Add Coffee Grounds to the Compost

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Add Coffee Grounds to the Compost

Coffee grounds contain significant nutrients. Adding too much coffee grounds to plants can be detrimental to the plants growth in some cases. The best way to amend soil with spent coffee grounds is to compost the material first. Then add that compost as a top dressing around the plants. You can also roto till or use a hand cultivator to work the material into the ground.

List:
Coffee grounds
Compost pile
Hayfork
Shovel
Roto tiller or hand cultivator

Add spent coffee grounds on to the top of the compost pile. You can also add all vegetable kitchen wastes on to the compost pile as well.

Turn the compost pile over on a weekly basis. This will thoroughly mix the material and allow the natural decomposition to begin. Allow the compost pile to work for one full year. This amount of time allows the coffee grounds to break down and disperse its chemical nutrients throughout the pile's material.

Remove the compost from the pile using the shovel Broadcast the material evenly over the area to be amended.

Work the coffee ground compost into the soil using a roto tiller or a hand cultivator. In most all cases, the coffee grounds will be fully decomposed with the other vegetable matter. The resulting material will be a deep black and rich humus that will amend most soils to a proper nutrient level.

Conduct a soil test if you are unsure of the overall nutrient level of your soil. Contact your local agricultural extension service. The extension service provides soil analysis using samples from the garden or soil test area. These tests generally take up to 4 weeks to gain the results from a laboratory.