Don't Forget This Critical Ingredient When Composting With Coffee Grounds

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In this video I'll tell you about the critical ingredient research shows should be added to your compost along with coffee grounds.

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Thanks for watching everyone!

[jstndvs]

I run a small independent coffee shop in a rural community. We have people who want coffee grounds bring in a 5 gallon bucket with their name and number on it. We keep them lined up in rotation in the back hallway and call the customer when their bucket in full and ready to go. Also I get lots of produce from happy farmers.

[jessemallory]

I use wood chips, kitchen scraps, leaves, paper shreds, and coffee grounds. When I dig up the pile in the spring, my pile is full of worms. This past spring I took compost, just made it the top layer of a raised bed where I planted and grew squash and had the best squash harvest ever.

[ruthslone]

I used empty toilet paper rolls to segregate the seeds at planting, and keep track of where they’re supposed to grow. (Helps me remember where I planted them!) I didn’t realize that the cardboard decomposition was good for the soil, too. I guess that explains why I got so many cucumbers 🥒 this year.😊

[Bogie]

When I started adding coffee grounds to my compost I found a football size clump of worms and when I separated them there was the ball of coffee grounds in the middle. Shiniest and fastest worms I have ever seen. They actually glowed.

[suburbanhomesteadsurvival]

I have found that Costco is a great source of cardboard. They use huge sheets on their pallets...no tape and label stripping! And they shred very easy!

[SN-szkw]

Thank you for this. I add my coffee grounds with the unbleached filter paper to the blueberry bed to maintain soil acidity. I no longer feel lazy for not removing the grounds from the filters. 😊

[echols]

You can also add your coffee filter if it is unbleached natural fiber. Works when you don't have cardboard.

[timmartin]

Whatever you haven't figured out yet, you will figure out in short order. Videos like these really add to the knowledgw base of the gardening world.Thanks for an excellent video! Subscribed = ✓

[toysoldier]

I put coffee grounds and eggshells in a pan in my oven, where they get toasted when I bake something. I then process them through my old Waring blender. This makes a great addition to potting soil or garden soil.

[craigmetcalfe]

Makes total sense. I think that sometimes we forget that coffee grounds are a green additive and the cardboard is a brown additive. I am just about to liberate my first compost where I used some of the coffee grounds I get from a coffee shop for free. You are the first person who I have seen do something similar to me. I use green plastic mesh in a cylinder in various places in the garden, so I always have compost near my three major growing zones.

[nancyinoregon]

That study about the decrease of earthworms is pretty interesting because I've kinda found the opposite. I live in the Pacific Northwest with dry summers and very wet winters. I save my grounds into a quart yogurt container and every few days I dump them over the side of my deck onto a dedicated coffee ground pile, where they sit undisturbed. Underneath that pile is my typical PNW heavy clay loam soil, not a compost-rich garden bed. If I disturb that coffee ground pile at all during the wet season, I find it's chock full of red wrigglers that somehow found their way to that pile. When it gets dry and hot they disappear. I'm wondering what's different about my environment from a compost pile that would make such a difference.

[starseedenergy]

Also don’t use too much coffee grounds. It really heats up the vermicopost. . Cardboard it’s carbon rich while coffee grounds are nitrogen rich

[freddieivory]

Thanks for the tip! I got a little nervous because I use coffee grounds in my worm compost hotel, ground compost stop and in my garden compost tumbler. But I always use cardboard and leaves. Wiping my head from relief. 😂. My worms are happy!!

[randyearles]

thanks, I've always used coffee grounds and now I'm gonna mix it with cardboard.

[petermenningen]

In simpler terms diversify your amendments to either type of compost system. If you look at nature what you see id diversification of materials dropped to the soil level during the year. What you are doing with any form of compost or mulch is aiding nature in the process your reward is that you speed it up.
If the excess is green Nature lets it leach and bleach turning it brown. If the excess is brown the lichens and microbes us it as fuel and convert it to base nutrients for use. Sheet composting (organic mulches) use a combination of the two to make the nutrients available to the plants (Back to Eden method)

[davidbowman]

Compost attracts Black Soldier Fly larvae (Hermetia Illucens) which quickly devour the coffee grounds in your compost. Don't be alarmed! They mutate into Black Soldier Flies which do not have any moving mouth parts. The Black Soldier Fly larvae are also very nutritious and can be feed to you chickens if you have them or to the fish in your pond.

[peggyhelblingsgardenwhatyo]

Nice job Andrew, I've been Vermicomposting since 2009 in a Can-O-Worms. I started a YouTube channel in 2020. It started out as a garden channel and has evolved into a combination garden/worm/life. I do love my worms and have 6 bins at this point.
Thanks for the suggestion on going to Starbucks 👩‍🌾👍

[unlucky]

The Starbucks inside the Target my wife used to go by in Durham, NC would bag the used grounds in 5 pound bags and put them in a basket for anyone to take near their register.

[MichaelJosephJr]

I'm in chicago and I asked a couple coffee joints for grounds and they looked puzzled. After a couple other requests I found a dunkin that has been giving me more than I could imagine. I could barely lift the bags.

[pdloder]

I found the coffee was upsetting my worm farm, so I created a whole new bin just for coffee grounds and then put a handful of worms in, to see how they would go, whether they would evolve to suit their environment. But I also added some cardboard and hessian bags or things like that.
And they've been there seemingly happy for years.
But I also tend to keep my coffee moist in plastic bags for a few weeks to months before I add into the bins, I think this tends to let mould do the first part of the breakdown - and I think it may eradicate some of the nasty chemicals.