Coffee & Compost: The Truth About Coffee Grounds in the Worm Bin
Вставка
- Опубліковано 23 жов 2021
- Read the Ultimate Guide to Vermicomposting at the Urban Worm Company!
urbanwormcompany.com/vermicom...
Video Summary: Coffee grounds are a popular, but misunderstood material in your worm bin. In this short video, we go into whther coffee grounds are a brown or a green, if they are acidic, and why worms don't immediately like coffee grounds.
Timestamps:
0:51 Are Coffee Grounds a "Brown" or a "Green" In a Worm Composting Bin?
1:05 What is the Carbon-to-Nitrogen Ratio (C:N) of Coffee Grounds?
1:27 Are Coffee Grounds Acidic?
2:05 Why Worms Don't Immediately Consume Coffee Grounds
2:53 Get My Free Guide on Avoiding Common Vermicomposting Mistakes - Навчання та стиль
On the subject of acidity of spent coffee grounds, this does depend on the method used making the coffee. American brewing methods do indeed pass through a lot of water and hence relatively higher amount of acid is leached out of the coffee beans. Compare that with high end, high pressure, italian espresso machines which force through very small amounts of water through quite a large amount of coffee to give you only a 20ml shot of coffee. With this method the spent coffee is more acidic than the brewed method.
I'm a former chemist and tested this both at home and at the lab where I used to work. I have the data if you're interested.
Note I'm not saying that espresso grounds are too acidic for worms but simply that they are more acidic than you think and certainly not neutral.
True….curious to know the pH using other forms of brewing.
@@UrbanWormCompany
Here is what we found. I'm fully aware this is not a properly constituted scientific assay so keep that in mind.
We took multiple samples of spent coffee grinds from three different coffee making methods. Each were tested a few times by different methods. Average results:
Espresso made with a high end, high pressure espresso machine left grounds that were the most acidic - between 4.8 and 5.3.
Stove top percolator was around 6.0 average.
Drip/brewed coffee grounds were around 6.5 average.
With each of those methods we started with the same amount of ground coffee from the same beans. What changes is the method of extraction and the volume of water passing through that amount of coffee.
I then soaked the espresso coffee grounds in a bucket of water for 24 hours. Upon retesting they were now around pH 6.5
@@dinoapolito5354 Good info. Thnx.
So if I picked up the spent coffee grounds from Starbucks...would they be neutral or acidic? I don't drink coffee....but I think folks buy Espresso from starbucks which would make the grounds more acidic, correct?
Dino!! Always love these wonderful chats💚
I gave up coffee a couple years ago but I drink a ton of loose leaf teas. The spent tea leaves are a staple in my Urban Worm Bags.
You can go to Starbucks and they actually have the coffee grounds that are used packaged and bags that you can take a home for free
And if you go to certain stores or Amazon they got tea bags that don’t have the staple usually in a circle that’s what I use and I use reusable tea bags for my loose tea leaves and just empty it out above my worm compost pile
this makes me more in love with worm farming and coffee
Oh my God you made me spit my coffee out listening to the beginning of this video. Freaking hilarious and yes you are right I cannot do without my coffee.
I use coffegrounds as already composted material around my fruit trees and some heavy feeders like tomatos and pumpkins bc they are high in nitrogen and minerals.
Thank you. I have used coffee grounds in my worm bin for years. Everything you say conforms to my experience.
Thanks Baba!
Same.
Something else to consider - coffee grounds also still contain caffeine at lower doses but its there. This is actually a plant repellent - so other plants wont grow near it. In other words - compost it before adding to your garden.
Steve - Thank You Urban Worm Company !!! I have learned so much. I have a worm bin so my grandkids can go fishing with worms without having to run to the store. Stop by for a Blue Gill Dinner!
I like 'em fried Kurt! :)
Thanks for explaining this.
thanks for you time to do the videos, and good advice
Thank you for this excellent video!
That's the way I was doing it 60yrs ago. Always mix your grounds.
Quite logical actually; thanks.
I seriously love your content man from the Republic Of South Africa!!!
Thank you, Steve! I will make my slimy babies coffee grounds/ banana peel/shredded cardboard stew tomorrow!
