adding coffee grounds to hops

I've heard its good for hop plants...
Has anyone tried it?

I drink coffee every day so I had to do something with all those grounds...fair amount of nitrogen in coffee grounds. I collected the grounds, and liberally applied to my rasied hop mounds. The rest I threw on my compost pile. I had an AWESOME harvest this past August.

typically plants that produce an acidic fruit like hops do will also like acidic fertalizer like coffee. I dumped grounds on mine all summer

TuefelHund said:

I drink coffee every day so I had to do something with all those grounds...fair amount of nitrogen in coffee grounds. I collected the grounds, and liberally applied to my rasied hop mounds. The rest I threw on my compost pile. I had an AWESOME harvest this past August.

Click to expand...

Thanks!
I've been saving my coffee grounds and also going to Starbucks and asking them for theirs. Can't wait for spring!!

Everything in moderation . . . nothing in excess!

Hoppy's right - don't over do it!
Some varieties - like Sterling- don't like acid soil conditions.
If you have crappy soil conditions though, coffee grounds are a great soil amendment.

Jagdad said:

Hoppy's right - don't over do it!
Some varieties - like Sterling- don't like acid soil conditions.
If you have crappy soil conditions though, coffee grounds are a great soil amendment.

Click to expand...

I live in central Oregon... Where the soil is.... Ok. I will be mulching the grounds with other organic material (llama manure... Leafs...etc etc) then till up the land and add the compost to the 50 hop plants ill be planting in the spring!!

I spread my coffee grounds and used hops (after they cool) on my hop garden (California) and the plants seem to do well.

Another "tip" - Try adding some sugarcane molasses to your fert program. It is a natural biostimulant, chelates minor elements, makes your fert work more efficiently. It works both as a drench or foliar spray. One quarter cup in a 2 gal. sprayer. Be sure to use cane molasses, the sugar beet type has high sulfites which can burn roots if drenched. Don't take my word for it either - GOOGLE it and read some of the research papers on it
We use it in our propagation - it cuts our root out time by 30%.

If you make yogurt or cheese the whey can be used as a liquid fertilizer.

Coffee grounds are good as a soil amendment, but you can over do it. Too much nitrogen can lead to lots of leaves and not much "fruit".

How much is too much - over a winter? I have 5 vines (two year old columbus, cascade, and centennial, and first year nugget and willamette). Is one pot per week per vine too much?

more carbon will help to hold more nitrogen. So add chopped leaves, straw, junk mail, news paper, wood chips ect. But coffee is only about 2-5 percent nitrogen. so 100 pounds of grounds would add 2-5 pounds of nitrogen. Look up the nitrogen needs of your typical hops plant and go from there. The other 98 pounds will add trace minerals, carbon, and act as a mulch. If you don't mind the look there is no need to remove the filter. It is paper which is mostly carbon, and will break down over time.

Another option is to plant a nitrogen fixing ground cover like clover and then they will fix the nitrogen from the air.

It would be much better to compost the spent grounds before adding to gardening applications, to reduce any potential worry of 'too much'. people use coffee as a compost starter because of how nitrogen rich it can be. Perhaps you should just collect your yard waste, coffee grounds, spent grains, etc in a pile to be turned once or twice a week.

composting within the bed you are growing in can be fine and dandy so long as you are careful about it

+1 to using them in composting. I compost yard trimmings, cardboard, food scraps, and mainly - spent beer grains!
The grains are full of goodness still, but I'll warn you: they stink as they break down. I add sawdust to help (don't use dust from walnut wood, as it has arsenic).