GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Tea for houseplants

Mike Lyle · 28-04-2010, 10:29 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

Rusty Hinge wrote:
wrote:
In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:
John L wrote:
My wife likes to save all tea left in the pot and give it to the
houseplants. Is it really any good for them?

I get the feeling that they're slowly building up tea in the pots.
(and I'd rather just throw it away and keep the place a bit
tidier!)
Too much tea may leave uncomposted residues in the soil and
encourage moulds and fungi.

Yes, but they won't do much harm to living plants.

Maybe. However, the dissolved tea solids might deplete the available
nitrogen.

But tealeaves themselves are high in N. Does it stay in the leaf, or
dissolve into the liquor? I've never thought about the chemistry of a
cuppa before.

The baggy bit of a teabag is some kind of cellulose, and presumably
/would/ be a nitrogen robber.

--
Mike.