Back to coffee grounds . . .

I read earlier postings about coffee grounds in the compost and dirt for tomatoes. Does it change the taste? Coffee is a pretty powerful thing and it's taste after having been discarded, is rank. It's very different from horse manure or other compostings. It's acrid and sharp. Has anyone used a lot of ciffee grounds around tomatoes or peppers and noticed a taste difference? I'm only asking because I drink a LOT of coffee and I have a LOT of grounds to discard.

Reply to
Chris Garlington
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I've used coffee grounds mixed with shredded leaves and cocoa shells to mulch tomatoes. Doesn't change the taste (unless it makes them better).

Many, MANY pounds of coffee grounds from a cafeteria go into my home compost piles. Yes, it gets a little rank while waiting to go into the piles. Curiously, the freshly built piles tend to have a barnyard smell. (One visitor who was allergic to horses got very nervous because he was sure there was a pony around here somewhere.)

Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

No.

Reply to
Andre

Nope, not a bit.

Use the household discards around my strawberries and in the vegetable bed, and the only down side seems to be to try not to get it on leaves in the strawberry bed because it will burn them. Does a great job of keeping out the slugs from eating all the berries.

-=>epm

Reply to
EvelynMcH

No, the tomatoes will not pick up the coffee taste. What you have to be careful of though is getting too low of a pH level in the soil. Coffee grounds generally have a pH of around 4.0 (thats why coffee sometimes gives you that sour stomach feeling). Tomatoes like a pH of about 6.0-6.5, so if you use a lot of coffee grounds, you may need to add a little lime every other year or so.

Bob S.

Reply to
Bob S.

Minor quibble. Tomatoes are amongst the most pH tolerant of veggies, and they will grow happily in 5.0 soil. But you are right that they will tend to taste inferior. Also, of course, you need a ton of coffee grounds to change the pH of one ton of pH 6.0 soil down to 5.0. That is a whole lot of coffee grounds - most people should not worry about it. I do use tons of wood chips (pH 4.0-4.5) and have to make sure I mix some wood ash (pH 10.4) in them.

Reply to
simy1

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