I use all kinds of different coffee grounds from Starbucks, and my roses are doing great. I think maybe the worms rather enjoy the different flavors!

Sandy

Speaking of goofy questions..,how do you apply your coffee grounds? Do you just scratch them into the top of the soil as you would say alfalfa pellets or bonemeal? And finally is now the time of year to do that or springtime?

Thank you.

Kate

Dump your coffee grounds around the base of any rose any time. They love it. Some day we will know exactly why, but my coffee ground-fed roses look like I'm feeding them horse manure without having to go to the barn.

Thank you berndoodle:

I appreciate the tolerance of my rose naivete:) One day I will be a rose smartie like a lot of you who have years of rose experience under your belt. In the meantime I am having a chat with my friend who owns a coffee shop tomorrow.

Kate

Don't apply them too thick, they will crust over and repel water. If you get a lot of grounds, you can compost them too. Lots of info on the Organic Gardening and/or the Soil, Mulch and Compost forums.

Like berndoodle, I just dump mine around the plant and scratch it in some. Like diane nj said, not too thick, or it'll get gross.

Oh, and don't keep the bags of grounds hanging around too long before putting them around your roses. You'll get maggots in the bags if you do. (GROSS)! I've never gotten maggots in the grounds once they're around the roses. I think the earethworms gobble them up too quickly.

Sandy

Sandy

At what point in the fall should I STOP applying the coffee grounds? I love in Central Illinois, Peoria area. And how often can I apply the grounds? Thanks, all.
Terry

Starbucks grounds tend to clump and crust for me-maybe because they are espresso ground? The drip grounds i get from my working place work much better.

We stopped watering and deadheading a couple of weeks or more ago. We are about that far ahead of you freeze wise. It is OK to get coffee grounds, but we add them to the compost pile for next years consumption by the earthworms. It is amazing just how much the worms processed this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Where we go for info.

How do you get them from Starbucks? Do they save them or do you have to ask them to set them aside for you. I ask because I am going to pass a Starbucks today and I wonder if I can just stop in to get them.

Thanks

Ronda

Every time I go in, I just ask if they have any coffee grounds for my garden. Sometimes they have some that they have saved, other times they'll just empty out what they've got and give it to me (typically a few pounds).

Does tea leaf do the same thing? I do not drink coffee and but I good deal of tea. Can I just dump them at the base of the roses?

Thank you.

Tea leaves are good also. I would say you can apply grounds any time of year, except for when there is snow on the ground. It is not a fertilizer, but a soil enricher, so you won't hurt anything. Just make sure you incorporate them well into the soil so they don't get nasty.

Sandy

I think coffee grounds do improve soil structure but if you take into account the amounts usually applied, coffee grounds could easily be considered a fertilizer as well. For example, Starbucks reports their coffee grounds contain 2.26% nitrogen. Sounds negligible, but if you apply a cup of coffee grounds to a rose, you've added the same amount of nitrogen as 2 tbs of Miracle Grow, the usual monthly dose of this fertilizer.

Mike - so it would make sense to stop adding coffee grounds the same time I stop adding Rose Tone, which for me is August? Sounds like my hostas and other perennials could also benefit from Starbucks as well.

I live in Seattle..Starbucks here bags up grounds and usually puts them in a basket somewhere in the store. Just ask for them. They give them out free

I add coffee grounds the year round and don't worry about it. The soil microbes and earthworms that break them down and make the nutrients available aren't exactly operating on all cylinders in cold weather.

There are two schools of thought about late-season feeding in zone 5. One is that feeding after early August leads to more tender plants and greater winter dieback. The school in which I'm enrolled says that the objective is to get more flowers and if more winter dieback is the price, so be it. In any case, I agree that the nitrogen in coffee grounds will be released gradually, and probably not at all when the soil cools.

The flavor of the coffee grounds will not affect the roses and their scent in any way. Coffee grounds in the rose garden are a soil amendment, not a fertilizer as such. They help make your garden soil more friable and that's all.

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

The coffee grounds have a slight amount of nitrogen, but they take so long to break down and be digested by the earthworms that your roses are not getting a fertilizer "hit" as they would with Miracle Gro. Liquid feeding with Miracle Gro is pretty instantaneous.

Sandy

2 questions...

Can I use coffee grounds if I grow my roses in containers?

If you can use coffee grounds, can you use the coffee that's been sitting in the pot all day? (like watering with coffee)

Sandy said the coffee grounds attract maggots if you don't spread them quickly enough. Can't you just store them in the house in a large plastic container until you are ready to mix them into the soil?

My Hydrangea catalog says to add coffee grounds to make the soil more acidic. Just something to be aware of.
I use Preen to prevent weeds (I know - I'm bad) so I hate to mix coffee grounds into the soil all the time as I'm afraid that will mix the Preen too far down to work against the weed seeds. Anyone know anything about this?

Actually, the coffee grounds aren't very acid - that washes out as they coffee is made. My compost pile got maggots for the first time ever when I started using grounds in it - plan to just put it around the roses and scratch it in from now on. Those pucks from the espresso machines sometimes are as hard as charcoal briquets - they need to be crushed or they last forever (we don't get much rain in Sacramento). Overall, it seems to be worth using the grounds. Our Starbucks stores bag them up and I grab a few every week.
Anita