You got it! That's pretty much what's in my compost bucket right now!
You made me laugh but also educated me. I agree about love of coffee. Thanks.
👍👍This is awesome, exactly what I needed!
You got it Phil! :)
Good looking out.
Thanks Roosevelt!
Thank you 🙏
Thank you Steve, I should have asked you first before buying one, oh well, a new toy for the grandsons.
Thanks!
thank you 🪱👍
Legend mate great video. Thanks👍👍
Thanks Brock!
I'd Sell Both of my Children for coffee ☕😄
I add coffee grounds to the composter while still in the paper filter. I think that qualifies as a de facto green and brown composition.
This would be a green and a brown technically but that filter is not much brown at all!
Very good.
Can't think of a thing missed about coffee grounds you didn't cover.
Agree 100% with everything said.
Thanks Tony!
To paraphrase Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, I love the smell of coffee grounds in the morning. I've fed coffee grounds to my worms in moderation, and they seem to like it. However, great idea of letting the grounds fester for a while before feeding it to the worms. Makes sense, really, when you think of it! Great video as usual, Stephen, I find your videos very educational. The only thing I can't wrap my head around is that someone (one person as of this writing) would actually dislike this video. I mean, either a person is into worm farming, or they're not....but what is there to dislike? Lmao, it boggles my mind.
Ha! Thanks Sverre.....great movie! And yeah....you can't please everyone.
Thanks for watching.
People click on the dislike button by mistake, sometimes.
I precompost my bedding and add the coffee and things like old fruit juice etc to the bedding with a couple handfuls of finished and finely sifted castings to get the microbes propagating in the bedding. It takes a week till the bedding is ready, but the worms seem to process it very quickly.
Yep! You really gotta dirty ‘em up first. Great process there.
Team Rubicon, I worked with them a few years ago when a tornado came thru our state, oh yeah I enjoyed the video also!
They're great, aren't they? I haven't earned the red shirt, but I'm proud to wear the blue!
I'm new to composting, and now Im extremely curious about how my compost will be hence I drink coffee with mushroom and prebiotics.
What would be a good ratio of peat to coffee grounds for weekly feed?
You’re teaching me so much, & yes I’ve been making many mistakes. I just bought 2 lb. African Night Crawlers from the most lovely Samantha @ Meme’s Worms to help my Wigglers here in SoCal. My wife and I are soon moving to the Oregon Coast. I will then order a truckload of garden non-compost worms for aeration and loveliness for the lawns and garden beds. Of course I’ll still have my composting worm bins as well as I plan on a large organic community vegetable garden on my property along with our personal garden.
Thanks so much Brady! :)
I almost never put fresh anything in with my worms. I often make a holding bin of stuff where it let it rot and maybe give it some water to get it composting before adding it to the worms. As he said it helps if you disinfected something or it was not really rotting at all to start with.
This is super helpful and thanks for sharing!!
I have picked up 15,000 lbs. of coffee grounds from a local roaster/brewer a couple years ago and used them in my composting activity. I still have a large pile of straight coffee grounds and I have discovered that it is full of worms. Can these worms be used in a worm farm?
Worms tend to stratify. Red wigglers will be near the top of a large pile. Those are the ones you want for this purpose.
My first batch of worms was at a local ace hardware. They definitely were red wigglers. I put them in a closed 10 gallon tub with holes at the bottom ,top and sides near the top ,but below the lid line. I used coconut core and shredded paper for bedding. My reds did climb the walls the first night. The next day they settled in after giving them some blended greens that were liquefied by using a small blender. I received 250 reds Saturday and they seem perfectly happy. The first night the bin got a small blended salad. This morning I gave the bin a blended banana . I did add two coffee bags of Folgers grounds. I am feeding on one side only to build up castings on the one side for about 1 month. My aim is to have about 6 tubs and 6 thousand worms. I would like to sell some worms to pet enthusiasts. and fisherman in my town . Does this sound like a good plan to you? I am located about 30 minutes just southwest of Daytona Speedway.
Best of luck Tim! The worm market is hot right now, but worm farming is harder work than most people think. Keep growing and testing the market!
