Intro:
I wanted to start my garden really early this year since I'm going to start all my plants from my own seeds. And it
occured to me at work one day while making coffee that we throw away lots and lots of the grounds. Now I've heard
that some people use them as fertilizers but I wanted to see the actual results first hand.
The Experiment:
There are 2 types of tomatoes, better boy and beefmaster. There are 3 soil types, all coffee grounds, all potting soil,
and half/half. Then there are 2 environments, room temp and incubated. This makes 6 total containers with a total of 36
seeds.
Coffee Ground Collection (January-February 2010):
I left a container out at work beside the coffee machine for people to place the used grounds into. Periodically I'd
take it home and dry them out in a pan until ready for use.
Planting (1-31-10):
Alright, here I am planting the seeds.
Growth Status (2-8-10):
Surprisingly enough, the room temp plants are growing faster than the ones in the warmth. They also sprouted first. The first
signs of life for the room temp plants was on 2-4 and the warmed ones a day later on 2-5.
Coffee Sprouts (2-16-10):
It took 12 days past the very first sprout but the coffee ground seeds finally show some signs of life.
Conclusions & Transplant (2-21-10):
Well there are enough plants large enough for transplant so I moved some of the strongest seedlings to their own pots in
preperation for full scale growth. It seems that the species of seed played no part in this experiment. Much to my surprise,
however, the room temp plants grew slightly faster than the warmed ones. That is probably just an inconclusive fact since
the experiment hasn't been repeated many times over. And the coffee grounds actually stunted the germination. The more grounds
present, the longer it took the plant to germinate. Now this isn't to say it's still not a good fertilizer for matured plants,
but for initial growth, you don't want to use it. It's possible that the grounds make the environment too acidic for intial growth.
