Can Coffee Be Used As A Fertilizer?
Used coffee grounds have been discarded as trash by millions of
people around the world. Is there another use for your used
grounds? The answer is "yes," and the more you learn about the
used coffee grounds the more sense it makes to use them as a
fertilizer. My Grandmother taught me years ago the secret of
used coffee grounds. She said that the grounds give your plants
more life. I always wondered what she meant by more life. Then
as I watched her plants grow I seen some amazing things. Her
tomato garden was huge, and much larger than our neighbors.
Tomatoes the size of a softball grew in her garden and at a fast
pace. When the neighbors would inquire as to her secret she said
I have rich soil. She did not lie; because due to those used
coffee grounds her soil was rich indeed.
Used coffee grounds are a great fertilizer for gardens because
of their high nitrogen content. Of all the mineral nutrients in
the soil, nitrogen is generally the most difficult for plants to
acquire. The reason plants have difficulty is because of the way
they acquire the nitrogen. It is primarily thru their roots,
which are buried in the soil. Most plants depend on mineral
forms of nitrogen in the soil, and this is where your coffee
grounds come into place. Your used grounds give your soil the
added nitrogen that your plants need. Coffee grounds also
contain potassium, phosphorus, and many other elements that aid
in plant development. Many rose gardeners report that used
coffee grounds aid in their roses development. Reports also add
that when used coffee grounds have made their roses more
colorful and larger than normal. In fact, when added to a
compost pile used coffee grounds compost very quickly.
Nitrogen is a component of all proteins, and is crucial to
life. In several studies, plants that have a nitrogen rich soil
grew faster and larger then plants that grew in natural soil. It
is clearly wiser to save those used coffee grounds and use them
in your gardens or household flowerpots. If you are not using
used coffee grounds you are wasting a great resource.