#COFFEE GROUND ENERGY BITS PLUS#
#COFFEE GROUND ENERGY BITS FREE#

Make sure to balance them with enough ‘browns’ – carbon-rich materials such as dried leaves, woody prunings or newspaper. Despite their color, for the purposes of composting they’re a ‘green’, or nitrogen-rich organic material.

To use coffee grounds as a fertilizer sprinkle them thinly onto your soil, or add them to your compost heap. The quantity and proportions of these nutrients varies, but coffee grounds can be used as a slow-release fertilizer.

#COFFEE GROUND ENERGY BITS PLUS#

Many of us will have dumped the cold remains of a forgotten coffee in a plant pot at some point, and then perhaps wondered if it was the wrong thing to do! But it turns out that coffee grounds contain a good amount of the essential nutrient nitrogen as well as some potassium and phosphorus, plus other micronutrients. Sprinkle used coffee grounds around plants as a slow-release fertiliser Using Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer Variable particle sizes is key to good soil structure.Ĭoffee grounds are often said to be acidic but this can vary a lot, from very acidic to slightly alkaline, so don’t expect them to acidify higher pH soils. Alternatively, rake your coffee grounds into the top layer of soil so that they can’t clump together. The solution is to mix coffee grounds with other organic matter such as compost or leafmold before using it as a mulch. This turns them into a barrier that will resist water penetration and eventually result in plants dying of thirst. Like clay soil, coffee grounds consist of very fine particles that are prone to locking together. There is a more obvious reason why using coffee grounds alone for mulching could be detrimental. It would be sensible to avoid spreading coffee grounds around seeds or seedlings as they may inhibit germination and growth. How much caffeine actually remains in used coffee grounds is debatable, and some plants will be more sensitive to caffeine than others. The reason for this could be that coffee beans contain caffeine, which is said to suppress the growth of other plants to reduce competition for space, nutrients, water and sunlight. With care, used coffee grounds can be added to the vegetable garden soil However this seems to be linked to using thick blankets of it to mulch around plants and over seeds.

#COFFEE GROUND ENERGY BITS FREE#

Using free coffee grounds seems like the perfect solution, but some gardeners have found that using coffee grounds directly on the soil has had a disastrous effect on plants. Mulching is incredibly beneficial but it’s notoriously difficult to come by compost, straw or other organic matter in large enough quantities at a low enough price. I decided to sort the facts from the hype and find out just how beneficial – or otherwise – coffee grounds are in the garden. But some gardeners suggest that using coffee grounds could be ineffective or, worse, harmful to plants. For coffee-loving gardeners like me, this freely available resource sounds like a real boon. Coffee shops often give coffee grounds away free to gardeners, as they’re a waste product they would normally have to pay to dispose of.

Coffee ground energy bits