If it's more than you can use, then I would say it's too much.

Kristi

I don't think you can ever have to many coffee grounds. The worms will eat them so fast and turn them into worm poop to fertilize the soil further. The only time I would think if you had to much is if it smothered the grass.
Keep feeding the worms. Adding it to the compost and spreading it around the yard and gardens.
Sandy

How do you get that many pounds per week? What time of day/how often do you go? We've been going daily and getting a good sized sack of them [1/2-2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket], but 200 pounds a week?!?! Of course our Starbucks is down the street from one of the largest gardening centers in MA. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Now thats a lot of grounds! What other stuff do you use? Browns?

Now a word about pH...

Sunset sent some (un-composted) out for a lab teest:

"The nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium "guaranteed analyses" would be as follows for the coffee grounds:

Nitrogen: 2.28 percent
Phosphorus: 0.06 percent
Potassium: 0.6 percent

Available nutrient levels: The pH or reaction of the coffee grounds is considered slightly acidic and in a favorable range at 6.2 on the pH scale."

Here is a link that might be useful: coffee grounds compost pH

There is a parallel discussion on this at GW's Organic Gardening Forum. By chance, I heard Mike McGrath's radio show this weekend, You Bet Your Garden, and he said not to use grounds directly on plants, as they are too acidic (even after brewing) and too high in nitrogen. The exception is in Western soils that are highly alkaline, and in those soils the acidic grounds might balance the pH. He suggests grounds are fine in compost, and that is where to use them. The link below is a reprint of his radio show. He is basing the advice on lab testing by Woods End Research Laboratory in Maine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coffee grounds

OK, well, I guess Tiffy gets the last word in that disucssion. I live in west Texas and coffee grounds last about an hour in my lawn, well, maybe less. Tiffy - you're such a show-off! Beautiful yard! Cheryl

Coffee grounds are very close to neutral pH. I don't remember the exact pH, but it was very close to neutral.

As far as it being high N, it's about 1.5% if I remember correctly. That's not high enough to burn, but I suppose if you piled them on too deeply, you could get lots of leaves and no flowers/fruit.

The only drawback I can think of is that they can repel water if they're too thick and they dry out. I don't think this is the case with the drip coffee, but can be a problem with the "hockey pucks" from the espresso (latte, cappucino, etc) machines. I think that becomes less of a problem if they're composted, as well. I've never seen it happen with composted grounds, just the fresh ones, and only when they're piled thickly.

If the 2.28% nitrogen is correct, that's definitely not too high of N for plants. Any fertilizer you pick up, organic, or non-organic is going to have more N than that. And it's not going to be immediate release anyway.

As an experiment this fall, I spread a mixture of coffee grounds and shredded leaves on 3 of my gardens, and mixed it in with the soil. I want to see if the mixture will still be recognizable by spring, see if I have more worms this summer, and also see if the plants in those beds have improved performance this next year.

By the way, Tiffy, I am so jealous of your yard! It's gorgeous, and huge! I would love to have that much yard to work with!

Deanna

Bpgreen,

"... you could get lots of leaves, but no flowers/fruit." Funny you said that as it could have been the cause of some of my perennials not flowering last year. But the leaves were amazing! One plant, Digitalis Mertonensis, trippled in size and became so big it was the size of a sub-shrub - but no flowers.

I'll have to figure out how to balance it the other way...

one poster used some 600 (i think) lbs of coffee grounds a week she brought home from work. She commented that 1 bed had very few flowers (great leaves, though!) and another bed that she had added pumpkins to had lots more flowers.

So, it seems to be a more a case of needing variety than too many grounds.

Nitrogen promotes growth, and is necessary for growth. But too much nitrogen will produce exactly the symptoms described by the last two posters, lots of growth, but no flowers. No flowers leads to no fruiting, which explains the lack of pumpkins.

It's not really a matter of too many coffee grounds as of too much nitrogen. Coffee grounds are relatively high in N (around 1.5% if I remember correctly). That's not as high as most chemical fertilizers, and if used in moderation won't be noticed. But if you overdo the grounds, that can lead to leaves (lots of them and great looking) without flowers.

If as reported by tumblenes coffee grounds are near to 6.2 pH there is no problem with them as far as lowering your soils pH. That is in the range most plants need a soil pH to uptake nutrients.

The pH reading will be all over the map. Used coffee grounds have higher pH, and most of the measurements that I've seen say 6.8-7.2. 6.2 isn't that low, and most plants like that. In addition- the "pH" of an amendment doesn't mean that the soil will automatically assume that pH anyway.

I put "pH" in quotes because measuring the pH of a solid may be done by a variety of methods and is inherently prone to more error than measuring the pH of a liquid (it's the negative log of hydronium concentration... but you add liquid to a solid/soil to measure- then look at the hydronium in the supernatant liquid...).

I always look at the hydronium in my supernatant liquid before flushing....

Tiffy, I don't know if that was supposed to be a picture of bad something, but your flower beds are BEAUTIFUL!!! I love how it's laid out with all the rocks.

The web site, (Sunset Gardens) posted the results of a report from "Soil and Plant Laboratory Inc.", Bellevue, WA.

the coffee tested was from starbucks, they claimed.

I thought it was an intelligent article.

