of compost on them.

For seedlings

Recently, the method of growing vegetable seedlings on a coffee substrate has become popular. But in order to prevent depletion of the soil, it is necessary from time to time to feed the seedlings with complex fertilizers.

Protection against pests

Coffee pomace as a fertilizer in the garden is also very effective for protecting plants from mature individuals of harmful insects - ants, snails, aphids, slugs. According to the experience of some gardeners, coffee can also destroy pest larvae, in particular mosquitoes and garden bugs. This remedy is not as effective as insecticides, but also much safer.

Where not to use coffee grounds

Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, so if used in excess, you can burn the root system, which will lead to the death of the plant.

Poorly dried coffee waste can cause mold and fungal diseases and kill plants. In addition, coffee fertilizer is not suitable for tradescantia, asparagus, geraniums and other crops that prefer more alkaline soil. Top dressing from pomace can change the shade of rose flowers.

Helpful Hints

Dried coffee grounds are very light, so when used dry, even the slightest breeze can blow them off the garden.

How to make compost with coffee grounds

Coffee grounds and composting | OSU Extension Service

Some information about coffee grounds

How do I use coffee grounds?

General composting tips

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