Watering with cold coffee

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
I've been on here long enough to hear it all... "I piss on my plants", "my cat pisses on my plants", etc. Most of it - and most of what you read on this forum - is BS, tales passed from one noob to the next. Uncle Ben refers to these as "snake oil and rocket fuel". However, I recently read on a forum for master gardeners about using cold coffee on tomatoes. There was no science given but it sounded reasonable so I tried it on my tomatoes... and on a couple of my pot plants. While it is impossible to quantify the results, it does appear that it may have had some beneficial results. I used the cold coffee several times over the course of a week.

Now for the good part. I decided to check the pH of the residual of yesterdays coffee. But I needed a standard to go by so I checked my tap water first: 7.5. Then I poured the cold coffee into a glass and tested it: 5.5! That was interesting, a perfectly pH balanced amendment for our favorite plant.

I Googled for information on what is in coffee. There are over 1,000 chemicals in coffee but only a few of them in a significant proportion. I will list the major ones.

Water - the universal super solvent.

2-Ethylphenol
- a component of cockroach alarm pheromones.

3,5Dicaffieoylquinic acid
- a powerful antioxidant that destroys free radicals.

Dimethyl disulfide - you don't want to know.

Acetylmethylcarbinol - gives butter it's buttery taste; it's also used in movie popcorn flavoring.

Putrescine - you really don't want to know!

Trigonelline - a niacin molecule with a methyl group attached. It prevents tooth decay by inhibiting the bacterium streptococcus mutans from attaching to your teeth.

Niacin - Vitamin B3. When coffee is brewed, the high temperature causes the methyl group to detach from the niacin, releasing pure niacin into the coffee.

Coffee grounds also seem to be a very good material to add to your compost pile and even freshly used grounds are fine to use.

OK, I'm not a scientist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So my conclusion: use it; it can't hurt and there seems to be some good things in it. ...but I wouldn't use it in my hydro unit. :)
 

Denofearth69

Active Member
Interesting post. Didn't know about the Ph thing, but, as a pure organic grower ( nothing out of bottles ) I have put coffee grounds in compost for literally decades. Enjoyed getting some of the science behind the humble coffee grounds.
 

Lil Czr

Well-Known Member
Been using coffee and the grounds for years.

I save my my leftover coffee and use it in diluted doses throughout my grows.

I mix the grounds in when I mix the soil, very good for your plants all round.
 

Denofearth69

Active Member
Using urine on plants is BS? You better read up.
You tell him bigv1976, I have the massively overwhelming proof of how useful this much maligned, AND FREE!!! nutrient can be. Sadly there are some of the nay sayers that seem incapable of letting go of modern overly sterile ways of thinking, and cling to the myth that if it doesn't come in a bottle or box it can't be good. I personally believe that these are people who have never grown anything but weed, and therefore have very limited knowledge of how plants grow and thrive. Kind of like how many conservatives have to wait until Beck or Limbaugh tell them what their opinion is, there are growers on RIU who kneel before the alter of fox farms, and count on them ( or others like them ) to provide them with all their growing techniques.
 

bigv1976

Well-Known Member
Yeah the biggest problem I have with posting anything here is that people read shit and if they wanna believe it they do whether or not it is founded or not. Generally I have found that opinions here are just that and once I find a bit of info on here I research it elsewhere because it seems like we are in a vaccum here. 1 guy "Fox Farm is the best" 200 others "yeah he's right". You can see it in the posts that most don't know shit. How many posts a day do we see that say Help my plant is dying? I have never killed a plant in my life and I really dont know shit about growing compared to some. "Attitude is awesome!! I have never ordered anywhere else". That's why they are awesome cuz you know no better. "I will smoke bat shit but no way would I put a nutrient rich and free liquid like my own urine in my soil". I dont get it and I dont know why it bothers me but it does.
 

Lil Czr

Well-Known Member
There are a lot of ferts that are made with urine (or urea as it is listed in the package).
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
You guys misunderstood my post and I know I didn't properly address everything but that was an example, not the focus of the post. I did not say that pissing on your plants is BS. First of all, urine is more sterile than any nutes you get in a bottle or otherwise. Urine does *contain* nutrients that plants like but if you piss on them they will die, it's like putting 4,000 ppm into your hydro. A 10:1 dilution is workable for using urine as a nutrient. I think you will agree that there is a lot of BS on this forum and it is passed from one to the next like it's the gospel. Hope you got more out of it than "using piss is BS"; that was not the intent.
 

ganjaluvr

Well-Known Member
I've been on here long enough to hear it all... "I piss on my plants", "my cat pisses on my plants", etc. Most of it - and most of what you read on this forum - is BS, tales passed from one noob to the next. Uncle Ben refers to these as "snake oil and rocket fuel". However, I recently read on a forum for master gardeners about using cold coffee on tomatoes. There was no science given but it sounded reasonable so I tried it on my tomatoes... and on a couple of my pot plants. While it is impossible to quantify the results, it does appear that it may have had some beneficial results. I used the cold coffee several times over the course of a week.

Now for the good part. I decided to check the pH of the residual of yesterdays coffee. But I needed a standard to go by so I checked my tap water first: 7.5. Then I poured the cold coffee into a glass and tested it: 5.5! That was interesting, a perfectly pH balanced amendment for our favorite plant.

I Googled for information on what is in coffee. There are over 1,000 chemicals in coffee but only a few of them in a significant proportion. I will list the major ones.

Water - the universal super solvent.

2-Ethylphenol
- a component of cockroach alarm pheromones.

3,5Dicaffieoylquinic acid
- a powerful antioxidant that destroys free radicals.

Dimethyl disulfide - you don't want to know.

