Don't just pour it down the drain — you can use it to fertilize your plants, both indoor and outdoor. Coffee grounds (and brewed coffee) are a source of nitrogen for plants, producing healthy green growth and strong stems. Coffee also contains calcium and magnesium — both of which are beneficial to plant health.
Can You Water Plants with Coffee? Plants that like coffee grounds also respond well to watering with coffee liquid. However, it is a fairly strong fertilizer, so this watering should not be done more than once a week. To prepare the mixture, boil the coffee and pour one and a half times as much water.
It's okay to water plants with leftover coffee or to add coffee grounds to the compost pile but learning when and why to use coffee in the garden will protect your plants. Only use black, unflavored coffee with this method to offer plants a source of nitrogen which can fertilize certain indoor and outdoor plants.
In most cases, the grounds are too acidic to be used directly on soil, even for acid-loving plants like blueberries, azaleas and hollies. Coffee grounds inhibit the growth of some plants, including geranium, asparagus fern, Chinese mustard and Italian ryegrass.
Tomato Plants Like Slightly Acid Soil
The main reason that this idea that coffee grounds can help to fertilize your tomato plants is that tomato plants thrive in slightly acidic soil. Used coffee grounds can help soil become slightly more acidic when they are used as fertilizer.
A solid layer of coffee grounds can hurt the garden more than it helps by preventing water from reaching the roots when you're watering your plants. Instead, use it in compost or blend it into the soil. Compost coffee grounds for a vegetable garden instead of using them directly.
The number one issue is water. As they sit, coffee grounds compact and form a hard layer over the soil. This can cause a hydrophobic surface. Instead of helping the soil retain water, those hardened grounds prevent water from getting to the soil … and the roots of your tomatoes.
Eggshell Benefits
As it happens, eggshells can provide all the calcium carbonate the soil needs, which helps to lower the soil's pH level and make it more alkaline as opposed to acidic. This is incredibly beneficial for plant growth because many plants prefer to grow in soil that has low acidity.
The best way to optimize your coffee grounds is to compost them using a simple 3:1 “browns” to “greens” method. Another option is to mix your coffee grounds into a homemade potting soil. Additionally, you can create a simple liquid fertilizer from leftover coffee.
The organic contents of cinnamon are perfect for increasing the root growth of plants. This spice's auxin content works to help the stem cuttings or seedlings sustain growth, all while protecting the plant with its antimicrobial and anti-bacterial qualities.
Is Banana Peel Water Good for Plants? Using banana water for plants doesn't have many cons if you do it correctly. Banana peels contain essential nutrients for plant growth, like magnesium, phosphorus, and calcium. The amount of nutrients infused into water is very unlikely to cause fertilizer overdose.
The absorption of these nutrients encourages more rapid growth in the plant. Therefore, pouring soda on plants, such as Classic Coca Cola, is inadvisable. Coke has a jaw dropping 3.38 grams of sugar per ounce, which would certainly kill the plant, as it would be unable to absorb water or nutrients.
You can also make coffee ground "tea." Add 2 cups of used coffee grounds to a 5-gallon bucket of water. Let the "tea" steep for a few hours or overnight. You can use this concoction as a liquid fertilizer for garden and container plants.
Apparently, coffee is a great source of nitrogen, and plants that enjoy more acidic soil can benefit from certain levels of nitrogen, like blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons. According to The Spruce, if you plan on doing this, you'll need to keep a close eye on your plant.
Coffee grounds add organic material to the soil, helping water retention, aeration, and drainage. 'Leftover diluted coffee can create a liquid plant fertilizer, too. Simply mix two cups of brewed coffee grounds with five gallons of water in a bucket overnight. '
Epsom Salt for Plants
Aside from the anecdotal evidence about human benefits, Epsom salt does seem to help plants. Generations of gardeners have said it helps their plants grow bushier, produce more flowers and have better color. It's also said to help seeds germinate and repel slugs and other garden pests.
Which plants shouldn't you try this with? Don't add eggshell fertilizer to plants that prefer acidic soil, like blueberries. Ericaceous plants such as mountain laurel, pieris and azaleas also fall into that category. In extreme cases, low acidity for plants could impact their overall health and/or the resulting crop.
Banana peels contain: calcium, which promotes root growth helps add oxygen to your soil. magnesium, which assists with photosynthesis. sulphur, which helps plants develop strong roots and repel pests.
There are a select few plants that can benefit from fresh grounds—including acidity-loving Hydrangeas, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Lily of the Valley, blueberries, carrots, and radishes—but generally, most common houseplants will prefer low to no acidity.
While plants need nitrogen (remember the NPK on fertilizers), too much nitrogen will create lots of green leaves but few berries or fruits. This means potassium-rich banana peels are excellent for plants like tomatoes, peppers or flowers. Banana peels also contain calcium, which prevents blossom end rot in tomatoes.
This turns them into a barrier that will resist water penetration and eventually result in plants dying of thirst. The solution is to mix coffee grounds with other organic matter such as compost or leafmold before using it as a mulch.
Baking soda does not make your tomato sweeter, but it does prevent blight. Spraying a baking soda solution on your plants. will make the surface more alkaline, killing and preventing the spread of any further blight. It also keeps those pesky freeloaders.
Coffee grounds take three to four months or more to decompose, depending on the soil microbial activity and health. The more microbial activity of the soil, the more quickly coffee grounds decompose.