Coffee Grounds in the Garden?

[ZBQ]

Well guys, I hit the jackpot!!

I called several Starbucks in Columbus and asked them about the coffee grounds and they told me they were just getting ready to start that program this week but they would save them for me till I got there. I told them that garbage bags were fine and they didn't have to bag them up real nice like they usually do. They really seemed happy to do it for me. I asked the manager of the 1st shop I called which ones had the highest traffic and targeted those and it paid off well.

I hit 5 shops and all total I am estimating that I brought home around 125-150 lbs +/- of grounds!!

I am going to put all that in an area about 25X3 (half of my bed) and till it in. That is, if it will stop SNOWING!!

2 days ago it was 84* and sunny, now it is 28* and snowing!!

[sirtanon]

Good score!!

That's a terrific haul.. I generally hit 1 of 2 stores about 3 times a week now.. although they generally don't have more than a standard size bag's worth.

[dcarch]

I bet you can run boiling water thru those spent coffee grounds again and still get a few more cups of coffee before you compost them.

dcarch

[tomatoaddict]

LOL That's what my husband said. Starbucks coffee is strong enough we could use the grounds again.
I've been collecting from 1 SB's close to me and it fills the back of my Trailblazer every night. 8)

[bugsy]

Originally Posted by mayax68

Ok, changed my mind on the grounds for mulch .

But I have been collecting used ground coffee at my work and dumping in under my berry bushes. I should see benefits this coming spring.

yeah, i think coffee grounds as mulch is a bad idea but dug into the soil, it's like magic. especially if you get hundreds of pounds like I do. seriously one of those coffeehouses dump a huge amount of grounds every morning, they might as well give them to me and not waste them.

I don't know about moles but my coop garden friends are convinced that I didn't have gophers (and they did) because of all the coffee I dumped into the soil. I kept telling them it was the anti-gopher device but seeing as they also had those devices they didn't believe me. I also told them that I also dug out gopher runs going toward my garden but they kept thinking it was the coffee for some reason.
*shrug*

[sirtanon]

Well, the seedlings in coffee grounds experiment did not go well The plant in pure coffee died a slow tortured death. I think the pure coffee just packed in way too much.

May try again after I've adjusted the mix formulas.

None of the seeds sown in pure coffee grounds came up either. Again, I'm wondering if maybe it's just too solid... or maybe there's still enough latent acidity that the seed burned to death.

I WILL say this though.. the plants in the ground have been doing GREAT since I started mixing in handful after handful of coffee grounds.

...and the CORN!! My corn patch looked a bit thin, so I soaked a few seeds for 48 hours in water and then planted them each in a hole that was easily 1/4 coffee grounds.. BAM! They're already a good 4" - 6" tall and it's only been about a week!

[amideutch]

This might interest you coffee ground mongers. Especially the concentrate where you supply the grounds. I bought 2 bags and that is what I'm going to plant my maters in. Ami
http://www.gardengrounds.com/index.php?cid=58

[korney19]

Originally Posted by sirtanon

Well, the seedlings in coffee grounds experiment did not go well The plant in pure coffee died a slow tortured death. I think the pure coffee just packed in way too much.

May try again after I've adjusted the mix formulas.

None of the seeds sown in pure coffee grounds came up either. Again, I'm wondering if maybe it's just too solid... or maybe there's still enough latent acidity that the seed burned to death.

I WILL say this though.. the plants in the ground have been doing GREAT since I started mixing in handful after handful of coffee grounds.

...and the CORN!! My corn patch looked a bit thin, so I soaked a few seeds for 48 hours in water and then planted them each in a hole that was easily 1/4 coffee grounds.. BAM! They're already a good 4" - 6" tall and it's only been about a week!

I missed this thread... I posted results I had a couple years ago on GW... I really don't remember if it was 2004 or 2005...

I started collecting grounds from a local Starbucks as well as McDonald's. McD's the manager wasn't that crazy about doing it for me, even though I made it pretty easy--I gave them a 4 gallon bucket with a snap-on lid with my phone # printed on it and said call whenever it's almost full. Little did I know that McD's coffee was in bags similar to tea bags, but big, maybe 3x6" or 4x8". That actually worked out ok in the long run because they were "pre-measured."

Starbucks on the other hand, didn't have pre-bagged grounds. They actually dumped everything into doubled clear plastic garbage bags... however they didn't seem to separate anything--the bags had filters, tea bags, foil bags, plastic spoons, plastic lids from styrofoam cups, etc. I collected them 2-3 times per week, for about 3 months! They were heavy and often dripped/leaked. I'd get maybe 2-3 bags every visit, maybe a couple gallons worth per bag. I stopped collecting them when I almost slipped on the ice carrying them to my vehicle in late November.

Back home, I had a pile of bags in my driveway, maybe about 4ft x 6ft by about 3ft tall. I added some with Fall leaves to my corn beds and bee balm in the Fall, alternating layers, and mostly the rest sat in the pile until Spring.

For those who've seen my yard or corn beds, one is around 4x7ft and the other one is about 6x8ft right on the blacktop. Beyond these beds I grow AG pumpkins where I dumped mostly municipal compost. The corn bed on the driveway was mostly an inch or 2 of the worst dirt removed from the rest of the garden, about an inch of straw, and about 8" of municipal compost. Every year I added new compost to freshen the bed. I've had EXCELLENT results growing corn this way for 3+ years, getting as many as 60-80 8" to 9" ears growing similarly to the square foot gardening method & with drip irrigation.

