A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 coffe grounds and roses

Hi,
It's been a while since I posted. I have been thinking about the posts about putting coffee grounds around roses and how well the roses do. How do you apply the grounds? Do you dig them in or just sprinkle them around the base of the rose?

Hello Lady Slipper,
I am no rose expert, but yes, you do scratch them into the soil, just a bit, with a hand rake, right around the ring of the plant that would be considered the "drip~line" (*the edges of the leaves of the plant when it is fully leafed out*)

My favorite thing to use is Epsom Salts....
4 times a year, 1st of each month, May, June, July, and August.... But absolutely nothing (*in my zone5*) after that as you don't want too much new green growth that would be killed and/or stress the plant for winter time.. ]

Hope this helps!
I'm sure there'll be a few other's with some more
advise! Also do a FORUM SEARCH and type in roses, that'll give you alot of info on topic's and posts and replies about roses here in the older threads!!!

Weezie

Geez, I keep meaning to put out the coffee grounds onto my rose bush and I always forget.....but not today....nope...I'm taking them down there in a bit.....

Hi,
Thank you so much for the help. It is greatly appreciated

LadySlipper,
If you go to FORUM SEARCH and type in roses,
you'll get a plethra of information on roses
that we've talked about some tips, tricks and technique's for growing them and what everyone's favorites and kinds and brands are.....

What kind do you have????

Weezie

Neat name by the way!!!!

True Weezie...I took that suggestion and found loads of information. What exactly is the purpose of the epson salt thought?

Epsom salt helps the plant to absorb any fertilizer, it's great on tomatoes too.

I have to get drinking more coffee now, to many hostas and roses for my grounds to go around!

Coffee grounds for Hostas too???

Does anyone know if tea leaves would work like coffee grounds?

****Michelle Whitt,
Here's a direct link to the Epsoms Salt In the Garden

There's alot of good information there!

I am not a scientist, so I knew I wouldn't be able to discribe it to you!!!

I've read an aweful lot about it,
and alot of article's suggest you get a soil test.
Because if your soil is already acidic, it can do some harm to the plants!!!!

But I'm going to do an experiment with some with my tomatoes' this year.. (and peppper's)

Weezie

****Storm,
Coffee grounds are great for the soil,
it loosens it, and makes the critter's come
from below to "get at it" and they inturn getting there and eating makes good soil!!!!

I think that the slugs aren't too found of
them as well! I think they're not coffee drinker's!

Weezie

Nyce,
I'm not 100% sure on the tea grounds, but my compost is filled to the rim with tea bags,
I'm an exclusive Red rose Tea drinker, 2 cups a day! And I load my compost stuff with them,
it's funny you should ask that question,
today I was sifting my compost and just had
alot of little tiny staples from where the
string is held on to at the bag!!!

Anyhow, I do know that you can *supposedly* start seedlings in an egg carton and a tea bag........
I have heard it's a good growing medium!!!

So, why not!!!
Give it a shot!!!

Weezie

****WEEZIE, thanks for the information.

Weezie13 try to email you and your box is filled wanted to know how much epsom salt you use on your roses!

Ladystressout,
I emptied a few,
I'm really bad at empting it,
I have a few on there I keep as I want to keep
tabs on how they come out, etc...

Thanks for letting me know!!!

As for the Epsom's Salt, I would have to say,
it depends on the size of your rose bush.....

A good rule of thumb is about 1 tbsp...
2 tbsp's if it's a good size older rose bush...

And sprinkle at the drip line of your plant
(Remember where your plant was last year about,
and when the leaves were all there, and it rained, where did the water fall off of the plant
on to the dirt?
That's where you want it.)
Scratch it into the dirt just a bit!

And it will stimulate the bottom *or basal, I guess they call it* growth for roses, new canes, from the bottom instead of the smaller top spinally growth!!!

Weezie

Only if they are Tea roses. :rolleyes:

My grandmother used to swear by her tea leaves,saying they helped the roses.
I was told the other day to put my banana skins on them,something to do with the potassium.

hi everyone, I never knew about the epsom salts for roses but swear by brown bannas. They work awesome for us when the bannas aren't pretty enough for the kids but I'm too lazy to make bread. My husbands loss of banna bread is usually the roses treat. I've had super killer resilient slugs, they don't fall for beer, or milk spores, or copper wire attached outlining beds ( most don't like electrical charge and will avoid copper ) they don't mind sand paper surrounding plants either. The only thing I've been able to use is from Gardens alive catalog some Sluggo bait, but it's expensive with gardens my size and kinda inconvient to get. But we're big coffee drinkers so I will definitely try the grounds. I celebrate the news because up to now I don't mulch much because it's slug heaven if I do but the sacrifice to me is I'm always weeding ( which I tend to kind of enjoy ). I consider slugs my biggest gardening adversity.

ive always used coffee grounds & tea grounds in my roses, i keep a little bucket under my sink, just for em. i found alot of slugs, when i dug up my tea rose bed, so i went to [gardening] it said beer, apple juice, other bugs that will eat em, & salt. take the salt shaker with you next time you walk around your garden..tomarrow morning im taking my salt shaker!!!
sibyl

The epsom salts is "of course" sold here. I even bought a "box" but then got to thinking - - the ground is already highly alkaline. I don't know if I would be hurting the roses if I used it. Does anyone know if adding the salt will increase the alkalinity?

Thanks

Jon

Found this neat site "Uncommon uses for tea and tea bags"

Uncommon Uses for Tea and Tea Bags

it talks here about using tea leave for your roses and under your plants in their pots also says to give you plants a drink of tea, for the tannic acid.

******LARGELADY thanks for the reply about the tea bag site. I tried to go there, but it said it wasn't found. Would you happen to know the name of the site, so I can do a search for it?
Don't know if your username means you are a woman of size (is that politically correct??), but I am. I also like your rainbow with the smile.
Hope you have a great day!

Hi Nyce and LLady!!!

I fixed it for her, so you can go visit there now!

Weezie

****Jon,
Scroll up a bit to the top part of my post,
and there's a thing on Epsom's salt.......

I know I've read that you should *especially* in question, have your soil tested to be sure about the alkaline/acidity because too much can hurt your plants as well!!!!

Weezie

Hi Nyce, yes I am a woman of size, I like that description. Usually when some one asks like in a chat room how "Large" I am, I usually tell them I'm bigger than a bread box but smaller than a car. Like my age, I'm older than my teeth but youner than the mountains. Not sure who coined that phrase but it applies. My son tells me that dinosaurs walked the earth when I was born, sweet, huh? Anyway, thanks like your rainbow too, if I could have I would use a carousel horse, I collect them but that isn't appropriate for this site. But back on subject, there are several sites I found about tea and their uses from everything as medicinal remedies to gardening tips do a search on uses for tea.