Coffee is drunk every day in many households. The coffee grounds end up in the trash and with them valuable ingredients, such as nitrogen, which is also an important component of potting soil. Can coffee grounds be used in potting soil?
Can you use coffee grounds as potting soil?
Coffee grounds can be used as potting soil as they contain valuable nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, tannic acid and antioxidants. In small quantities it improves the pH value, serves as a repellent for snails and cats, neutralizes lime in irrigation water and promotes earthworms in the soil.
Coffee grounds as unusual fertilizer
After the coffee has been brewed, the softened coffee grounds remain in the filter as apparent waste. Very few coffee drinkers know that coffee grounds contain valuable nutrients such as
- Potassium
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- tannic acid
- Antioxidants
included. If you mix a small amount of coffee grounds into the potting soil, the pH value changes. The soil becomes slightly acidic, ideal for hydrangeas. You should really only add a small amount, because coffee grounds mold quickly. Potassium stabilizes the plants, nitrogen generally stimulates growth, and phosphorus ensures beautiful flowers and optimal fruit ripeness. Heavy eaters such as cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini tolerate caffeine.
All of these ingredients can also be found in conventional plant fertilizers, which means that if you mix coffee grounds into your potting soil, you are doing something good for the plants and saving money. However, the coffee grounds must always be well cooled and dried. Damp ground coffee molds easily.
Other good properties of coffee grounds
Caffeine is tolerated by many plants, but not by snails. Therefore, coffee grounds are a suitable way to keep snails away from vegetables. The dry flour is simply distributed around the plants.
What applies to snails also applies to cats. The four-legged friends like to bury their remains in the vegetable patch orin flower boxes. If coffee grounds are sprinkled on the garden or potting soil, the cats will stay away.
If coffee grounds (about two tablespoons) are added to the watering water, it neutralizes the lime contained in the water and fertilizes the soil at the same time.
On the compost, coffee grounds accelerate the decomposition process of the plant material.
If you fertilize with coffee grounds, you always provide your plants with exactly the right amount of fertilizer. Over-fertilization is not possible with coffee grounds.
Coffee grounds on garden beds or in planters attract earthworms. The worms naturally loosen the soil and their excretions are in turn valuable fertilizer.
