Coffee and plants

You’ve probably heard, haven’t you, that coffee grounds are good for your plants?

No?

Well, various green-fingered souls use their coffee grounds to add nutrition to the soil, to give their plants a bit of a boost.

In fact, if you are chums with your local coffee shop, some shops give out their old grounds to customers for this very reason.

There has been an interesting blog recently on Pennlive.com, which extends this notion.

Many of us sup our coffee throughout the day and perhaps fewer of us make coffee fresh from a blend.

Can we also help plants, even if grounds are not to hand?

The answer appears to be: yes.

Some argue that it’s good for a plant to have the left-over coffee poured on it   it has a reasonable amount of nitrogen in it, plus other elements which are helpful to plants such as magnesium, potassium and calcium.

However, the article also notes that there are a few things that well-intentioned coffee-drinkers should bear in mind.

What are they?

It’s worth bearing in mind that a plant can only tolerate so much of this nutritional treatment (eg, once or twice a week with coffee diluted to half its strength) and obviously the coffee should be cold.

It should also be ‘neat’   ie, no sugar, milk or flavourings.

Why not try these suggestions out, see if you can help your plants with a little caffeine treatment?