Natalie:

The dose makes the poison!

I scanned the abstracts of the research articles linked in the feature article you referred to, and I've no doubt the authors are justified in their conclusions.

Although we have an extensive year-round vegetable garden, my overarching reason for composting is to manage organic waste from the household.

Compared to the volumes of garden and yard debris that we generate the coffee grounds are minuscule, so I will continue to compost them. Others, with other goals, will make other choices.

I would not bring home great volumes of spent coffee grounds from the local brewer, and use them as a soil amendment.

Hi Linda,

Thank you for your response.

I agree, based on my somewhat limited knowledge, that there is a significant difference between putting coffee grounds into a compost heap to decompose and putting them straight onto the garden. I hadn't ever considered the issue of caffeine before, and in fact don't drink coffee, though I have brought home grounds from a local cafe a couple of times in the past, just tea (and toss the used leaves onto the garden!). There is so much information out there and hard to know true from false at times.

I'm glad you were able to review the research, which often overwhelms me, and found that it makes sense.

Cheers, Natalie

On 17 February 2021 at 08:33 Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote: