Do you enjoy drinking your morning coffee while looking out over your beautiful vegetable garden? If you’re a lover of both gardening and coffee you’ve most likely heard about the advantages of using coffee grounds in your garden. If you haven’t heard about this trick many people use to perk up their plants, don’t rush out to the garden just yet.
While coffee grounds can be great for some plants, they aren’t the best for others. According to what you grow in your vegetable garden, one question you may have is, are coffee grounds good for broccoli plants? Luckily, for coffee and broccoli lovers out there, the answer to that question is yes, your leftover coffee grounds can benefit your broccoli plants.
Let’s take a look at the relationship between your morning cup of joe and the veggies in your garden to better understand why coffee grounds and broccoli go hand in hand.
The Benefits of Coffee Grounds in Your Garden
Some plants are known as heavy feeders. This means they require a lot of nutrients from the soil they grow in. Broccoli plants are one of these heavy feeders and can use additional fertilizer to help them grow. Coffee grounds are considered a gentle fertilizer. When using them in your garden, you don’t need to worry about composting the material or purchasing store-bought fertilizers which can be harsh on your plants and soil. You can simply sprinkle the used coffee grounds directly from your kitchen onto your broccoli plants without worries of over-fertilizing or burning your broccoli.
Like other organic materials used in gardening, coffee grounds can help better your soil. When used, grounds can help the soil around your broccoli plants retain more moisture and improve the structure of the soil altogether. This is excellent for your plants and can benefit your soil over time as well.
Helpful Nutrients Inside Your Coffee Grounds
Do broccoli plants like coffee grounds? As you can see, that’s a resounding yes. But why? You see, several helpful nutrients are hiding inside your used coffee grounds. One of the most important of these nutrients is nitrogen. When you sprinkle coffee grounds on the soil around your broccoli plants, the majority of the nitrogen inside is instantly available. The rest will make its way to your plants over time as the grounds decompose in the soil.
Other important nutrients found in coffee grounds that are beneficial to your broccoli plants include phosphorus and potassium. You’ll also find the micronutrients calcium, iron, chromium, and magnesium as well. These important plant nutrients will help better your plants and offer tasty broccoli when it’s time to harvest.
How to Use Coffee Grounds for Your Broccoli Plants
There are two main ways to use coffee grounds to better your broccoli plants. The first way involves covering your soil with roughly an inch to an inch and a half of coffee grounds. This is excellent for people who save their used grounds for planting or can get used grounds locally from a coffee shop.
Once you apply the grounds to the soil you’re using for your broccoli, simply work it in well with a rake or a shovel to prepare it for planting. This method is called amending the soil. Just keep in mind that the coffee grounds must be mixed in with the soil and not left sitting on top. With this many used grounds, you can easily cause needed moisture to be repelled if the grounds aren’t mixed in well.
The other method for using coffee grounds on your broccoli plants is called top dressing. This process involves sprinkling coffee grounds on plants that are already in the soil. By adding a few tablespoons of grounds and mixing them in with the top layer of soil, your broccoli plants get benefits instantly. The nitrogen inside the ground will go to work and help with stem and leaf growth throughout the season. When using this method, you can add coffee grounds once per week or once per month and see the benefits. It’s all according to how much coffee you drink and how many grounds are available to you.
Coffee Grounds and Garden Pests
Another reason you may want to add a few coffee grounds around your broccoli plants is to deter pests. Some gardeners believe this trick can keep snails and slugs from chewing away on your plants. It is even possible that used grounds can detour other critters that may like to frequent gardens, such as cats. If you’ve ever had an issue with your kitty using your garden as an outdoor litter box, try a few coffee grounds. It may just keep them at bay.
Final Thoughts
Does your broccoli like coffee grounds? Yes, it does. By using left-over grounds instead of tossing them in the garbage, you can offer your plants additional nutrients, help your soil, and even keep unwanted critters at bay. The next time you make a pot of coffee, think about your broccoli plants outside. They will appreciate this gentle fertilizer and you’ll benefit when you bite into a tasty stalk of your delicious broccoli.
- You may also be interested in: Are Coffee Grounds Good for Pepper Plants? What to Know!
Featured Image Credit: artverau, Pixabay
