Coffee Ground for Plants

Your Coffee ground at Richter Starbucks won’t get lost anymore!

Green U, Student Government ECO Agency, in collaboration with UM Dining have started to pick up  coffee ground from Starbucks to use it as soil amendment in some of our new UM Sustainable Suburbia Garden. Visit UM Sustainable Garden to learn more about composting, food growing and how you can get involved.

 

The Starbucks coffee compost test

Use of Starbucks coffee grounds in amending mineral soils up to 35 percent by volume coffee grounds will improve soil structure over the short-term and over the long-term. Use of the coffee grounds at the specified incorporation rates (rototilled into a 6- to 8-inch depth) will substantially improve availabilities of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and copper and will probably negate the need for chemical sources of these plant essential elements.
The nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium “guaranteed analyses” would be as follows for the coffee grounds:

Nitrogen: 2.28 percent
Phosphorus: 0.06 percent
Potassium: 0.6 percent

Available nutrient levels: The pH or reaction of the coffee grounds is considered slightly acidic and in a favorable range at 6.2 on the pH scale.
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