Here is a link that might be useful: sunset

Julianna,
Thank-you! When we purchased this home in 2001 there was not a shrub or flower to be seen, but the property had beautiful 'bones' such as the rock wall. For 2 years I gardened in soil which had no organic matter to it, and then discovered the value of UCGs and their availability.

I was being slightly sarcastic in my comments. I have valued some of Mr. McGrath's writings in the past, but feel he is off key with the comments made in regards to grounds. My gardens prove it as I not only use the grounds in my compost, but also around my plants. On ocassion, I will also throw some UCGs directly on the plants in the gardens to make breakfast unpleasant for the deers. No ill effect on the plants.

Tumblenes,

Thanks for the Sunset article. Good informative reading!

"I was being slightly sarcastic in my comments."

I've been working too much lately. I completely missed the sarcasm when I posted, and thought you really did have some flowers that didn't bloom. Then I scrolled up and noticed the pictures you posted. Doh! Too much nitrogen can cause plants to grow and not flower or fruit, but clearly that's not an issue in your case!

After listing it as a possible problem, I wonder if it could even be an issue with UCG, since they're slow release. Most of what I've read has said they're about 1-1.5% N, but even at the 2.28% the sunset article states, it would take a lot to be a problem.

I enjoyed the linked article, also. That's the first source I've seen that shows the pH of the grounds that low. I hope they're right, because I've got alkaline soil. I've made use of the grounds whenever I can on the theory that even something close to neutral will lower the pH of my soil. If they're slightly acidic, so much the better!

i have read, but cant recall where, that esspresso grounds have different properties than regular brewed grounds, less acidic.

Starbucks report
has a small amount of info

More on topic
"I know these things are wonderful, but can you get too much of a good thing? "

Even starbucks recommends that they be combined with leaves when used as mulch.

Espresso is ground finer than regular coffee, but has less water per mass of coffee passed through it. It's forced through- efficiently extracting the goodness and leaving the later extraction products that add bitterness to a cuppa. That's why an Americano is so much better than a typical coffee- it's espresso diluted to coffee strength without the bitterness that's extracted in making regular drip coffee.

Well, I dunno what that has to do with anything. Just makes me think about having an espresso.... yummm

Question of the day. A couple years ago I use to spread the grounds over my yard. Let me say the yard popped to life and grew really green. The lawn loved the grounds. However the moles went nuts in the yard also. Now I guess this happened because the grounds attracted the earthworms. Or because the soil became rich and loose, which made it easy for the moles to dig. My question is, how do I stop this come this summer? I want the earthworms but don't want the moles. I will be very dilligent to watch the runs, and try to dig out any moles that happen to be found. Going to work with the dog to help with the hunting of them.
What do you do to keep the moles from messing up your yard you work so hard to get pretty?
sandy

My understanding is that moles go for grubs, so possibly you have grubs and it's a coincidence it happened at the same time as the coffee grounds.

Deanna

From what I've read, moles like earthworms, and may even prefer them to grubs.

Here is an article on moles and voles that provides some suggestions on how to keep them at bay. It includes the caveat that before doing so, you should decide whether it's really a good idea to do so, since they provide certain benefits.

As for what I do, I've never had a problem with moles. I suspect that's one of the benefits of living in the desert.

Melonhedd,

"I always look at the hydronium in my supernatant liquid before flushing.... "

Nice....! :P

The Moles prefered diet is earthworms and the people that make tons of money selling things to control moles would not if they told you their product would kill the earthworms as well. All I do is rake the soil mounds level and step on the raised tunnels to put them back. I do not fixate on the moles in my yard.
My next door neighbor last summer asked about moles since it appeared to him that I had none and I told him that if I instructed him in how to get rid of his mole that his mole would move into my yard which I did not want to happen, and we laughed about that. I did tell him about Castor Oil but also that it was very expensive and the best thing to do was to live and let live.

Just wondering if anyone knows.... The soil here is clay, is that acidic or alkaline? If it's alkaline then coffee grinds are good right?

Clay can be either acidic or alkaline. Alkaline soils are common in arid areas, so if it's arid there, it's likely that you have alkaline conditions.

Contrary to popular belief, coffee grounds are not very acidic. Coffee is acidic, but the remaining grounds are very close to neutral. However, if your soil is very alkaline, adding something neutral to it will bring it closer to neutral, and adding organic matter to your soil acts as a buffer.

If you are getting 150#'s a week from one Starbucks, you
either:

1) Have a arrangement with the employees to save all the grounds no one else wants.
or
2) Do what I do, go directly to the dumpster, because most Starbuck's toss 80% of the grounds.

In California the clay soils tends to be alkaline because the, normally, sparse rainfall does not wash the salts out of the soil like the normal rainfall does east of the Mississippi. However, the only way to know what your soils pH is would be to have it tested.
That said I correspond with a gardener just outside of San Diego who adds dolomitic lime to his soil periodically because the lack of Magnesium adversly affects his plants ability to uptake the large quantities of Calcium in his soil and his tomatoes, peppers, squash, and melons will all have Blossom End Rot without that correction, done only with the guidance of a soil test.

So, how much coffee grounds is ideal? Say for a 20 x 3 bed, how many punds/week should be sufficient?

My beds are topped with either straw or woodchips, the grinds that I broadcast out wash down under the mulch. When there are no grinds left, only a layer of worm castings, it's time to broadcast more grinds. It seriously looks like herds of mice have been under the straw... The worm castings are probably 1/4" deep under the mulch.

Cheers,
Michelle