Most people consider used coffee grounds worthless. However, it has many surprising uses, especially in gardening. You can take advantage of coffee grounds to make organic fertilizer for your garden. Therefore, if you drink coffee every day, keep your coffee ground and make your garden bloom year-round!
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Why should you use coffee grounds as fertilizer?
Coffee grounds are very popular with gardeners because of its nutrition.
When you mix coffee grounds with soil, it will make the soil more fertile since coffee ground contains a lot of nutrients such as protein, magnesium, potassium, and so on. When growing vegetables indoors on coffee grounds in soil, the plants will grow quickly, due to the absorption of many nutrients from the soil.
So instead of through it away, you can take advantage of it. It helps you to convert your waste into something useful and help your garden grow better.
What kind of plants that you can use coffee ground for?
Many people think that coffee ground is only suitable for plants that prefer acidic soil since coffee is acidic. However, it is not true as it only applies to fresh ground coffee. The acid in the coffee ground is washed through the coffee brewing process. According to the study by Oregon State University, the ph of the used coffee ground is only around 6.5 to 6.8. Thus the used coffee is neutral and can you use as fertilizer for most of the plants.
However, there are still some plants that grow better with this organic fertilizer. Here is the list:
Coffee grounds for vegetable garden
Winter vegetables such as radish or carrots are especially suitable to grow with coffee grounds. When planting, you can mix the seeds with coffee grounds, and then sow them on the soil, which will help the plants grow and develop better, giving higher yields.
Coffee grounds for roses
If you have a rose garden, you will ask yourself that are coffee grounds good for roses? Here is your answer.
The top three nutrients for growing and healthy roses are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Coffee grounds contain 2% nitrogen and are an excellent natural source. Thus you can add coffee grounds directly to the compost as use it as fertilizer for your rose. Please note, do not give more than 25% of the coffee grounds to the total amount of compost
Another tip for you that bananas are rich in phosphorus and the banana peel is particularly rich in potassium. Thus the combination of banana, banana peel, and coffee grounds is one of the best fertilizers you can use to nourish the roses. Moreover, it is also a natural fertilizer at no cost because you’re recycling your rubbish effectively.
Coffee ground for tomato plants
Everybody knows that tomato plants love slightly acidic soil and used coffee ground has a ph of 6.5 to 6.8. Thus it fits perfectly in this situation.
You can add the coffee ground directly to the topsoil. Please note, do not overuse it as too much is always not good. For better results, you should add it to your compost with the ratio, not over 20%.
Coffee grounds on the lawn
Many people reported that spreading dried coffee ground on their lawn help, they grow thicker and greener.
Besides, the nutritional value that used coffee ground will contribute to the growth of grass: the coffee ground is also a favorite food of earthworm. Therefore, it will attract the worm to the lawn. As a result, we will have a good amount of worm castings, which are well-known for soil aeration and plant growth.
Indoor plants should not use the coffee ground as fertilizer
Although coffee grounds are beneficial to gardening, it does not mean it is suitable for every plant. You might wonder that if coffee can use for outdoor plants, then what is about houseplants. However, using the coffee ground for houseplants can cause more harm than benefits. Here are two main reasons
Excessive moisturizing
Coffee grounds are especially good at retaining moisture. It is both an advantage and a major drawback. Adding coffee grounds directly to the soil increases the water holding capacity, which can cause disaster for your indoor plant. There is a high risk of soil stagnation, causing root rotting.
Creating an environment for fungal
Wet coffee ground is a perfect place for fungal to grow; especially indoor plants do not have good exposure to sunlight. Thus, your plant might be at risk due to fungal disease.
Conclusion
I hope you will find some valuable information in this post that helps you to understand more about how to use coffee ground for your garden. Furthermore, the coffee ground is not only good for gardening, but it also has other amazing uses. You can check out this post to find out what are other things that coffee ground will be good for.