Acetylmethylcarbinol - gives butter it's buttery taste; it's also used in movie popcorn flavoring.

Putrescine - you really don't want to know!

Trigonelline - a niacin molecule with a methyl group attached. It prevents tooth decay by inhibiting the bacterium streptococcus mutans from attaching to your teeth.

Niacin - Vitamin B3. When coffee is brewed, the high temperature causes the methyl group to detach from the niacin, releasing pure niacin into the coffee.

Coffee grounds also seem to be a very good material to add to your compost pile and even freshly used grounds are fine to use.

OK, I'm not a scientist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So my conclusion: use it; it can't hurt and there seems to be some good things in it. ...but I wouldn't use it in my hydro unit. :)
heh.. I dunno about all that man. Using coffe?!?! to water your plants...?? Sounds to me like you would just be asking for plant troubles if you were to use coffee. But I guess each to his/her own.. but personally for me..? nah.. I wouldn't dare try it. I put too much love and time into my grows, to just take a wild chance of killing it.. by feeding it coffee.

But hey! good luck to you and your coffee plants my friend.. best of luck. IMO, your going to need it. ;)

peace.
 

Lil Czr

Well-Known Member
You guys misunderstood my post and I know I didn't properly address everything but that was an example, not the focus of the post. I did not say that pissing on your plants is BS. First of all, urine is more sterile than any nutes you get in a bottle or otherwise. Urine does *contain* nutrients that plants like but if you piss on them they will die, it's like putting 4,000 ppm into your hydro. A 10:1 dilution is workable for using urine as a nutrient. I think you will agree that there is a lot of BS on this forum and it is passed from one to the next like it's the gospel. Hope you got more out of it than "using piss is BS"; that was not the intent.
I hear you man, sometimes the BS that is spewed on this site is overwhelming.

But there are some gems of info on here as well if you're experienced enough to know the difference.
 

bigv1976

Well-Known Member
Czr, I am sorry. I am not attacking you or your post. Just trying to bring light to other options in all aspects of our hobby. Ignorance is sooooo prevailant on here and I just feel that knowledge is power and ignorance limits possibilities. Good thing Columbus wasn't afraid of falling off the earth huh. If I was on here to choose 6 people to represent this whole marijuana issue to Obama I am not sure that I could find 6 good reps that I would feel comfortable sending because I have not met 6 people on here that keep the ultimate goal in mind and explore the options of acheiving the goal before they kicked old Barracks door in.
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
The thread is about coffee, not piss, not anything else. If you're going to be a dick, start your own thread and stay off this one.
 

ganjaluvr

Well-Known Member
The thread is about coffee, not piss, not anything else. If you're going to be a dick, start your own thread and stay off this one.
Actually.... its about using cold coffee.. to feed your plants with. To be technical. ;)

not trying to be a dick.. just saying.

good luck with the whole coffee thing. lol...

I'm out.
peace.
 

bigv1976

Well-Known Member
Who is being a dick? You started an interesting thread and I thank you. I see so much ignorance on here that I jump when I shouldn't sometimes. Sorry for semi-hijacking your thread but just understand where I am coming from. We share a common interest and I just want to help when I can.
 

Lil Czr

Well-Known Member
heh.. I dunno about all that man. Using coffe?!?! to water your plants...?? Sounds to me like you would just be asking for plant troubles if you were to use coffee. But I guess each to his/her own.. but personally for me..? nah.. I wouldn't dare try it. I put too much love and time into my grows, to just take a wild chance of killing it.. by feeding it coffee.

But hey! good luck to you and your coffee plants my friend.. best of luck. IMO, your going to need it. ;)

peace.
Do you use any organic ferts, because I promise you that they come from sources that are much worse than coffee.

So, if coffee turns you off, You definately don't want to use anything outrageous like bat guano or decayed organic matter.

Better stay with the chemical ferts then.

But wait a minute, some of them are made from piss and shit too, guess you're out of luck then.
 

ganjaluvr

Well-Known Member
Do you use any organic ferts, because I promise you that they come from sources that are much worse than coffee.

So, if coffee turns you off, You definately don't want to use anything outrageous like bat guano or decayed organic matter.

Better stay with the chemical ferts then.

But wait a minute, some of them are made from piss and shit too, guess you're out of luck then.
No, actually I don't use organics. :) thanks for asking though.

bye bye.
peace.
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
God... I don't know why I even bother sometimes. The people I trust are FDD, Uncle Ben, Earl, Cruizer and Dave Coltier; that's about it. If I really wanted to start some crap I would have thrown in "molasses" along with the cat piss, LOL. As you can see, I've been on here for 3 years; maybe that doesn't mean anything but I have learned a LOT of things NOT to do. Lil Czr uses one of my mantras in his sig line: don't love your plants to death. I found that out my first year. Maybe it's the scientist in me, or the engineer, but I love experimenting with the different variables that make sense to me. No, I'm not a real scientist but I did pull a 4.0 in college chemistry and I do have medical laboratory training and some engineering background. If you find something that works, use it; that's what I'm searching for. Basically I am testing things and when something does not work I throw it out. I've found things that do work and things that do work. I am on a mission to find that sweet spot for me. I just read a post where some guy "guarantees 100%" germination by using his method, yet he didn't even mention using a heat mat. In my experiments, I've tested every variable I can think of for germinating, using over 450 seeds just this year alone. IMHO a heat mat is *the* single-most important ingredient in germination - and no I do not sell heat mats. I'm here to help when I can. I read what successful growers do and take notes. I think we're on the same page. :)
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
Believe it or not, plants do NOT uptake organic compounds. Organic compounds must break down into their simple elements before passing through the membrane and being absorbed by plants. This has just recently been discovered.
 
Top