Guy I coach soccer with manages a cafeteria that produces 30-50 lbs of coffee grinds a week. I see many weekends ahead of laying coffee grinds to dry.

What's the best way of applying the grinds? I take it they don't spread well in a spreader while wet. He has a huge walk in freezer at work that he can store them until we can dry them, but if we can apply them while still damp, it'd make things much easier

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I put them on damp, dry whatever. I find the best way to apply them is to take a RubberMaid bin and fill it and perch it on my hip and walk around the yard throwing them by hand. If you get a few bins you can leave them out for a week and they'll dry out a little bit.

I tried a spreader and that didn't work at all. Read some of David's posts about drying and that will kill that idea. I switch directions every application. So if one bin was put down North to south, the next time i do it east to west.

It is impractical to dry them although I just read about drying wet books by freezing them. Apparently the moisture freezes and then sublimes out leaving it dry after a few weeks.

I've never dried them and as many who remember me from a few years ago can attest, I've used a lot of coffee grounds on my lawn. I used different methods depending on whether I got the silver bags or the trash bags from Starbucks.

When I got the silver bags, I'd just shake them a little as I swung them back and forth while walking backward around the lawn. When I got the big trash bags, I'd pour them in a 5 gallon bucket, carry the bucket and scoop them out with a 1 qt scoop (actually, a big mug I found at the dollar store) and swing them around. I'd pick up any errant filters and toss them in the compost bin.

In your case, the second approach would probably work best.

I also never worried too much about even application. Just don't put them down more than about 1/2 inch thick or they'll cake up and repel water. If you put down 1/2 inch one week, they'll be broken down enough to put down 1/2 inch the following week. If you get an overabundance, you can compost them. They might stink a bit if you don't add any carbon matter to them since they're about 20:1 C:N, but I shred my bills and junk mail and add that as a carbon source. Once composted, they don't seem to repel water so much.

When I was in to putting out coffee grounds I stored them in a 30 plastic trash can. They would dry some there. Sometimes they would get a mold. More for the microherd to eat, I decided. Bigger problem is as they dry they often get clumpy, cloddy and hard. Therefore harder to put out.

As far as ease of application goes, BP makes a good suggestion. Fling'em as you get'em. I never found anything that would apply them better than some type of hand fligging.

I quit using them because of the hassle of going around to gather them up and in my climate they made my beds repel water once they got dry. Not good here where every drop counts. Of course, around Philly I dboubt that would be a concern for you at all.

What's a good application rate give or take (grind wetness factor) of lbs/thousand?

Or 5 gallon bucket should go how far?

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"Or 5 gallon bucket should go how far?"

Until it's empty. Once I emptied a bucket, I quit flinging.

I really never kept track. I just walked around flinging them until they were gone. I'd kind of note where I left off and start there the next time I got more grounds.

I guess it'd be much like any other organic, and 20 lbs per thousand an application should be a good starting point (dry, which I'll know because my source will know how much he's ordering)

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I'd suggest BP's approach unless you can get so many grounds you get to the point of possibly smoothering the grass. And that would take a lot of grounds or a small yard. Otherwise, just fling'em as you get'em and try to remember where you flung so the applications stay kind of even.

I'll have about 40 dry lbs a week to spread over 6000 sq feet total. I'll also be applying milorganite, soy bean meal, cracked corn, humic acid, vermicompost, molasses, seaweed, and probably other things I'm forgetting. So if I applied something every two weeks, I'd be applying about 55lbs of coffee grinds per thousand, with normal apps of Everything else on a rotated schedule

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I still say that you should spread them as you get them. If you try to store them and spread them all at once, you could end up with more clumps and mold and so on. They aren't a strong enough source of nitrogen (or protein if you prefer) to make a dent in what you're doing with the other sources.

If you had 40 lbs of UCG per 6000 per week for 6 months, that would be about 4 lbs of N per 1000 sq ft.

You could probably skip buying most of the other stuff and just get by on what you get for free.

Would the other sources be providing other nutrients that the ucg would not be providing? That's my main reason for such a variety, and why I'm gonna be adding in the other supplements as well. Kinda like I'm going vegetarian and needing the other supplements for a rounded diet

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"Would the other sources be providing other nutrients that the ucg would not be providing? "

Yes. And that's a valid reason to use them. If you want, you can use the other sources and look at the UCG as a supplement.

I have used my Scotts hand held rotary spreader with some success.

It worked O.K. Have to leave it wide open (setting 5) and shake it a bit, but for the most part, it's the way to go for UCG.

We have a big tarp that we lay out in my buddies driveway, and spread them out once a month and let them dry, any clumps we just step on and it's good enough to throw in the spreader. To make spreading easier I've started mixing all my organics with milorganite and it comes out of the spreader so much nicer. The mixing breaks the coffee grinds up enough that they are all granule form by the time we spread it

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I'll have to try this. Thanks!

Abyss wrote:We have a big tarp that we lay out in my buddies driveway, and spread them out once a month and let them dry, any clumps we just step on and it's good enough to throw in the spreader. To make spreading easier I've started mixing all my organics with milorganite and it comes out of the spreader so much nicer. The mixing breaks the coffee grinds up enough that they are all granule form by the time we spread it

And this is why more heads are better than fewer heads. Thanks, Abyss, for sharing that combination of ideas.