If you’re a big coffee drinker, you’re probably used to throwing out your coffee grounds after you use them. However, consider putting those coffee grounds to use by turning them into fertilizer for your plants. Keep your used coffee grounds from ending up as trash and use them to help grow healthy and strong plants, most notably lemon trees.
Whether you already have or are looking for dwarf lemon trees for sale, a dwarf meyer lemon tree for sale, or any lemon tree to help spruce up your backyard, they’re the perfect receptacle for putting your used, fully composted coffee grounds. Check out this amazing way to turn your coffee grounds from trash to a helpful fertilizer that will allow your lemon tree to flourish into one of the best lemon trees possible!
Using Coffee Grounds for Your Lemon Tree
Most coffee drinkers are probably familiar with the powdery substance left behind after brewing coffee. While you may be used to just throwing them in the trash, you can use coffee grounds for something better than making your garbage smell like day-old coffee.
You can use this highly nutritious organic material to help feed your lemon tree. As coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and other nutrients that allow for your plants to prosper, they are a surefire way to help keep up the health of your lemon tree. Instead of wasting money on fertilizer, use the coffee grounds you already have.
Benefits of Coffee Grounds for Your Plants
Using coffee grounds for your plants, specifically your lemon tree, offers a host of benefits when it comes to maintaining plant health. The high nutrients of the coffee grounds provide a cheaper alternative to traditional fertilizer while, at the same time, cutting down on the time it would take one to buy and transport fertilizer. Some perks of using coffee grounds on your lemon tree include:
- The calcium in coffee grounds allows the lemon tree to build strong cell walls, leading to a strong branch structure.
- The high dose of nitrogen in the coffee ground accelerates the growth of the tree’s root system giving the tree healthy foliage.
- The trace amount of caffeine still found in the grounds is a repellent for snails, slugs, and deer.
How to Use Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer
It’s important to ensure your coffee grounds are composted before placing them on your lemon tree as a fertilizer. That being said, if you decide to place the coffee grounds on directly, only do so in small doses. However, having the coffee grounds composted is best.
When it comes to small lemon trees, you only want to place about a one-inch layer around the tree’s base, making sure not to let the coffee grounds touch the trunk. More mature trees can handle up to a three-inch layer of ground coffee. Immediately water the coffee grounds once placing them by the tree to dilute the caffeine and help the roots absorb the calcium and nitrogen in the coffee grounds.
Doing this throughout the spring season will help your lemon tree grow. You can do this every four to six weeks during the growing season and cut back during the fall and winter months. Since lemon trees are evergreen and fruit-bearing trees, you must regularly feed them and have rich soil to ensure growth at a normal rate and maintain healthy foliage no matter the lemon tree climate.
How to Prepare Your Coffee Grounds
You must prepare your coffee grounds before placing them on your lemon tree to reduce the chemicals in them. Though, in small amounts, placing the grounds straight to your plant is fine, it is better to be safe than sorry.
You can start preparing them by storing the coffee grounds in a jar or container. Let them cool first before doing so. Ensure the lid isn’t on tightly or has holes so moisture doesn’t stay trapped in the container and create mold.
You should also mix your coffee grounds with brown material so as not to place them directly on your plant. It’s a good idea to mix them with the compost you already have. Brown material in your compost consists of leaves, straw, hay, or bark chips. Coffee grounds are a green material, so it’s important to mix them with brown material first. A good ratio of ⅔ brown material and ⅓ green material will do.
Though you may not want to wait, it’s good to let the material decompose for at least six months. You may be sad you can’t start using your coffee grounds as fertilizer immediately, but it will all be worth it. Letting them break down allows them time to mix with the brown material and lose any otherwise harmful chemicals.
Are Coffee Grounds Safe for Your Lemon Tree?
Coffee grounds are safe for lemon trees once they’ve decomposed and lost their chemicals. Too many coffee grounds on a lemon tree before this process happens may cause the death of the good bacteria in the soil and other microorganisms needed for proper tree growth. While this may not be a problem in small amounts, waiting for the decomposition process to run its course is best.
Try out Coffee Grounds on Your Lemon Trees!
Coffee grounds as fertilizer can provide an effective and cheaper alternative for your lemon trees than a traditional fertilizer. If you’re an avid coffee drinker with a green thumb, this is the perfect way to raise healthy and lasting lemon trees. Whether it be a bearss lemon tree, cocktail lemon tree, or dwarf eureka lemon tree, this technique will surely help your trees flourish.
While half a year can seem like a long time to wait for your coffee grounds to be ready to be placed on your lemon tree, it will be well worth it. If you get started today, in six months, you will have the perfect fertilizer to help your lemon tree grow and flourish. So, don’t wait another day and start composting your coffee grounds now so that you’ll have the perfect fertilizer by next spring.
