Coffee Grounds and Compsting

[morpheus83uk]

Hello,

I am using my coffee grounds in my compost tumbler which has worked great however I am now looking at storing some of the coffee and tea in tubs ready for when I can add it since the tumblers are currently full. Every time I have done this the tea has been fine as I leave the bags on the sink to dry out before placing them in a separate pot from the coffee.

With the coffee grounds however I leave them separate in an open container to help them dry out and I have tried covering the container as well but still after a few days mould starts to appear and I cant use the coffee grounds any more. Does anyone know how I can get these coffee grounds stored so that when I have space for them go and throw them all into my compost mould free?

Thanks

James

 

[JohnD]

no need to store them, you can throw them on the heap or in the bin straight away, wet or dry.

Mould or fungus will not disturb the composting, it is full of bacteria and fungi that break down the organic matter anyway, and will overwhelm or consume any other.

It sounds like you need an extra tumbler bin. I suppose you could get an ordinary plastic dustbin (they are very cheap from places like Wilkinson) but it may get wet and smelly at the bottom. If you are making plenty of compost, a simple heap in a quiet corner of the garden is fine, as long as it has no food scraps that might attract vermin, such as meat, fat or cheese, or you could empty your tumblers onto a heap to finish rotting. The bigger the better, so it can heat up.

 

[ladylola]

We very rarely have coffee so that problem doesn't affect us but we do drink tea. I had always chucked the tea bags straight onto the compost heap which was fine but as you may know the bags contain polyester which doesn't break down. Not a huge problem just annoying picking little bits of plastic up when digging or whatever. So I started drying my bags and ripping them open. I'd sometimes pop some in the oven when we'd finished cooking , oven was off but still warm , and I'd lay some on trays in the greenhouse. I tended to rip them open into a large plastic tub( old paint tub) . As they were dry they very rarely went mouldy if I didn't deposit them on the compost heap straight away.
Looking at the tub of dried leaves one day it struck me just how much it looked like potting compost and that very same thought occurred to someone on another forum I use , and she decided to give it a go , and of course it failed and went mouldy.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thank you for your reply. Yes I leave the tea bags out for a day to dry out before they are added into their own pot ready to go out they seem find its more the coffee grounds which are causing me the issue. I may try having a piece of grease proof paper or something on a tray and put them in after we cook that sounds like a good idea. I have also found out the other half had a dehydrator so I may also give that a go see if that can dry them out fairly quick so I can put them into a pot dry and ready for the compost heap when its not as full.

 

[wrathkeg]

Or you could just sprinkle any surplus grounds around your beds/plants and let it break down and improve the soil a bit that way. I've heard they help stop slugs on choice plants but I don't know if that's true.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Yeah I could do that I was thinking more to get the compost heap going to help it along a bit more which was the main idea. I would also break my neck going outside currently since its just very wet and slippery lol.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Just a quick update on this I have two small tins I bought for 69p which are just right for my tea leaves and coffee grounds. I have put them in the oven once I have finished with it and they are drying out nicely and sitting in a jar ready for when I can put them in my compost.

Thanks for the advice

James