Yummy Compost
Many of you are following my series on coffee grounds in the garden. Just to catch you up to speed, I used coffee grounds for my sorry looking roses, and they came alive. But conflicting information on the internet made me rethink my decision. Was I hurting or helping my plants? Read are coffee grounds friend or foe to find out. But what about using them for compost?
Adam Michaelides, the Compost Education Program Manager at the Cornell Cooperative Extension stated:
“Coffee grounds are very acidic. So if someone (like a coffee shop) was composting mostly coffee grounds with some sort of bulking (brown) material, they might experience slower composting. This is because certain decomposers need certain pH ranges to live and if the pH is too low, some won’t be able to live there to break down the grounds.
But, in general, backyard composters who have some coffee, and some leaves, and some other food scraps, and maybe some wood ash, etc. are going to be fine. When a diversity of materials are used, a diversity of decomposers will work to break them all down. As the material that is composting changes form, the pH will go way down, then way up, and then level off around neutral. Some composts are more acidic or alkaline than others, but some of this has to do with the way that they were composted, not necessarily the inputs.”
The Right Ratio of Browns and Greens in Composting
As for composting, Dr. Hepperly of the Rodale Institute indicated in my previous coffee ground article, compost should be one part green to three parts brown. To be honest, I didn’t fully understand the whole compost thing. You could easily call me a haphazard composter. I just throw in leaves and whatever comes out of my kitchen.
Michaelides explained as follows:
“A more useful rule of thumb is 2 or 3 parts “brown” to 1 part “green.” This is by volume, so if you have one 5-gallon bucket of food scraps, you will need 2 or 3 buckets of dry leaves. As it applies to lasagna layering, one part brown will be on the bottom of a layer, the other on the sides and the third on the top. And you will have one layer of greens sandwiched in between. Hard to describe, but look at the diagram on that fact sheet.”
See Cornell’s composting online fact sheet for more information.
Want more brown for your compost? (No, not the UPS guy.) Read how to find and keep more brown for your compost. And for the green? Keep a handy composting pail in your kitchen.
What Do Worm Think About Compost?
The other day I dropped some green scraps in my compost to find a ton of small worms just lounging in the coffee. I never had so many worms before and thanked the coffee for my new visitors. So, I decided as I picked up another bag of coffee, a little coffee will do my garden good.
Be sure to check out my other gardening stories and videos. I am a little obsessed about gardening. (Just a teensy bit.)
Join the Conversation:
- Do you compost?
- Would you describe yourself as a lazy or methodical composter?
- Do you use coffee grounds in your compost?
- What makes your worms happy?
Related Posts on Other sites:
- Starting a New Composting Bin (twofrugalfairfielders.wordpress.com)
- Time for a little Trash Talk (reloveables.wordpress.com)
- Compost How to Make Hot & Cold Piles (growinganything.com)
Jackie says
I definitely put coffee grounds in our compost. I figure it is biodegradable, why would I not? But I’m a bit of a compost rebel. I’m more concerned that it stays out of the trash than it composts quickly!
Jonathan says
Thanks for the composting tips Anna. I’ve been throwing them in my composting bins for many years with great success.
Jonathan.
Mary @Green Global Travel says
Thanks for sharing how to use coffee grounds for composting! These were very helpful tips!
Emily says
Wow, it’s nice know that we can use coffee grounds for composting. Thanks for the tips.
Spencer says
I have had pretty good luck using composted leave around rose bushes. Maybe if you dried your coffee grounds out in the sun, they wouldn’t be so acidic. You could also mix them with lime.
cheryl says
I use coffee grounds around plants all the time; but in the amounts that come out of my coffee maker, they aren’t huge. Here in the desert our soil is SO alkaline that there is no worry that a cup or two of coffee grounds will turn it acidic
Suzanne says
I keep a compost pail under the sink. since I looove coffee there are lots of grounds in there, but also banana peels, as well as other compostable kitchen scraps. Since I am a lazy composter, these are dumped every couple of days in the bin and turned into the rest of the materials. Since I have no grass, I take what my neighbors give me. Any other suggestions?
Anna@Green Talk says
Once it become compost, I would dump it in a park or around bushes. They will love it. Do you have any bushes near where you live? Anna
Mary says
If you add compost to your plants each year, how does that not begin to bury the plant in soil? Do you dig out some soil before composting? Thanks so much. I enjoy your blog!
Anna@Green Talk says
Mary, I only put a ring around the drip line of the plant. It isn’t that much. It goes away within weeks. Anna
Fred says
Thanks for the tips to compost with Coffee Grounds, I also add them to my Blueberry Plants, they seem to love the Coffee, Also I cover a compost material with Alfafa Meal and the material composes fast into black loom
Anna@Green Talk says
Fred, how much alfalfa meal do you use? Anna
Fred says
I just cover the compost pile completely , in about two month black loom :O)
Anna@Green Talk says
Fred, so should I just sprinkle alfalfa on the top? Every 2 months? I heard that comfrey does something similar.
Greg says
I use copious quantities of coffee grounds and kitchen scraps from our restaurant and dig it into shallow trenches on my farm. I call it ‘trench composting’ . That way I can prepare vegetable beds for the following year and I don’t have to move it twice and the digging is a good workout.
Anna@Green Talk says
Greg, that is a good idea. Do you have issues with rodents? Anna
Greg says
I guess it depends what you mean by issues. I am growing organic/biodynamic vegetables in what use to be a very old apple orchard. I have voles, moles and mice, not to mention deer. The deer and voles cause the most damage. For now I am ignoring the little gnawing that happens on my potatoes. This relatively little damage and I the ‘trench composting’ could act as a distraction to the voles. I will be discing again this year (moving to minimal or low till in the following years). This should also act as a deterrent 🙂 I can’t bear to kill the little creatures. I have even bought some traps and will try that as well.
Jen-ra, Superhero Momof3 says
Thank you for the helpful resource fron Cornell. I learned a lot from that comprehensive article and felt it covered enough as any class might. Much appreciation!
Donna Snider says
You asked what my worms like. I have been giving them coffee grounds every day for about 3 years. I really can’t tell if they like it. However, you can almost watch watermelon disappear from the rind when I put it in. 🙂
Anna@Green Talk says
Donna, it is the caffeine! Anna
Michael Ford says
I live in South Africa, and I use the “Bokachi” composting system, which works very well, and I love the Bokachi “juice” that is produced and makes the most awesome liquid fertilizer for surface or foliar spray. Only problem is the Bokachi accelerator bran is getting expensive. Is there any other way to produce the same breakdown effect with the kitchen scraps?
Anna@Green Talk says
Michael, bokachi is very different than how we compost in the US. They do have compost accelerators but I don’t know if that would work for you. Some say worm poop or good soil acts as an accelerator but you have to have the right ratios to begin with for our type of composting. I am fascinated with bokachi. Can you explain how it is done? Anna