How To Use Coffee Grounds As Fertilizer [Step-By-Step]

A steaming cup of coffee gives you the needed stimulation to get through a busy day at work, but that’s not all the goodness the coffee plant offers.

For residential and commercial property owners, the remnants of the brew, known as coffee grounds, can be used as fertilizer and applied to the garden bed as mulch or compost.

While it may seem like an unusual lawn care method, there’s plenty to gain from the eco-friendly practice of using coffee grounds in plant care, and we’ll show you how!

What Nutrients Do Coffee Grounds Contain?

Coffee grounds have an NPK ratio of 2.1-0.3-0.3. With approximately 10.31 lbs of nitrogen per cubic yard, this high nitrogen concentration makes them a cheaper and eco-friendly alternative to commercially sold nitrogen fertilizers.

Coffee grounds also contain:

• Magnesium
• Copper
• Zinc
• Manganese
• Calcium
• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Lipids
• Melanoidins

Unlike the quick boost you’d get from drinking coffee, the nitrogen in coffee grounds isn’t immediately available as nutrients for your plants to absorb. Rather, it’s slowly released into the soil over time.

Fresh Vs. Spent Coffee Grounds

Fresh coffee grounds are the ground-up coffee beans that haven’t been brewed, while spent coffee grounds are the leftovers after making coffee.

Fresh coffee grounds are highly acidic, which works well if you grow acid-preferring plants like blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons.

Spent grounds are almost neutral in pH, making them useful for a wider range of plants and garden vegetables.

If you’re using fresh coffee grounds, it’s important only to use them in small amounts as the higher caffeine concentration can disrupt soil pH balance.

You should also never use them as mulch, as they hinder the healthy growth of your plants.

Using Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer

If you’re directly applying your nitrogen-rich coffee grounds to the soil as fertilizer, ensure they’re thinly spread. You should avoid placing them in clusters, as they can quickly become compact and turn into barriers for your plants.

You can also use the coffee grounds to make a liquid fertilizer. To do this, add two cups of used coffee grounds to a five-gallon bucket of water and let it steep for a day or two. This liquid fertilizer can be used to water the plants or as a foliar spray.

Adding Coffee Grounds to Compost

When composting, coffee grounds can speed up the biodegradation of organic waste.

For the best results, it is important to have a healthy balance of brown compost, such as dry leaves, newspapers, and food scraps, and green compost, such as your coffee grounds.

The ideal brown-to-green ratio of your compost is 4:1. Any more green material, such as crushed eggshells, manure, vegetable and fruit scraps in the compost will make your bin smell, while less will make the compost pile incapable of heating up.

It’s also recommended that coffee grounds make up no more than 20% of the compost volume for your plants to derive maximum nutritional value from it.

Using Coffee Grounds as Mulch

While mulching is a routine practice for most gardeners, it can be difficult to obtain a steady supply of affordable grass, leaves, and hay.

If you’re an eco-conscious homeowner looking for a more readily available source of organic mulch for your lawn, spent coffee grounds are a useful option.

When used as mulch, the uniform layer of coffee grounds helps the topsoil absorb and hold in more water than sandy and compacted soils. Also, the microbial activity that coffee grounds attract helps open pathways in the soil, allowing water to penetrate the soil more deeply.

If you plan to use coffee grounds as mulch, you should stick to used coffee grounds since fresh coffee grounds are too acidic for most plants.

To maximize moisture retention, add coffee grounds in layers about 0.5 to one inch thick and keep them from forming thick mats by raking the topsoil to mix in more thoroughly.

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting involves adding earthworms like red wrigglers and white worms to the rest of your compost. These worms ingest the material and excrete nutrient-rich, odorless castings called vermicast in their place.

When added to this mix, coffee grounds speed up the metabolism of these earthworms, helping to speed up the decomposition of organic matter and improving the quality of the vermicast.

The resulting compost is rich in key nutrients that are essential for keeping your plants healthy while maintaining a beautiful lawn.

Which Plants Should You Use Coffee Grounds For?

Before adding coffee grounds to your garden bed, note that plants don’t all thrive within the same soil pH level.

First, you have to know the plant’s preferred soil pH. Here’s an overview of popular garden picks and the soil pH they best grow in:

Acidic Soil	Neutral Soil	Alkaline Soil
Azaleas	Daisies	Lavender
Magnolia	Lilies	Artemisia
Holly	Roses	Almond
Radishes	Forsythia	Juniper
Lettuce	Lilac	Mahonia
Blueberries	Geranium	Asparagus

Advantages of Using Coffee Grounds in Your Lawn Care

Whether you prefer composted coffee grounds or you prefer to mix coffee grounds directly in the soil, there are several benefits of coffee grounds for your garden soil and plants:

• Natural fertilizer: Nitrogen, an essential nutrient for healthy plant growth, is abundant in used coffee grounds, making them an excellent fertilizer option to achieve lush, beautiful landscapes and enhanced curb appeal.
• Better soil structure: Good soil aeration and drainage are important for the unhindered flow of nutrients and moisture through the soil and the plants. The spent coffee grounds decompose into loamy soil, enhancing grass roots’ healthy growth.
• Attracting earthworms: As many gardeners who practice vermicomposting can testify, earthworms are naturally drawn to both used and fresh grounds, which is essential for proper soil aeration.
• Improved microbial activity: Compost coffee grounds stimulate the activity of helpful microbes, which break down organic matter, making it more readily available to the plants as nutrients.
• Natural weed suppression: While sprinkling too much coffee grounds on the soil can be harmful to your plants, using the right amount may help suppress the growth of pesky weeds, thanks to caffeine’s allelopathic attributes.
• Eco-friendly practice: Instead of using inorganic material and other unsustainable lawn care methods, composting coffee grounds is a great way to keep lush gardens, especially in arid conditions where plant nutrients and moisture are scarce

Disadvantages of Using Coffee Grounds for Plants

There’s some concern over the side effects of using fresh grounds on lawns. Studies show that the application of raw coffee grounds isn’t recommended for plant production purposes.

Spent coffee grounds can . They stimulate the growth of microbes, resulting in the soil’s microorganisms competing with plant roots for nitrogen.

Still, you may use vermicomposting techniques before applying it as fertilizer. You can also apply some manure to give the soil an extra nutrient boost.

Best Practices for Using Coffee Grounds in Lawn and Plant Care

Here are some extra tips to remember when using spent coffee grounds to enhance plant growth in your lawn:

• Avoid using coffee grounds on young plants or seedlings
• Don’t sprinkle the coffee grounds directly onto the topsoil if you have pets in your home
• Don’t rely on coffee grounds as the sole source of the soil’s nutrition; incorporate other organic matter for better lawn health.
• Coffee grounds can be heavy and lead to clumping. For better air circulation, decomposition, and moisture retention, combine them with other mulch materials like grass clippings and leaves.
• Water the layer thoroughly after applying coffee grounds to the soil to keep it from getting compacted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Make Your Lawn Thrive; the Eco-Friendly Way

When used correctly, coffee grounds can be a good fertilizer option for gardeners who prefer the slow but eco-friendly release of essential nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil.

As an environmentally conscious homeowner or commercial property owner, working with an expert landscaping company can help you achieve sustainable lawn care.

Let SunCo be your go-to lawn fertilization, pest control, and plant health services provider, helping keep your residential and commercial property looking their best.