Sunday 14 March 2010

Coffee grounds and baking soda?

Hi!

No illustration this time, but want to tell that I'm trying a new fertilizer on some of my chiles. I've read the coffee grounds (Swedish translation: kaffesump) and baking powder can be used as fertilizer. So that's what I started to use today. I'm an espresso guy, so I use some of the "left-overs" from the espresso in the water. And also a pinch of baking powder.

Anyone with experience from this?

I use a lot of chick peas, beans and sprouts in my cooking. I've used the remaining water from the soaking the beans, to water the chiles. And I think that has worked well. No scientific study behind that, but my habanero is flowering, and looks good anyway. So it can't be wrong. Or?

Regards,
  Mats

6 comments:

  1. Sounds great, I am also an espresso guy. Please keep us updated. I have always spread coffee grounds in our kitchengarden, not so much for fertilizer but the it seems that the bugs and snails does not like coffee;) and maybe a better soilstructure(?!?)

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  2. I used it for my hops, and together with kompostjord it worked pretty fine.

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  3. Coffee grounds contain a lot of nitrogen so it is great for vegetative growth (if you can live with the smell), less so for flowering and fruiting.

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  4. Thanks for your replies! That sounds great! Then I will continue. Yes, I'm somewhat concerned about the smell. At least until it gets warm enough to move the plants outdoors.

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  5. Hello Mats, I am kind of a chemistry freak. I compared Coffee ground to the fertilizer chili Focus that is manufactured. The comparison of the N-P-K of Chili Focus was 3:1,0:4,4. Whilst Cofee Ground is Coffee Grounds: 2.0/0.36/0.67 ( according to the http://thechileman.org/guide_fertilizer.php). What that means is that the ratio of cofee ground is if you multiply it by two N-P-K 4.0:0,72:1,34. So Coffee grounds is perfect except in the Potassium sense. The plants will need some more potassium adding ( depending on the soil of course) for the fruit development. That is if Chili Focus fertilizer formula will be used as some form of guideline. I can check what kind of other mikronutrients it contains later. I have written a bit about it on http://michaelsalemssonchili.blogspot.com/ it is in swedish.

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  6. I made some calculations on how much 100 gram dry coffee ground can support a chile plant in term of fruit weight of a plant. Based on only on Potassium. It is unfortunately in swedish but here is the link. http://michaelsalemssonchili.blogspot.com/

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