I read earlier postings about coffee grounds in the compost and dirt
for tomatoes. Does it change the taste? Coffee is a pretty powerful
thing and it's taste after having been discarded, is rank. It's very
different from horse manure or other compostings. It's acrid and
sharp. Has anyone used a lot of ciffee grounds around tomatoes or
peppers and noticed a taste difference? I'm only asking because I
drink a LOT of coffee and I have a LOT of grounds to discard.

Chris Garlington said:

I read earlier postings about coffee grounds in the compost and dirt
for tomatoes. Does it change the taste? Coffee is a pretty powerful
thing and it's taste after having been discarded, is rank. It's very
different from horse manure or other compostings. It's acrid and
sharp. Has anyone used a lot of ciffee grounds around tomatoes or
peppers and noticed a taste difference? I'm only asking because I
drink a LOT of coffee and I have a LOT of grounds to discard.

I've used coffee grounds mixed with shredded leaves and cocoa shells
to mulch tomatoes. Doesn't change the taste (unless it makes them better).


Many, MANY pounds of coffee grounds from a cafeteria go into my home
compost piles. Yes, it gets a little rank while waiting to go into the piles.
Curiously, the freshly built piles tend to have a barnyard smell. (One visitor
who was allergic to horses got very nervous because he was sure there was
a pony around here somewhere.)
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

"Chris Garlington" wrote in message
m...
I read earlier postings about coffee grounds in the compost and dirt
for tomatoes. Does it change the taste?

No.

I read earlier postings about coffee grounds in the compost and dirt
for tomatoes. Does it change the taste?

Nope, not a bit.

Use the household discards around my strawberries and in the vegetable bed, and
the only down side seems to be to try not to get it on leaves in the strawberry
bed because it will burn them. Does a great job of keeping out the slugs from
eating all the berries.


-=epm=-

In matters of truth and justice,
there is no difference between large and small problems,
for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.
- Albert Einstein

(Chris Garlington) wrote in message om...
I read earlier postings about coffee grounds in the compost and dirt
for tomatoes. Does it change the taste? Coffee is a pretty powerful
thing and it's taste after having been discarded, is rank. It's very
different from horse manure or other compostings. It's acrid and
sharp. Has anyone used a lot of ciffee grounds around tomatoes or
peppers and noticed a taste difference? I'm only asking because I
drink a LOT of coffee and I have a LOT of grounds to discard.

No, the tomatoes will not pick up the coffee taste. What you have to
be careful of though is getting too low of a pH level in the soil.
Coffee grounds generally have a pH of around 4.0 (thats why coffee
sometimes gives you that sour stomach feeling). Tomatoes like a pH of
about 6.0-6.5, so if you use a lot of coffee grounds, you may need to
add a little lime every other year or so.

Bob S.

(Bob S.) wrote in message . com...

No, the tomatoes will not pick up the coffee taste. What you have to
be careful of though is getting too low of a pH level in the soil.
Coffee grounds generally have a pH of around 4.0 (thats why coffee
sometimes gives you that sour stomach feeling). Tomatoes like a pH of
about 6.0-6.5, so if you use a lot of coffee grounds, you may need to
add a little lime every other year or so.

Bob S.

Minor quibble. Tomatoes are amongst the most pH tolerant of veggies,
and they will grow happily in 5.0 soil. But you are right that they
will tend to taste inferior.
Also, of course, you need a ton of coffee grounds to change the pH of
one ton of pH 6.0 soil down to 5.0. That is a whole lot of coffee
grounds - most people should not worry about it. I do use tons of wood
chips (pH 4.0-4.5) and have to make sure I mix some wood ash (pH 10.4)
in them.