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Tony B
Reged: 07/11/06
Posts: 979
Loc: Minnesota
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So tonight i was at starbucks and saw three pound bags of coffee grounds for free, so i took one because i cant pass up anything free.... it says that you can fertilize plants with it, and i knew that already, but does anyone know how to apply this stuff, or in what amount? right now i have a kenaf plant and a money tree that would be fed with it, everything else probably woudltn like it at all (orchids ,venus flytrap, lucky bamboo) but does anyone know if the other two would respond well to this? (either high nitrogen or carbon i believe , ratio was 20-1 ..... any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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*-Tony Bombardo-*
4.5" Orion SpaceProbe f/8 reflector
Meade 70AZ-ADR 70MM f/10 refractor
ATM 6" f/4 reflector
Bausch & Lomb 8001 8" Cass
Celestron StarHopper 6" Dob
*-all this light pollution is making me cough-*
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Not sure what to say about using it on potted plants. When I have access to large quanitities of coffee grounds I use them as an organic soil ammendment, directly in the garden beds.
Part of the reason I use coffee grounds is to counteract the alkalinity of the soil in Tucson. Coffee grounds release a lot of strong organic acids when they break down. I'd try them on something leafy that likes nitrogen (the bamboo and the kenaf, perhaps) first. Not sure I'd try them on the orchids or the flytraps at all. Orchids are fussy about pH (or so I'm told - I don't grow any) and too much nitrogen given to plants such as flytraps, which evolved for a very nitrogen poor environment, can be counter productive.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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Tony B
Reged: 07/11/06
Posts: 979
Loc: Minnesota
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yea, i wouldnt want to use them on the orchids because they grow in bark , and not soil, and the bamboo grows in a clear glass vase-type thing with rocks and water, but i think i might try some on the kenaf.... anyone know about the money tree?
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*-Tony Bombardo-*
4.5" Orion SpaceProbe f/8 reflector
Meade 70AZ-ADR 70MM f/10 refractor
ATM 6" f/4 reflector
Bausch & Lomb 8001 8" Cass
Celestron StarHopper 6" Dob
*-all this light pollution is making me cough-*
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Can't say for sure, since I've never grown one, but being a "foliage plant" as the hort business groups such things, moderate use of coffee grounds for fertilizer probably won't hurt it.
By the way, that 20:1 ration is carbon to nitrogen. Top dress pots with this stuff instead of working it into the soil. All those carbon compounds, as they begin to break down, will for a while use up nitrogen (needed by the microbes that break the stuff down). The N will eventually be re-released, but if this is going on in the vicinity of the roots the plant may briefly find itself short, which you would know by a sudden yellowing of the leaves.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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Indefatigable
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/29/06
Posts: 579
Loc: Toronto
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Starbucks gives away used coffee grounds for gardens? 
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Brenda
Skywatcher Pro 80ED
Synscan NEQ3
Meade DSI Pro
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Yep. But if those around you are like the ones in Tucson, you almost have to be at the door when they bag 'em. Very popular soil amendment, and for good reason.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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