Coffee regrows a forest

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quickymart

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#303665 26-Feb-2023 20:48

I don't drink coffee at all, but I saw this news article and it caught my attention. My stepbrother used to plunge his own coffee with coffee bricks, etc but he would throw out the waste afterwards.

Imagine if he had actually thrown it out the window (instead of the bin) and onto the lawn - we could have had a forest in our backyard by now! 😀

https://www.upworthy.com/researchers-dumped-tons-of-coffee-waste-in-a-forest-rp2

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#3042358 26-Feb-2023 22:04

We have awful soil, clay and rocks. I planted a hydrangea that flowered deep pink which isn’t my favourite colour. After adding constant feeds of coffee grounds the flowers became a coveted light blue. I get it from the local coffee shop and sprinkle it around plants and trees now and the soil improvement has been great. Grass clippings go the same track.

networkn

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#3042452 26-Feb-2023 22:24

Chances are if it ended up in the bin, it eventually ended up in soil of some description :)

Geektastic

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#3042454 26-Feb-2023 22:38

We certainly put our coffee grounds on the flower beds and shrubberies.

johno1234

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#3042532 27-Feb-2023 07:25

The stuff spread over the ground in the trial is the opposite of discarded coffee grounds. It is the manufacturing byproduct of coffee beans - the coffee fruit as opposed to roasted, ground and scalded kernels.

MikeB4

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#3042538 27-Feb-2023 07:53

We have been putting our coffee grounds on the garden and our tea leaves around Camellias for years. There are cafes around Te Whanganui-a-Tara that have bins where folks can take the grounds for free.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Eva888

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#3042543 27-Feb-2023 08:06

Forgot to mention one big bag of grounds that got shoved under the deck for future use. Went to grab some the other day and it had turned into thick liquid black tar looked like black lava. Could have gotten a bit wet but never seen that happen before.

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#3042550 27-Feb-2023 08:36

My small Gardenia hedge kept having yellow leaves. Tried all sorts of chemicals with moderate success but then read about coffee grounds and I no longer have yellow leaves.

I also grabbed bags of it from my local barista and sprinkled it over the bare soil before ready-lay turf went down.

So I now also use on my edible garden.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

MikeB4

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#3042557 27-Feb-2023 09:09

@FineWine yellowing of leaves on a Gardenia can also be cheaply resolved by applying some Epsom Salts. This can also super charge the growth of the likes of Pumpkin and Zucchini.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

tdgeek

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#3042558 27-Feb-2023 09:11

Eva888: We have awful soil, clay and rocks. I planted a hydrangea that flowered deep pink which isn’t my favourite colour. After adding constant feeds of coffee grounds the flowers became a coveted light blue. I get it from the local coffee shop and sprinkle it around plants and trees now and the soil improvement has been great. Grass clippings go the same track.

Yep, I get used grounds at the local BP, they pop them in bags for gardeners to take. I pop mine in the compost bins. Grass clippings are a great mulch. Weed barrier, maintains stable soil temp and moisture and they compost into the soil as well, win-win-win

johno1234

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#3042561 27-Feb-2023 09:14

Any tips for yellow leaves on a slow growing small lemon tree?

MikeB4

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#3042563 27-Feb-2023 09:17

johno1234:

Any tips for yellow leaves on a slow growing small lemon tree?

It's a lack of Magnesium. Epsom salts and tea leaves will help this.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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FineWine

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#3042575 27-Feb-2023 10:00

MikeB4:

@FineWine yellowing of leaves on a Gardenia can also be cheaply resolved by applying some Epsom Salts. This can also super charge the growth of the likes of Pumpkin and Zucchini.

Thanks MikeB4 - since planting I have tried: Iron Chelate, Sequestron Fertiliser and Epsom Salts all at varying amounts, mixers and frequency's, all with slight benefits. So I starting dumping all my grounds and anybody else's just on these plants.

I have since discovered, as I mentioned in some other post about lawns, that my entire garden and lawn is too alkaline with pH7.5 - 8.5 so I have also been applying liquid Sulphur throughout my garden/lawn and even after the one dose, second dose due at start of March, I have noticed a marked difference throughout my garden. Though I had been noticing that my concentrated dumping of coffee grounds was having a small beneficial effect on the Gardenia's prior to my acidity testing and correction. So when my Gardenia's are good I will go back to rotating the grounds throughout my garden and lawn.

Coffee grounds are also good as a mulch and feed for worms. So overall don't throw your grounds in the bin, put them on your garden. 😀

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

MikeB4

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#3042582 27-Feb-2023 10:33

@FineWine Gardenias also don't getting dry so the coffee grounds acting like a mulch is good but however Gardenias also hate wet feet the fussy so n so's . I guess it's a fine balancing act but worth the trouble.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

MikeB4

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#3042583 27-Feb-2023 10:36

The forestry companies could fine mulch the slash and apply it with coffee grounds to the new plantings thus solving two problems at the same time.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

johno1234

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#3042599 27-Feb-2023 10:52

I think the slash/mulch needs to be removed or buried or burnt. If left as mulch it will float away next time there's a big rainfall. At least it will be less damaging than logs and branches but it will still be an unsightly, clogging mess.

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