Used Coffee grounds

Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:07 am

Camellias are also acid loving like azaleas and will be fine with the coffee grounds. Put some down now and some more in spring. Scratch it (or trowel it) lightly in to the ground or mulch over it to keep from crusting over as rot noted.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:09 pm

I stopped at a couple of nearby Starbucks to ask about used coffee grounds. I'd given up on them before because every time I went, their response was that somebody had just picked them up.

Well, THIS time, the answer was that people used to come by all the time during the summer but they haven't been lately, and the manager apologized that they haven't been bagging them, not expecting them to be picked up. She said if I call the day before, she'll have them ready for me, so told her I'll be back the next day. K'ching! At the other store, they also said the same thing! Lively pick-up during the summer, NOBODY picking them up now. K'ching, K'ching! :()

Needless to say, I also took what they had at both stores. :wink:

My latest project/experiment: "Espresso" Oyster Mushrooms -- oyster mushroom spawn in sawdust that is mixed with used coffee grounds to run the mycelium and grow the mushrooms. I'll start a new thread about it soon.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:45 am

Looking forward to that. AS; have been contemplating mushroom growing for next year. But after the recent rash of tree removal by neighbors, I have a lot more sky than I did; finding enough shade for shrooms might be suddenly hard!

Funny how folks think of composting as a "garden" activity and stop when "gardening" stops (while for some of us neither really stops, they just shifts gears...)

HG

Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:10 pm

Well for me composting never stops, but gardening pretty much stops from mid Nov to mid Jan (unless you count looking through seed catalogs and putting in my order as "gardening"

). I've thought about working to get a heated greenhouse or something to keep gardening those last two months, but decided I don't mind having a little down time, break from it. Start the garden year over with the baby seedlings with renewed energy, having missed it for awhile.

(of course a couple dozen containers full of houseplants and other stuff I brought in for the winter, doesn't count as gardening!

)

Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:58 am

Ahh, but you are wrong, my friend. They do count... and a fine way to to explore the true symbiotic relationship with plants. You share heat and water and CO2; the plant gives back O2 minus a great deal of indoor pollution (some plants better than others, but all to some degree). A pretty good trade-off, especially in winter, and it keeps your hand in until outdoor gardeneing begins...

Nasa knows about this stuff; betcha they want some plants for the station.Check out their top ten pollution collectors maybe you have one of these in the home?

Get more...

HG

Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:39 am

Oh too cool! Great link HG! I've been reading science fiction since I was a kid, so I knew the space station was going to have to have plants as part of the life support/on board ecosystem, but it's so exciting to hear that NASA now knows it too!

Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:50 am

Houseplants would like coffee compost too...

HG

Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:25 pm

I *used* to have houseplants -- many from the NASA 10 list, but they've been mostly outsted because of the "two dozen" that have to come inside when the cold weather hits. With the coming of the frost, I now have 37 various sized containers of plants crowding the downstairs windows alone, and that's not including the 5 Oyster mushroom pots or the Shiitake spawn block, and those are the plants that prefer cooler winter temperatures. I won't go upstairs to count the warmer temperature plants in the upstairs windows. :roll:

Only "houseplants" left at my house are the African violets, who will quietly occupy the NE facing window and still provide flushes of pretty flowers.

I'm slowly panicking over the logistics for seed starting come February. :roll:

You're right about switching gears. There are still lots to do out in the garden. I've also added indoor vermicomposting as well as the mushroom growing, both of which are benefitting from the influx of the used coffee grounds :wink:

Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:18 pm

Just got back from Starbucks, got me 2 of their packaged bags ad 2 trash bags full of grounds, yippee. Now my garden will be nutrient rich and smell good.

Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:10 am

Don't concentrate on just your coffeehouses. Your local gas stations brew fresh coffee about every 90 minutes. You usually have to bring them a container, but I've never had a problem getting a 5 gallon bucket full of grounds from each of my local gas stations every week.

And if you ask them nicely, they will usually let you take their old newspapers too.

Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:25 pm

I get them from the office as well! I love'm

Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:53 pm

-- tomrrow I will go get the coffee grounds from my local QT ..

..
He said the 5gallon will be full by tomorrow and I just took it today! .. :shock:

INCREDIBLE ... yay!!!

Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:32 pm

Too much UCG will spoil the soil.
I've added over two inches in an area of the garden and it would not produce. :oops:

My suggestion is Keep the amount under 1/2 inch and turn it in to the soil.

Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:01 pm

Or just keep throwing it in your compost pile. I've started bringing the coffee grounds home from work, to balance out all the fall leaves in my pile...

Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:54 am

wow just reading this has realy helped me out loads! i was planing on feeding my worms on a good 50% used coffee and 50% kitchen waste, but i was just woundering were i would find that much used coffee with out buying it and turning myself into a coffe holick! i do like to sleep at night (wrighting message at 00:50am in the morning....)
i am going to have a ask around 2moz and going to ask my family if they would save them for me, thanks.