Looking for an effective but gentle homemade fertilizer for your garden? This Ultimate Coffee Tea is exactly that!
Coffee wakes you up in the morning and might do the same for your plants! Well, not in the same way, but this quick homemade fertilizer does wonders and is the best way to put coffee dregs to good use!
What is Coffee Tea?
Coffee tea is simply a concoction of leftover coffee diluted in water. Coffee grounds are a good nitrogen source for plants, crucial in growing thick, healthy foliage and strong stems. This residue also contains trace amounts of other useful nutrients like magnesium, potassium, and calcium.
However, using leftover grounds directly may not be the ideal fix for every plant out there since it can change the pH of the soil and make it slightly acidic. Hence, coffee tea! This allows you to extract the good bits of coffee to provide a quick fix without overwhelming your plant and its soil.
Read here if you are looking for the right way to use coffee grounds in gardening.
Note: You can also use your leftover coffee after diluting it in cool water–if there is no sugar or milk is added to it.
How to Use Coffee Tea for Plants?
Here’s how to make coffee tea to feed your plants. Take 1 to 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds and stir it into a gallon (3.7 liters) of water. Let the combination sit for a couple of nights to make it more potent. Then, run it through a cheesecloth or strainer to filter out unnecessary bits. This leaves you with your ready-to-use plant potion!
Use this homemade liquid fertilizer to water the plants every two weeks or even spray it regularly to moisten and nourish the soil. However, these are some precautions you could take.
- If using coffee tea for the first time, experiment with it on one or two plants and see how it reacts. If you see any signs of stress, such as yellowing leaves, dilute it further with water or discontinue its use. Think of it as a patch test for allergies.
- Tweak the watering schedule according to the plant and season. Fast growers may enjoy this tea every 2-3 weeks, while slow ones may appreciate it once every two months. Check out this article to see which houseplants are coffee lovers!
- Stop using this fertilizer during winter or dormancy periods, when most plants are conserving energy to survive and have halted their growing process.
- When it comes to outdoor plants, you can apply it to Azaleas, Roses, Hydrangeas, Gardenias, Tomatoes, Peppers, and Carrots.
Note: Since coffee tea offers only trace amounts of nutrients, it cannot replace a balanced fertilizer. It is merely a gentle supplement to aid your plants. Overuse, though, will topple your soil’s pH balance, lead to water clogging, and cause nutrient imbalance. So, be constrained, slow, and steady in its use.
Benefits of Using Coffee Tea to Feed Your Plants
Adding coffee tea to your soil creates a breeding ground for beneficial microbes. These tiny organisms help break down organic matter, releasing nutrients that plants can readily absorb. Plus, the strong scent of coffee in the liquid deters certain pests, acting as a shield.
This coffee concoction easily amends neutral or alkaline mediums to the ideal pH levels when growing plants that prefer acidic soil, and in smaller amounts, it also provides essential elements like nitrogen and some other nutrients as well. Check out our comprehensive article on numerous plants that enjoy acidic soil.
Well, what are you waiting for? It’s time to try this trick for yourselves. Please let us know how it went in the comments below!
