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So far I already spread used green tea leaves on top of soil. Seems to be a good plus. Would used coffee grounds be good for a split leaf philodendron?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Coffee grounds ad acidity and nitrogen, both of which are good for the philo. Just mix some into the top inch of so of soil without disturbing the roots, and don't over do it. Maybe once a month at most. If you don't mix it well you will get mold.
So far I already spread used green tea leaves on top of soil. Seems to be a good plus. Would used coffee grounds be good for a split leaf philodendron?
Yes. Coffee grounds are good for nearly all flowers.
uh
Coffee grounds ad acidity and nitrogen, both of which are good for the philo. Just mix some into the top inch of so of soil without disturbing the roots, and don't over do it. Maybe once a month at most. If you don't mix it well you will get mold.
Coffee grounds are fine, and so are tea leaves. But please, don't go believing that coffee grounds acidify your soil enough to notice, and please don't tell people they add nitrogen to the soil, because they don't. The major benefit to coffee grounds in the garden is some improvement to the soil's structure if you add enough of them -- and maybe enough residual caffeine to kill slugs, which some say works fairly well. I throw all our tea bags and coffee grounds into the compost bins.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57728
Quote:
Originally Posted by TinaMcG
Coffee grounds are fine, and so are tea leaves. But please, don't go believing that coffee grounds acidify your soil enough to notice, and please don't tell people they add nitrogen to the soil, because they don't. The major benefit to coffee grounds in the garden is some improvement to the soil's structure if you add enough of them -- and maybe enough residual caffeine to kill slugs, which some say works fairly well. I throw all our tea bags and coffee grounds into the compost bins.
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My information is from a local master gardener, and is confirmed by this article in Sunset Magazine.
Well, they're talking about 10 pounds of N per cubic yard of coffee grounds. Imagine having an entire cubic yard of coffee grounds. That is infinitely more coffee grounds than will ever be available to any of us. Heck, I can't even find a bag at my local Sbux anymore. The available N in the compost with coffee grounds is 0.09%. I'm not buying coffee grounds as a reliable source of N for anything, but okay, we can disagree. I'll continue to buy cheap fertilizer. In fact, when I want to heat up the compost pile, that's just what I add to it: cheap urea granules, or Nitrogen.
Coffee grounds ad acidity and nitrogen, both of which are good for the philo. Just mix some into the top inch of so of soil without disturbing the roots, and don't over do it. Maybe once a month at most. If you don't mix it well you will get mold.
Quote:
My information is from a local master gardener, and is confirmed by this article in Sunset Magazine.
I guess we'll just have to disagree on this.
Coffee grounds make a nice amendment along with other soil conditioners but it is not source of N. Both Tina and I are Master Gardeners. Tina is also a soil specialist having certified in it. I know from my own classes in soil care and soil chemistry that coffee grounds do not make an appreciable difference in the pH (acidity), especially when done in a home garden from the homeowner's coffee grounds. Someone either misspoke or you misunderstood what they told you. The available N is also not increased when using coffee grounds instead of fertilizer. This was also specifically mentioned in the article you quoted from. What is made more available are P, K Cu and Mg all of which are good for most plants.
This is a direct quote from the article from your link:
Quote:
The availabilities of nitrogen, calcium, zinc, manganese and iron are quite low and in some cases deficient. Thus, the coffee grounds will not supply appreciable amounts of these essential plant elements when used as a mineral soil amendment.
Coffee grounds make a nice amendment along with other soil conditioners but it is not source of N. Both Tina and I are Master Gardeners. Tina is also a soil specialist having certified in it. I know from my own classes in soil care and soil chemistry that coffee grounds do not make an appreciable difference in the pH (acidity), especially when done in a home garden from the homeowner's coffee grounds. Someone either misspoke or you misunderstood what they told you. The available N is also not increased when using coffee grounds instead of fertilizer. This was also specifically mentioned in the article you quoted from. What is made more available are P, K Cu and Mg all of which are good for most plants.
This is a direct quote from the article from your link:
Thanks, Em, but I'm not certified in soil science, only plant propogation and landscape design. But soil science was far and away my favorite class, taught by a brilliant forest-preserve conservation director for Cook County, IL, and let me tell you -- when we moved to Kansas and discovered that the man next door has a Masters in soil science, we knew we had picked the right house! So I am an incurable soil geek, but not credentialed exactly. Got an A in the course though.
>>>This is a direct quote from the article from your link:
Quote:
The availabilities of nitrogen, calcium, zinc, manganese and iron are quite low and in some cases deficient. Thus, the coffee grounds will not supply appreciable amounts of these essential plant elements when used as a mineral soil amendment.<<<
Remember "Liebig's Law of the Minimum" as it applies to plant growth.
-----"This concept was originally applied to plant or crop growth, where it was found that increasing the amount of plentiful nutrients did not increase plant growth. Only by increasing the amount of the limiting nutrient (the one most scarce in relation to "need") was the growth of a plant or crop improved. This principle can be summed up in the aphorism, "The availability of the most abundant nutrient in the soil is only as good as the availability of the least abundant nutrient in the soil." -----
Then take note of every macro- and micronutrient in the links I posted above. Adding more nitrogen or phosphorus to a plant that is deficient in something like Molybdenum (and I don't even know what that is!) is not going to help. So don't ever pooh-pooh the fact that your soil is low in one of the micronutrients, because it matters. The good news is, most soils are never deficient in micronutrients. But they can deficient in iron, which is a big deal, and quite often, even if they have enough iron, their pH is too high and the plants can't take it up. This happens a lot with pin oks in our part of the country. They turn yellow, pepole pile on more iron, and they remain yellow -- because a soil test would reveal that the soil is too alkaline.
High pH for many plants is like sitting at a buffet table with your mouth wired shut.
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