What Plants Like Coffee Grounds And Eggshells? [Full List]

Categories:

Cracked eggshell on forest floor amidst natural debris, hinting at garden composting elements.

Are you throwing used coffee grounds and egg shells away? Or, did you try using coffee grounds before, but you never get it right to grow your plants need coffee?

You need to know some essential information when it comes to using coffee grounds and eggshells for your plants.

The one thing that you need to know is that not all plants like coffee grounds and crushed eggs in their soil. This might be the reason why your plants don’t thrive.

You will now learn some essential information about using these in your soil for plant feeds.

Why People Are Using Coffee Grounds And Eggshells For Plants

The first thing that you might be wondering is, why do people are using coffee grounds and eggshells in their soil.

Why do they add these to their plants?

If you are throwing it away, you are throwing a lot of fertilizer down the drain. This is basically what these ingredients are – fertilizers for specific plants.

Yes, you might do more harm for some plants than good when you are adding the coffee or shells to their soil. But, if you know which plants will thrive with these, you will see your plants growing faster and healthier.

Different Ways That Coffee Grounds Can Be Used

There are different ways on how you can use the coffee ground in the soil. Some are just throwing a couple of grounds on top.

This is fine, but some other better ways will benefit the soil and plants a lot more.

Using coffee grounds as compost is the best possible option. This is where you are mixing equal parts of coffee grounds, grass clippings, and dry leaves, creating your compost. Most effective than just throwing the grounds on top of the soil.

Or, you can mix the coffee ground directly into the soil. This makes the soil moist and ensures that it is kept moist for a much longer period. And, your plants will still get the benefits from the coffee grounds.

Minerals such as magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium are abundant in coffee beans. While nitrogen plays a role in photosynthesis, which promotes faster plant growth, phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen all increase yields.

Furthermore, diterpenes and caffeine, two components of coffee, can be extremely toxic to insects. Therefore, coffee grounds can be used as a bug repellent. They effectively repel fruit flies, beetles, and mosquitoes, and they may also help keep other pests at bay.

What an organic way to protect your plants, right?

Different Ways That Eggshells Can Be Used

Like coffee grounds, there are many different ways that you can use eggshells in your plants. It just depends on the reason why you want to add them. Most are crushing the shells and adding it on top of the soil. This is to protect the plants from snails and other insects.

Interestingly, eggshells can supply the entire amount of calcium carbonate that the soil requires, lowering the pH and making the soil more alkaline than acidic. Given that many plants prefer to grow in soil with low acidity, this is extremely advantageous for plant growth.

This is a great idea, but there are more nutrients that the eggs can give the plants. The best way to add the shells to your plants is to make a powder of it. By powering the shells, you ensure that it mixes with the soil a lot easier and makes the planting absorb the shells’ nutrients faster.

Or, you can make tea from the shells.

Add 10 clean, dry eggshells to a gallon of boiling water after it has reached a rolling boil. Add the shells of up to 20 eggs to make a stronger brew. Mix water and eggshells and leave it for a couple of days. The water will suck up all the nutrients of the shell. Strain the water after allowing the shells to soak in it. You can then use the egg tea to water your plants, giving your plants a boost in nutrients and feedings.

To provide plants with an extra boost of calcium and potassium, pour the concentrate directly onto the soil.

Overflowing cup of whole coffee beans against a white background.

Plants That Like Coffee Grounds

As we said before, coffee grounds are great for keeping the soil moist. Therefore, not all the plants will like coffee grounds in the soil.

With this list of plants, you will know for sure that you are giving the right plants the right boost of nutrients with your coffee ground feeds or compost:

  • Bugbane
  • Calla
  • Crinum
  • Elephant Ear
  • Forget-Me-Not
  • Hibiscus
  • Iris
  • Lily of the valley
  • Marigold
  • Meadowsweet
  • Sedge

Plants Where You Should Rather Not Add Coffee Grounds In

If you add coffee to plants that won’t thrive with it, you might even kill your plants. This is why you need to make sure that you know which plants you should stay away from with your coffee ground mixtures.

These are some of the plants that you should never add a coffee ground to:

  • lack-eyed Susan
  • Century plant
  • Lavender
  • Madagascar periwinkle
  • Orchids
  • Pothos
  • Rosemary
  • Sago palm
  • Spider plant
  • Snake plant
  • Succulents and cactus
  • Tomatoes
  • Yucca

Plants That Will Benefit From Eggshells

People think that if you can add coffee grounds to specific plants, you can automatically add the eggshells to the same plants. However, this isn’t the case. It’s important to make sure you know exactly what plants you can use the different eggshell mixtures on.

These are some of the plants that will benefit from the eggshell:

  • Slug and snail prone plants.
  • Any potted plants in and around your home
  • Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants
  • Plants that like a lot of water and that is using a lot of water.

Tips When You Are Using Coffee Grounds And Eggshells In Your Plants

When you are using coffee grounds and eggshells, you need to remember a couple of things. This is to make sure that you are doing it correctly.

  • You should never add a coffee ground to seedlings. It will kill the seedlings.
  • Don’t use too much coffee grounds in ratio with soil.
  • The soil should always be three thirds more than the coffee grounds.
  • You should also not use eggshells every week.
  • Too many nutrients, especially in some plants, isn’t healthy for the plants.

This is everything you need to know about the plants that you can give coffee grounds and eggshells to. And why this is something that you need to consider when you want healthy plants. But, remember that you can’t give these to just any plant.

This is why you should remember which plants you can provide coffee grounds and eggshells to.

Read More

Related Articles

4 Benefits of Organic Top Soil and Ways to Choose the Right Top Soil

In this blog, we will explore the subject of organic top soil, how it is made and how it can benefit your garden and...

Liquid Fertilizer That Will Liven Up Your Lawn

What's the difference between liquid and granular lawn fertilizers? Let’s introduce you to the world of liquid and granular fertilizers for your lawn. We will...