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Giant Vegetables

AG Pumpkin and Coffee Grounds question

20 years ago

My local Starbucks is giving away free used coffee grounds -- as much as I want. I picked up a 10 pound bag this evening. I remember as a kid that we used to compost coffee grounds and pretty much everything else. I'm in the process of preparing my soil for my two AG pumpkin plants. I've dug a 3x3x3 hole for each and will be filling with "soil" this weekend.

My question is whether I need to compost the coffee grounds or whether I can just mix them in with the soil now and let them naturally break down over the next several months, while my AG seedlings are developing their root systems. Or, should I keep the grounds separate and compost them separately and add them later as a side dressing ?

My current soil mix for the AG pumpkins is just some good planting soil and 1 year old composted horse manure. I'm still deciding what else to add to that mix (probably some peat moss, sand, and perhaps some mushroom compost. I have to reread Don Langevin's books for other supplements, like the stuff offered at Neptune's Harvest.

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (5)

pumpkin_man
20 years ago
Wayne,
You can add the coffee grounds straight to the soil.They will break down and the worms will love them.Neptune's Harvest fish and seaweed is a good choice.Foilar feed with those or something equal and you will improve your chances for a big one.
wayne_perrier
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks Pumpkin man. Will do. Any idea on what ratio of coffee grounds is OK ? I'm sure I can get 100 pounds or so. I was also thinking of buying some earthworms and "seeding" my pumpkin mounds during the soil prep stage this month. What do you think ?
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If your spray program is questionable, like mine, and you have some suspect spores floating around then cleanup is easier if you starve the earthworms for a bit. The earthworms actually ate 4"+ of mulch, and compost made from leaves, coffee grounds, teagrounds, veggie scraps, and whatever else we could find. We try and age it for a year, but usually run out. In zone 5 we are brushing off our long johns and our growing season is coming to an end. No more sweet corn, or tomatoes except for those picked green and stored in the basement. Bummer! The roses are still throwing off an occasional bloom. Foghorn
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brugboi2003
20 years ago
trust me, they don't need to be seeded, I put coffee grounds out on the ground (not in) and two days later, they were there... :) John
pumpkin_man
20 years ago
There has been a lot of discussion about coffee grounds on bigpumpkins.com this winter.Go there and type in coffee grounds in the search box.Lots of good info.Like John said,the worms will find the grounds.
wayne_perrier
Original Author
20 years ago
thanks

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