I use it on everything. I really don't think you can make a mistake with it. I dump the bag(s) on my compost pile. I put it around plants and trees like you would fertilizer. It would probably be better if you incorporated it into the soil around the plants as it can get hard otherwise. I am a lazy gardener so I don't always do that. I mixed lots of it with soil in my veg garden when I started it.

I too have been bringing home coffee grounds from Starbucks and using it in my garden. I usually dump the whole bag around a plant and work it into the soil a little bit. I've also been pouring the remainder of my morning coffee around the acid loving plants. My Gardenia has really perked up ( no pun intended!).I used to get sooty mold on it but the coffe grounds have detered the ants from climbing on it and I haven't even seen any scale that it usually gets. So far, one bag per plant has not been too much.

Regina

I never thought of using my left over coffee grounds but he mentioned it: 1/4 cup once a month, sprinkled around base of plant is what he recommended.

teeka

Coffee is a frequent topic in the Soil & Composting Forum under UCG . That stands for used coffee grounds .
UCG is actually pH neutral and will not make your soil acidic .
If you search for UCG at that forum you will find a wealth of information .

I don't have the link, but the alkaloids in coffee have been field tested and shown to be effective in stopping that bad scale that gets on sagos.

And that's why I'm begging my daughter to get a job at Starbucks!

I use it for my lawn - just hand "fling" it. Use gloves - the caffeine with be absorbed into your skin!

Check out GW's Organic Lawn Care for lawn application of UCG. Some combine it with their organic fertilizers in drop spreaders for dispersal.

BTW, UCG are neutral. I believe SB actually lists an analysis on the their "for the garden" UCG bags.

Target stores have Starbucks shops in them . A very nice server gave me all they had from their machines when I asked . The bag was hot ! She even gave me my coffee for free since I had to wait for a fresh pot to brew ! Now that's a lucky day .
Where ever you shop - even if you don't drink coffee - ask them for their grounds . You never know !

I know we have talked about this before, but just in case someone here missed it, here is my article I wrote last december:
http://www.cycad.org/Documents/Broome-Coffee-2007.pdf

I put about 1/2 inch thick on top of the soil and it takes care of all the insects I have to deal with. I tested the grounds at pH 6.3 so they are not all that acidic and they don't seem to hold too much moisture. I have tried it on many other plant groups besides cycads now, and they are fine.

Sounds like they will help keep away insects Etc. How about slugs, will they work on them?

People have told me they work on those too, but I didn't have any to experiment with. I did do some experiments with snails, and it didn't seem the phase the big ones I have around here. They crawled right through piles of the grounds and I didn't find them dead anywhere. They do work on mealy bugs, aphids, scales of all kinds, and they work good in brom cups where there are mosquitoe larvae.

Okay...please refer to my backyard challenge post...will coffee grounds be good for the backyard planting I am doing??

I have planted hibiscus, roses, crotons, shrimp plants, zinnias, tropicals (queen BOP), arbicolas, dracenas, also have mandevilla (2) for the new arbor in front yard west side gate. (Will have pics of that tomorrow--later today!)

Thanks for the help!!

Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: backyard

Can I use unused coffee grounds? In cleaning out my garage I found some bags of coffee grounds. I think I put them out there in a box with some other stuff temporarily when I was rearranging my kitchen and then forgot about them. Although they are still in sealed bags, they are at least several years old and I'm guessing would not be very tasty. I'd hate to throw it out if I can use it for gardening or in compost.

Wile e coyote,
Take a bag, put in in a 5 gallon bucket, fill with water and set it out in the sun for a day or two. Use the water around your plants. If you want you can refill the bucket again to steep more. Then use the water again and use the steeped coffee grounds.
That's what I would do.

Thanks, that's what I was thinking of doing but I thought I'd check to see if they could be used without steeping first - it would have saved some time.