Are Coffee Grounds Good for Vegetable Plants? Yes, coffee grounds are absolutely fantastic for your vegetable plants. With coffee grounds, your soil structure is improved, alongside deterring some pest species. Essential nutrients like protein, nitrogen, fatty acids, and essential oils are present in coffee grounds making them suitable and beneficial to the soil and your vegetables.
Keep reading to discover the benefits of coffee grounds for vegetables.
I) Coffee grounds as compost for vegetables
Coffee grounds can be used in compost. Rather than, throwing away the grounds, put them in a compost bin. You can also add a few other organic materials, e.g mulch, leaves. Coffee grounds are regarded as green compost material. Thus, ensure to add some brown compost material to have a balance.
Read also: Do Sunflower Like Coffee Grounds? Step By Step Answer
II) Help increase soil acidity
Varieties of coffee have an average pH value ranging from 4.85 to 5.10 thus, indicating acidity. After the brewing process, there is neutral pH maintenance which is about 6.5 pH value can also depend on whether the coffee was cold-brewed or hot-brewed.
The acids present in the coffee grounds are beneficial for some vegetables. However, avoid putting them directly on the plants as it can have a disastrous effect on them. Rather, you can use the grounds in compost form to give perfectly healthy, nutritious, and acidic soil.
III) Serve as fertilizer
Coffee grounds are excellent fertilizers for your vegetable plants. To use coffee grounds as fertilizer:
a) Spread about an inch or half of the coffee grounds on the garden bed. Ensure that the layer is not too thick so as not to block air and water from the roots.
b) Add your nitrogen fertilizer to the soil. This is to help speed up the process. Though coffee grounds serve as an excellent source of nitrogen. This doesn’t make its function and properties equal to that of nitrogen fertilizer.
c) Add your coffee grounds, mix the grounds with the nitrogen fertilizer, and spread close to 4 inches of mulch over it. The mulch can be any organic material including leaves, grass clippings, e.t.c. This will enable them to decompose and make a release the nitrogen efficiently.
IV) Help Keep pests and pets away
The spreading of coffee grounds around plant beds helps to repel pests like snails or slugs. Vegetable plants are most times, vulnerable to insects, and coffee grounds can help control the pests naturally.
The coffee grounds can also help to keep away pets like cats due to their strong smell. The smell of the grounds will prevent them from using your vegetable garden as their litter box.
Read also: Using Coffee Grounds And Eggshells For Tomato Plants – Step By Step Guide
V) Use to control weed
Coffee grounds can aid in the elimination of weeds. The caffeine present in coffee grounds prevents the growth of weeds. Coffee grounds are natural weed killers due to their allelopathic properties. Coffee grounds give and maintain a high temperature which is disastrous for weeds.
VI) Suppress diseases in plants
Coffee grounds help to control fungal diseases. Fungal diseases can destroy your vegetable plants/garden. With the addition of coffee grounds, fungal diseases can be put under control and suppress fungal diseases. Examples of these fungal diseases include Pythium, Fusarium, and Sclerotinia.
Conclusion
I hope you find this article helpful. I would like to hear from you. So, let me know if you have any questions about this article. Also, read this guide to learn how to use coffee grounds in the vegetable garden.
