Grounds. I don't think it's just the acidity -- it's something about the texture.

A search for "caffiene phytotoxic" turned up lots of hits-- in other words, it is poisonous to plants, as are many common household substances. I guess decaf would be OK. It would contain a bit of potassium.

Grounds contribute nitrogen and encourage earthworms.

I pour the old coffee in the compost pile. I've killed a few (small) plants with coffee--hmm...maybe I'll try it on a weed or two.

Coffee is not a good idea. Tea seams to be fine with my plants, both ordinary and herbal, and I have mix in used coffee grounds and tea leaves in the top soil without any visible harm.

I have been told, by a very knowledgeable person, that coffee grounds are not acid - all the acid having gone into the liquid coffee.

Thanks for all the replies. Since the grounds doesn't seem to benefit according to you rose experts, I'm going to stop bringing them home from work every week. I'll stick with the bananna peels though :-)

If you get 1/4 of a bucket of coffee grounds per season, it will matter, on one plant that is. Seeds in general (like coffee beans) tend to contain a lot of nutrients and are used in organic fertilizers (usually legumes, lupines...). I googled to find NPK values of coffee ground and it seams to vary from 2-0-2 to 3-0-3. It looks like there still are nitrogen left after the beans have been roasted. It will also help make soil looser and not too compact.

My roses seem to love coffee grounds. I combine it with alfalfa pellets.

Seeing lots of new growth.

Diane

Dumping coffee grounds every morning on roses is a morning ritual. They really do seem to help the roses. BUT a half pot of leftover coffee, diluted even, poured onto a potted dwarf alberta spruce caused a lot of dieback in the poor thing.

I also have made a lot of trips to starbucks for their spent grounds. Gean

Vuwu-- all the comments on the thread are favorable to coffee grounds but questioning the use of liquid coffee, which contains a lot of caffeine. By extension, we probably shouldn't apply a huge amount of grounds, even though they have less caffeine. I don't know what the limit would be, but I spread around two cups per plant.

The grounds are beneficial, they help to condition and improve the amount of organic matter in the soil. If I had a ready source, I would surely take them (but then I do keep a smallish compost bin).

There are folks over on the Soil and Compost forum who would love to have those grounds...

Thanks for the clarification. I will continue to collect the used grounds from my work and work in a little bit under each bush. Thanks for the advice.

Coffee grounds are relatively pH neutral . Their benefit is to provide organic matter which is vital in our sandy Florida soils . The grounds do have very low nutrient value as well .

A layer of coffee grounds that is too thick acts as a barrier by forming a crust and prohibiting moisture from entering the ground . Sprinkle grounds thinly or work into the soil .

Diluted liquid coffee is good for acid loving plants such as blueberries . When in doubt , have your soil tested . Every two years is recommended .

Wish you all lived closer to me ! I'd take every bit of coffee grounds you had leftover . All the plants here seem to like them especially my roses and vegetables .

I get coffee grounds from a friends coffee shop a couple times per season. I did this about a month ago. Freakishly (for California) we had a good rain around that time and the 5 gallon buckets the grounds were in were overflowing with water. I applied the grounds with with my hands by dragging around the buckets but ran short on the last few roses. Since there was SO much liquid in the bottom of the last bucket I just poured it around the base of the remaining roses.

Right now nearly all my roses are blooming and I didn't see any dieback. Around that time however I did also apply some brewed alfalfa tea so I suppose this isn't a very scientific conclusion. I'll continue using grounds in that way however. It does seem to help if not the roses at least as a soil conditioner.

Kate