coffee chaff two

4season · May 15, 2015

About a week ago I was given a copy of the August/September Organic Gardening magazine. It listed coffee chaff as a mulch that leaches allelopathic chemicals into the soil. I had tilled some chaff into one bed. The lettuce I planted there seems OK, but now I have an explanation why the radishes never came up, even when replanted. I have enough plants to put there now that I know.

saltmarsh · May 15, 2015

Thanks, I'll try it. Maybe it will make the nut grass easier to pull up as well.... Claud

bughunter99 · May 17, 2015

A number of years ago my sister told me she had a source for coffee grounds and asked me if I wanted some. I said sure, just dump what she doesn't want in the back garden.

Two days later I go out to the garden and there is a four foot tall mound of coffee grounds AND hundreds of filters. <--I was pretty peeved about the filters.

I spread them around and had no new weeds in that area that year but the good plants didn't grow well either. The next year the weeds were back but not as many and the plants did a little better. Year three growing was back to normal. Soil texture is nice.

The moral? If you sister wants to give you coffee grounds have her dump them in the driveway so its easy to spread them thin.

Redbaron · May 17, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by bughunter99

A number of years ago my sister told me she had a source for coffee grounds and asked me if I wanted some. I said sure, just dump what she doesn't want in the back garden.

Two days later I go out to the garden and there is a four foot tall mound of coffee grounds AND hundreds of filters. <--I was pretty peeved about the filters.

I spread them around and had no new weeds in that area that year but the good plants didn't grow well either. The next year the weeds were back but not as many and the plants did a little better. Year three growing was back to normal. Soil texture is nice.

The moral? If you sister wants to give you coffee grounds have her dump them in the driveway so its easy to spread them thin.

four foot tall!

That is surely proof that it is possible to have too much of a good thing!

4season · May 17, 2015

Before Starbucks had their "grounds for gardeners" program I used to fish the bags of grounds out of the dumpster. Screened out all sorts of trash.

May 15, 2015	#1
4season Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: albuquerque Posts: 308	coffee chaff two About a week ago I was given a copy of the August/September Organic Gardening magazine. It listed coffee chaff as a mulch that leaches allelopathic chemicals into the soil. I had tilled some chaff into one bed. The lettuce I planted there seems OK, but now I have an explanation why the radishes never came up, even when replanted. I have enough plants to put there now that I know.

May 15, 2015	#2
saltmarsh Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: 2 miles south of Yoknapatawpha Zone 7b Posts: 662	Thanks, I'll try it. Maybe it will make the nut grass easier to pull up as well.... Claud

May 17, 2015	#3
bughunter99 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: zone 5 Posts: 821	A number of years ago my sister told me she had a source for coffee grounds and asked me if I wanted some. I said sure, just dump what she doesn't want in the back garden. Two days later I go out to the garden and there is a four foot tall mound of coffee grounds AND hundreds of filters. <--I was pretty peeved about the filters. I spread them around and had no new weeds in that area that year but the good plants didn't grow well either. The next year the weeds were back but not as many and the plants did a little better. Year three growing was back to normal. Soil texture is nice. The moral? If you sister wants to give you coffee grounds have her dump them in the driveway so its easy to spread them thin.