Anyway, I can't say how many bags or cf or yards I added of grounds but I'd say maybe somewhere between 2-4" of grounds and tilled & forked it all in. This was about a month before planting. I didn't have a pickup truck to get compost cheap by the load, so I figured coffee grounds would be a good substitute, and free too.

Well, that was a big mistake. My corn, which usually got about 7ft tall and produced 1-2 ears each, barely reached 3-4ft tall, and the stems were purpling instead of green. Ears, if any, were about 3-4" long. Lettuce, onions & beets planted in the same bed sprouted, grew about 3-4" tall, and died. I did a pH test with the same meter I used every other year and the pH was about 6.1- 6.2. I thought that was a little low for corn but still tolerable. The local county extension service blamed it on the coffee grounds and said they were too acidic. My fluorescent-like purple bee balm grown in the second corn bed, a perennial, never returned.

Luckily, I tried the grounds that season mostly on corn and pumpkins and used very little on my mater beds. My pumpkins that year, grown from seeds from an 845 pound Nesbitt, (genetics known to produce large pumpkins from 600-1000lbs), none got over 200lbs.

So, in summary, I'd say be very cautious using large amounts or percentages of coffee grounds. I wouldn't do it again, and would recommend not more than maybe 10% grounds. I'd recommend them in a compost pile first.

[vermiit]

Wow, all things in moderation. I suppose last year when I added coffee grounds for the first time, my clay/clumpy soil was so hungry for ANYTHING, my crop of tomatoes was amazing! This year, because of other things, I'm putting in so much less...just as well it seems! I know my earthworm population has grown by leaps and bounds, and perhaps if I can balance the coffee grounds that the worms can digest, I'll have the huge benefit of castings and not the acid problem. It's fascinating to read people's experiences with UCG.

[honu]

Interesting range of results. Quoting from Jeff Gillman's book, "The Truth About Garden Remedies, What Works, What Doesn't & Why": "Some plants, such as lettuce, seem to benefit from coffee ground-amended soil quite a bit; some plants, such as alfalfa, seem to benefit very little; and some plants, such as ryegrass, wheat, and tomato, actually seem to be negatively affected...."

[hunter]

Very interesting. I started using Starbucks grounds last year. I added quite a bit (I'm talking hundreds of pounds) to my tomato beds, and did not see any ill effects. In fact, my tomatoes pumped out fruit like mad all summer.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if composted grounds have any different effects than fresh?

[tomatoaddict]

I have collected hundreds of pounds of Starbuck's cg's and dumped them in the garden. My soil is so much clay that I don't think it's going to hurt anything. If it does, believe me I will let everyone know. I have a big mouth.

[mresseguie]

Originally Posted by hunter

Very interesting. I started using Starbucks grounds last year. I added quite a bit (I'm talking hundreds of pounds) to my tomato beds, and did not see any ill effects. In fact, my tomatoes pumped out fruit like mad all summer.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if composted grounds have any different effects than fresh?

I just finished a compost course (really!) through OSU Extension in Eugene. Coffee grounds were mentioned, and several of us asked more questions.

Every single MG or compost specialist there waxed enthusiastic about how great coffee grounds are as a component in the composting process. Several, in fact, no longer use cow manure in the process. The grounds work better. Over the years, studies/research has been done on coffee grounds.

I was given so many handouts that I can't find the information. Some or all of this information is available on the web at:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lan...flyer2_000.pdf

The next link is about composting.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lan...zstan_rev2.pdf

One of the course presenters stated the Cornell University's site has a wealth of information of composting.

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_homepage.html

Enjoy!

Michael

[dcarch]

I don't have access to coffee grounds. Maybe someone can give this a try.

Coffee grounds decompose and eventually disappear in your soil.

What if you first bake them to charcoal, carbonize them and then put them in your soil.

Reasons for trying this:

1. Carbon does not decompose so it becomes permanent part of your soil.
2. Activated charcoal is the most porous material known. Although this is not the way activated charcoals are made, you may still end up with some very porous charcoal, may be much better then Perlite to help retain moisture.
3. The baking process will turn some grounds into ash, perhaps releasing more nutrients.
4. Darkening you soil to absorb more solar heat to warm up your soil.

dcarch

[mresseguie]

Originally Posted by dcarch

I don't have access to coffee grounds. Maybe someone can give this a try.

Coffee grounds decompose and eventually disappear in your soil.

What if you first bake them to charcoal, carbonize them and then put them in your soil.

Reasons for trying this:

1. Carbon does not decompose so it becomes a permanent part of your soil.
2. Activated charcoal is the most porous material known. Although this is not the way activated charcoals are made, you may still end up with some very porous charcoal, may be much better then Perlite to help retain moisture.
3. The baking process will turn some grounds into ash, perhaps releasing more nutrients.
4. Darkening your soil to absorb more solar heat to warm up your soil.

dcarch

dcarch,

It is my opinion you have a seriously twisted mind. I like that quality very much. [Only a twisted mind could come up with that approach.] (happy and twisted)

I will ask a new found <twisted mind> friend who gets paid (!!!) to find new ways to make great garden soil. When she responds, I will get back to you here.

Michael

Compost till ya drop!
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