I heard that coffee has a lot of chemicals from growers or processors in it that may be harmful. Is this true?
tyvm i get the coffee growns from safeway from the starbucks there. there are alot in one bag. whats a good amount i should give. tyvm for the video was great to know about coffee.
Free Internet Security
No more than maybe a half inch at a time?
I use the cold brew method and studies suggest that the caffeine level in the cold brew is higher. I don't know if that corresponds with the acid level but I imagine that most of the acid still winds up in the coffee itself. What I'm curious about is whether sprinkling the coffee grounds on top of the top layer of bedding (shredded paper) will help reduce the number of flies that inhabit your bin.
I think the acid still comes out, but this would be a good subject to explore!
As for using coffee grounds to get rid of flies, I'm not sure. Don't quote me on this, but I think that *fresh* coffee grounds may be used as a fly repellent. I'm also seeing that burning fresh coffee grounds repels mosquitos, but I haven't tested that one!
Hi Steve, I just have a quick question; Do we have to sift the worm castings? Can't we just pick the worms out, put them back in the worm bin and put the gathered castings in the garden? By the way great videos
Thanks Carolyn! There's no need to sift castings if you're OK with how they are minus the worms. In fact, you'll keep your biology *more* intact (especially any fungi that are present) if you don't sift or screen them!
Question: Is it possible to use manure (composted), cardboard, coffee grounds, worm castings to introduce the microbes and some worm chow and have a successful bin? This would NOT use any food scraps.
I say yes . :))
I have a coffee roasting place nearby that will give away their chaff. This seems like it could be used as the dry brown material for bedding. Is there anything acidic about the chaff that would make these a bad material?
If only there was a video on UA-cam you could watch to answer your questions. Oh well
@@timcarr4155 I was talking about coffee CHAFF, not grounds. :-)
@@stevenslaughter8473 OK then, fill it up and see how it works out
I can't abide coffee, and as an Englishment I drink tea. Lots of it. The worm seem to like the tea leaves.
Fair enough! :)
Love your Coffee and Compost segments!
What is a commonly acceptable amount of coffee grounds one could add to an Urban Worm Bin in a week?
I know im late to this, but hopefully it helps someone else. I saw someone, each time they feed, the have ground up egg shells, and coffee grounds, they basically sprinkle both of those over all the food. Think of it like you seasoning your own food, you want enough to cover, dont make piles. you dont want a little pile of pepper on your food lol. Also, the eggs are good for the worms gullot, which helps them break up food. good to have those grounded up and sprinkled as well.
I thought you would settle the score on the coffee topic that, I think, is very commonly disagreed on among vermicomposters. That is... whether or not coffee classifies as being grit. Over & over again I hear people refer to the coffee as being a form of grit - but if you ask me, it is not. What say you on this topic??...
You know, I thought of that right after filming. I agree with you. Coffee grounds may be gritty, but they're not a grit.
👍🏻
I'd add pulverized egg shells together with the grinds. Buffers the acidity and is true grit.
After a big rain, there is always a little silt on the streets near the curbs. I collect it for this purpose.
What about the caffeine? Will it keep my worms up at night?????!!!!!
Ha! I doubt it....
Cornmeal works about the same !
I have also used flax seed meal.
coffee grounds do not require composting. throw them right on top of the soil along with your crushed eggshells. I put my grounds into the potting mix I use for contaners both indoors and outdoors
We're talking about vermicomposting, Shari, but your point is taken about gardening. :)
as I mentioned.. mine are in containers... all of those containers have some vermicompost into the potting mix.. so all pots both indoors and outdoors have a few worms in them... the now slightly age coffee grounds and crushed eggshell have been partially digested and eaten by the bacteria, plus the daily bananna peel I add to the top as fertilizer for the plants and worm food plus shade for them to hide beneath .... are ready for the worms as the cocoons hatch and the babies grow .
The worm will happier after get caffein intake 😂
I know *I’m* happier!
Used coffee grounds are acidic. The often cited study was flawed.
Can I feed my worms lemongrass?
I don't see why not! :)
Vin Diesel is into worms?
Ha! I get that a lot these days with my bald head.
the sell your children thing was a little cringe
are flavored coffees ok?
Yep!
@@UrbanWormCompany awesome ty