Years of hearing about how acidic coffee grounds are led me to use my pH probes in a container of my own coffee grounds...




Myth busted!

Weedwhacker said:We need a "Garden Mythbusters" thread!

You start one.

pirl said:Years of hearing about how acidic coffee grounds are led me to use my pH probes in a container of my own coffee grounds...




Myth busted!

Well, son of a gun. And here I have been adding it to my peonies, azaleas. Should have spoken up sooner. Well, I will continue to save it along with the egg shells and dose something. So what is it good for, the coffee grounds, if not acidifying the soil??

It's a "soil conditioner".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

It is an organic and slowly breaks down, Mary. It end up being a weak fertilizer. I too throw it over and around my azaleas and other landscape plants. I also mix it in with my custom potting soils, probably a gal. per 4sf. of mix. I could put in a lot more but that's all I have at a given time.

I added it to my azalea (at a former home) for many years and that azalea was gorgeous!

Good deal. thanks for the info. I never stop learning new things here.

Neither do I, Mary. And that's a very good thing.

My own coffee grounds , by their self register about5.5 . Depends on what mix you mix them with and over a few weeks as to what your water is .
During the week or two that follow the grounds in a pot or the ground go right back to 7
Besides the worms have a feast ,, good also ..

A spoonful or two , gives tomatoes a better flavor (slightly) or the flowers (some of them ) a little more color

I'm about to start pitching spent coffee grounds over my front lawn as a soil conditioner.

That, and applying 3-6 oz. of clear SHAMPOO in a hose-end sprayer as a surfactant (sp?) to help with water retention this summer.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/d...

That is interesting about the shampoo.

@gymgirl
Compost will happen eventually whether you turn piles, add water or not. Most of us gardeners want the piles of leaves to decay fast so that's why we add nitrogen in the form of kitchen scraps, weeds, manure or coffee grounds. Heating up the piles can be done repeatedly; to speed things along add nitrogen. then on weekly basis turn, toss,water and turn some more. You talk about sifting your compost, I've heard of such a thing but can't figure out why my plants would need it sifted.

I agree, Judy... my compost pile is constructed very randomly, and yet, it turns into black gold...

I will say that a few years back i got some "compost activator' stuff from Gardens Alive and used a couple of cupfuls of that in my compost pile, then used it again for the next couple of years, and the compost that i get now is a lot nicer than what I used to have. But I'm not sure it was actually the activator, might be that I changed what I was adding to the pile (more "other stuff" in proportion to the grass clippings or something), or how much water the pile was getting, or ?? All I really know is that you don't have to construct a compost pile in any sort of scientific method to get good finished compost... just do it!

I pile thick, thick layers of Fall leaves on my garden beds. They are for mulch but of course they compost and turn into the most wonderful soil. I have been doing this for years.

Last fall I put about 12 inches of fall leaves on the big backyard tomato bed. They have settled down but are still pretty thick. I will just scrape some aside for each tomato plant that goes in. Eventually it all will turn into compost.

If simply piled up, it all turns into great compost after a couple of years here. If I spent time turning it into the soil and perhaps throwing some fertilizer at it occasionally, it would compost much more quickly.

In addition to composting leaves in large plastic garbage cans I also put a deep layer of shredded leaves on my veggie beds. Keeps down weeds, retains water in soil and eventually breaks down into soil.

SCButtercup said:In addition to composting leaves in large plastic garbage cans I also put a deep layer of shredded leaves on my veggie beds. Keeps down weeds, retains water in soil and eventually breaks down into soil.

Exactly, Those Fall leaves are much too good to waste. So good for the garden.

Here is a picture of my backyard tomato beds. The leaves piled on about 12 inches thick have sunk down to about 12 inches. But this will be great for mulching and keeping down any weeds. Plus it will all eventually compost.