Coffee grounds bad?

[fallenmunk]

I've been wondering about this for awhile. This article says that even composted coffee grounds still have too much caffeine. https://curiosity.com/topics/whateve...den-curiosity/

[9fingerleafs]

a friend of mine gave me one of those starbucks used coffee grounds "ready for compost or soil" it said, i mixed with my soil two teaspoons in a solo cup and filled another cup with soil only for control, i planted two identical clones and the one with the coffee did so much worse i killed it a couple of weeks later

[fallenmunk]

I have a stunted white widow autoflower right now I suspect was from this. I sprouted it on the 1st of January and it's just now starting to show signs of flowering. It's small and spindly.

[9fingerleafs]

yeah i dunno if its the ph or the decomposition process its too aggressive for the roots but i think you need to have it composted for a few months along the soil it will amend

[fallenmunk]

According to the article, it's not the ph, it's the residual caffeine. And that composting doesn't remove it, it just disperses it through your compost. I know in my instance, the ph was well within range.

[Rwise]

Interesting read, I have used coffee and washed grounds, most often I dump the grounds out for the chickens to scratch in. I know people that swear by using washed grounds in their garden, I will refrain,,

[Guest]

Great bit of knowledge … I never made soil but I have heard of this . Thanks

[MBVapester]

Been saving some coffee grinds but maybe I’ll just keep it for the worms. They seemed to like the caffeine hit in the past.

[9fingerleafs]

yeah i dont think caffeine is toxic to plants or animals or soil, only small insects, thats why such a big variety of plants produce caffeine and other alkaloids. all that plant matter falls to the ground and its decomposed like everything else feeding the soil. roots cannot eat table scraps, its that easy