Pour coffee grounds on your orchids. Here are the three benefits of this simple approach. Let’s see together how and why it works.
The world of gardening is extremely vast and full of different terms to know. Anyone with a green thumb knows this well. To run a garden or simply take care of all the plants we choose to decorate the house or balcony, a set of knowledge is required. Ideas and awareness that accumulate over time through experience, practice and study. Caring for the flora and all its plants is one of the most complicated things: It requires a certain constancy, regularity and precision. It is wrong to offer the same care to everyone without distinction. Each plant needs individual care. Certainly, there are more “independent” plants that require the least effort. However, many other plants need special and precise care, otherwise they risk their early death. There are a number of measures and precautions for our plants that we are not aware of and that can be a real panacea. One of them involves the use of coffee grounds. Let’s see together how they work.
All care and methods for flowering orchids
Today we will talk to you about the coffee grounds method in relation to a particular flower: orchids. Orchids have always been the most popular ornamental flowers. They make our home and outdoor environment beautiful, harmonious and colorful. They are also very fascinating plants because of their origin: they are found in tropical or subtropical areas of Asia and America. Many species of orchids grow spontaneously also here in Italy, especially in the hilly and mountainous areas. The orchids coming from very hot and tropical areas are mainly epiphytic, that is, they cling with their roots to the roots of other plants, which thus serve as a support for them. The others, however, are called terrestrial because their roots sink into the ground.
The leaves of orchids are very peculiar, ribbon-shaped or oval and alternate. Over the years, we have seen the spread of orchid species that also come from places with colder climates and have adapted to the European climate. Botanists have also created orchid hybrids that are much less delicate and easier to reproduce. For this reason, today they are very popular and inexpensive flowers, we can find them almost everywhere.
Care for orchids does not require incredible efforts, but requires consistency and dedication. We must take into account their needs for water, sun, fertilizer, pruning, etc . For our orchids to thrive and grow, watering is a basic requirement, as well as exposure to sun and temperature.
The orchid soil must be watered every four days, making sure that it remains moist in the meantime. A good solution is to fill a plate with water and place it under the vase: The intake is constant and gradual. Exposure to light must be at least 8-10 hours a day, but not direct sunlight.
Coffee grounds and orchids: Here are the three advantages of their use
As for fertilization, there are many different solutions and today we offer you an unbeatable solution. We have to use a product that costs us nothing: Coffee grounds. Let’s see together how and why we should do it.
We have just seen how to take care of orchids with the right dosage of water and light. A third fundamental element for the proper growth of orchids is fertilizer. Most people resort to buying non-natural fertilizers and spend a lot of money on liquid fertilizers sold in specialty stores. This is usually an unnecessary cost: there are dozens of different solutions that require the use of natural and inexpensive products. One of them is coffee grounds.
Every day we prepare a lot of coffee and throw away the coffee grounds without knowing that they can be very useful to us. The use of coffee in orchids has as its first advantage the great help of this product, which has proven to be a truly excellent fertilizer for houseplants. It manages to provide them with sufficient nitrogen and phosphorus, potassium and magnesium.
A second advantage of coffee is that it can stimulate the growth of plants and also make them immune to many diseases. It is rich in nutrients that are very useful for orchids. The third advantage is the significant savings: no more wasting money on expensive chemical products that are offered to us as the only solution. You just have to pay attention to the dosage: an excessive amount of coffee could be harmful. Here you will learn how to prepare it and how much to use.
How to prepare coffee grounds and turn them into fertilizer
For your orchids, you can make a liquid fertilizer from coffee grounds. First, put the coffee grounds in a container with two quarts of warm water. Then you need to mix everything carefully and let it rest for one or two days in a place without sunlight.
Then you can filter the mixture and use it as a solution for watering orchids. We recommend carrying out this fertilization every 21 days, when it is spring and the first buds appear. In the summer, every seven days. In winter it is better not to fertilize them, because they are in vegetative dormancy.
Another way to fertilize orchids with coffee is to make a potting soil by mixing a quarter of coffee grounds with three quarters of normal potting soil. With this trick you will increase the beauty of your beloved orchids: Nutrients are the key.
Note: If your plants are infested with insects such as aphids or scale, we do not recommend using coffee grounds. In fact, you could make the infestation worse. In addition, we strongly recommend that you let the soil-coffee mixture dry before using it, as putting it in wet can lead to the development of mold of various kinds.
So let it dry well in the sun and apply it in a central layer, neither on the roots nor on the top. It is not important to have a green thumb: With the tricks listed above, anyone can take excellent care of their plants without resorting to impossible methods.
