Tea for houseplants - good idea?
 

Mike Lyle wrote:
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.

Before (much of?) the nitrogen is released, the leaves have to compost
down. While they're doing that, they deplete available nitrogen, I'd
treat regular applications of tealeaves as green compost with attitude.

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

The celllar structure of leaves is largely cellulose, strangely enough...

--
Rusty

My experience is that cold tea as in liquid seems to be good for houseplants, but that the tealeaves encourage fungus gnats, which at best are a nuisance and at worst can start nibbling away at fleshy roots and bulbs. So empty the pot into a houseplant but put the leaves/bags on the compost heap. And I wouldn't empty on to plants any tea which had had milk added.

Tea for houseplants - good idea?
 

Rusty Hinge wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
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.

Before (much of?) the nitrogen is released, the leaves have to compost
down. While they're doing that, they deplete available nitrogen, I'd
treat regular applications of tealeaves as green compost with
attitude.

Ah, I get it. What, though, of the solute? I don't even know what that
is, apart from vague handwaving about tannins, esters, trace elements,
etc which wouldn't stand up to any detailed interrogation.

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

The celllar structure of leaves is largely cellulose, strangely
enough...

Natch. But the cellulosicity of a teabag is a whole nother cell game.

--
Mike.