Cucumber plants need nutrients like any other plant. Adding nutrients to your plant on a regular basis is a sign that you care about it. The most common nutrient sources are either fertilizers or compost, which are good in general. Yet, there are some growers who use coffee on their plants frequently, which will lead to this: are coffee grounds good for cucumber plants?

 

The answer is yes, coffee grounds are good for cucumber plants. In fact, coffee grounds are considered very helpful for cucumbers in many ways. It could help even for a soil fixator and repel harmful pests along with other benefits.

 

For this specific reason, you’ll find in this topic all that you might need regarding the use of coffee grounds on cucumber plants, when to use them, how often to use them, and of course how much and which way is considered most beneficial.

Let’s dive into the details:

You will find it in this article.

 

 

1 are used coffee grounds good for cucumber plants.

Surprisingly enough, the benefits of coffee grounds for cucumber plants is not exclusive just for the fresh coffee. Used coffee grounds are also good for cucumber plants.

 

It doesn’t matter if the coffee grounds are fresh or used, the type of nutrients in it will be the same. The simple difference between fresh and used coffee will be the acidity of fresh ones more than the used ones. But then again, this will not dramatically affect the overall profit that your cucumber plants will get.

 

Additionally, let’s head to find out the benefits of using coffee grounds on cucumber plants…

 

2 why using coffee grounds good for cucumber plants

Like we stated before, coffee grounds are more than great for cucumber plants not just on nutrients, it has a lot more than just that…

 

 

1. Nutrients: one of the huge benefits of coffee grounds is that they contain a lot of nutrients from both kinds: main and secondary nutrients. The nutrients include: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, those are the main ones. It also contains the micro nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, boron, and calcium.

 

As you can see, when you add these nutrients to your cucumber plants by adding coffee grounds, your plant will be more appreciated for your action because you are providing all the nourishment your plant needs.

 

 

2. Ameliorate the soil (PH): another good thing that coffee grounds bring to you is helping the soil to be more suitable for plants like cucumber. By adding it to soil you will lower the PH of your soil, that is because coffee grounds are acidic, while you do so, the soil is more fitting to grow cucurbits and their family.

 

3. Ameliorate the soil (air circulation): the other benefit that coffee grounds bring to your soil is helping it to be more loose. In other words, coffee grounds presence will do two important things: first, it will help the top layer of soil around the plant to be softer, which will allow for water to easily go through.

 

 Second, coffee presence will attract more worms to your soil and make them happy, which will lead to more holes in the ground resulting in air circulation, and thus, benefit your cucumber plant after all.

 

 

4. Expels harmful insects: coffee grounds do have a strong smell that most harmful insects and pests don’t like. This odor plays a huge role in repelling most of these dangerous pests that are looking for their next meal, especially cucumber plants that are vulnerable against them.

 

The structure of coffee grounds when adding it to your planting soil will expel and keep pest away to not put their eggs around your plant. As you can see, coffee grounds can be used not just as a nutrient source, but also as a pest repellent when added.

 

 

 

5. Mulching your plant: another benefit when adding coffee ground around your cucumber plants as a mulch is to put an end to weed invasion. Weeds are extremely dangerous if you let them spread without a barrier. They can decrease the airflow that your plants need, and thus, harming them in the end.

 

When you add coffee grounds to soil, you are putting a good barrier that can stop the spread of weeds around your plants, leading air to circulate, and thus, overall benefit of keeping your cucumbers healthy and strong.

 

6. Accelerate compost decomposition: lastly, when you are dealing with compost, you want to benefit from it fast and at most. Mixing coffee grounds to compost will do two beneficial things to your compost:

 

•       Reduce the inconvenient smell of compost: by mixing coffee grounds to compost, you are mixing the two smells of coffee and compost. We know that compost has an unpleasant odor, while adding coffee will reduce this smell dramatically allowing you to react with the mix in a more comfortable way.

 

•       Accelerate decomposition: by adding coffee grounds to your compost, you will notice that the mix is starting to heat up, that means that there are decompositions happening. When you add coffee, you are accelerating that reaction and making the compost to release the nutrients fast, and thus, benefit your cucumbers fast, which result in improvements regarding health and growth of the plants.

 

 

3 when you can use coffee grounds for cucumber plants

There are a lot of convenient times when you want to use coffee grounds for cucumber plants. Many gardeners prefer to add it early in the morning but this does not affect the overall profit of it. You can add coffee grounds either in the first stage of growth or in the fruit production phase as both times are great to apply.

 

The big question is how often you can use coffee grounds on cucumber plants? As a general idea, you can add coffee grounds several times (not more than 10 applications) during the season depending on the quantity you’re adding and also the fertilizers you are using.

 

In addition, knowing the acidity of your soil is important (PH). There is no point in adding coffee grounds and your soil has a low PH. After all, testing your soil and knowing what it has is a wise thing to do and to avoid anything unpleasant that may happen if you add coffee to your soil.

 

4 how much coffee ground is good for cucumber plants

Adding coffee ground to your cucumber plants is beneficial in all ways. But too much of something will be for sure harmful in all aspects. The quantity of coffee ground that you can add to your soil depends on: 1 how often you want to apply, 2 how much you are adding in each application.

 

You can add small sprinkles of coffee grounds to your cucumber plants each morning and apply them many times over the season (the number of reps is relative).

If you want just a few applications, let’s say two times, you can add a good amount in the growing phase of your plant, and then repeat once more the application in the fruit production phase.

 

By doing this, you are doing it in the proper way and not risking overuse of coffee grounds and making your soil too acidic, so be careful with the amount you’re adding.

 

5 how to use coffee ground for cucumber plants

To use coffee grounds on your cucumber plants, you can apply this:

1. Collect your coffee grounds and make them a bit wet using water.
2. Sprinkle small amounts around the plant and in the planting soil.

 

3. You can also mix the coffee ground directly in the soil that surrounds your plant.
4. For good results apply day by day for several times (7-10) times is good.
5. When you apply in the morning, consider delaying watering until evening for best absorption for nutrients.
6. You can mix coffee grounds with your fertilizers and apply the same way you treat fertilizer.

 

Conclusion:

In the final analysis, coffee grounds are good for cucumber plants. You can either use fresh or used (cooked) coffee grounds as they both are good for your cucumbers.

Additionally, using coffee grounds to your cucumber plant can be used as a nutrient source, pest’s expeller, soil fixator, attract worms, mixed with compost, and a mulch to repel weeds.

 

Furthermore, you can use coffee grounds on cucumbers during all growing stages, and add a few amounts around the plant several times. You can also blend it with your preferable fertilizer and apply directly to your soil.

Moreover, you can always look up other topics about cucumbers here as you may find something interesting, such as happy gardening.