New Grower Have you ever offered your girls coffee?

[Dr. Babnik]

Relaxing in my favourte chair and thinking about coffee.

Have you ever fed your plants coffee?
Coffee is quite acidic so pH correction may be necessary.

Ever used coffee grounds in the soil mix?

Just letting the thougths wander .... No joint. Just plane tobacco. Waiting for harvest... Any opinions regarding coffe or coffee grounds?

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[namvet25]

Nope,never heard of anyone using it.

 

[HashMaster]

Yes, back in the late 60's / early 70's we mixed in some used coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, and shredded then soaked in water newspaper.

It was used as worm food.

We were using regular back yard black dirt and put in extra worms.....

 

[Dr. Babnik]

Nope,never heard of anyone using it.

Shaykh Google says coffee is good. It is a lot written about it. Here is just one example of interst to us.

http://www.cannabis.info/us/abc/30004724-how-coffee-grounds-can-improve-your-garden

I will try it as a mulch on my developmentally challenged White Widow. Average NPK in coffee grounds is 2-0,3-1.
I will collect coffee grounds, mix it with some NaCO3 and water to get rid of the acid before I apply it.

It can also be composted or used in soil mix as it is.

 

[Dr. Babnik]

Yes, back in the late 60's / early 70's we mixed in some used coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, and shredded then soaked in water newspaper.

It was used as worm food.

We were using regular back yard black dirt and put in extra worms.....

Cool!
Would it be an idea to keep eathworms in the pots?!? I can dig up a few...

Why is egg shells old fasioned? If it breaks down in the soil mix it would be good, I think. However, I have extremely hard tap water. What's comes out from the tap is a saturated sol'n of CaCO3. When the water boils, salt crystals appear in the water. Thus I use very little Cal-Mag. My Mg I get from epsom salt.

 

[HashMaster]

Depends on your medium I suppose....

Can I still grow in backyard dirt with worms and all the rest ?

Yes.

Haven't done it in decades though.

Nightcrawlers and regular earthworms always worked great.

Red wigglers did not work very well as the little bastards kept escaping.....

 

[Dr. Babnik]

I'll go out and dig up earthworms tomorrow. If all my chemicals kill them, they return to the earth at least...

 

[Dr. Babnik]

I have applied coffee grounds as mulch on the poor girl who is the victim of my Mengele-like experiments.

It is well known that coffee is highly acidic. To neutralise acids, 5g NaCO3 was added together with 1 ml P/K sol'n.
Now, I just wait and see if somehing happens.

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I notice she is extremely light green. Is she missing N? I fed her lightly yesterday. Any idea of the time-course from feed to observable results?

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[HMR]

From my understanding, the pH of used coffee grounds is neutral(or almost), and it is the fresh coffee grounds which contain an acidic pH. I've heard this from several sources, but take it with a grain of salt if you so choose to. I'll be testing out a microgrow with no pH checks and all organics, coffee grounds mixed with castings will be in the mix. My guess is that the duo will work wonders on autos as castings have a npk of 1-0-0, which would add to the coffee grounds, and probably fulfill the needs of an auto for nitrogen for quite a bit.

 

[HMR]

The main issues with egg shells in your soil mix is that like bone meal, it takes a long period of time to break down. If you properly crush them, or grind them into a dust almost, add worms to your soil, and have a good living mix with some sort of TLO, this probably would be negated and allow the egg shells to be deconposed and absorbed much quicker.