Tried reviving my grandma's old spider plant with coffee grounds last month

The soil turned into a moldy mess within 3 days and I ended up tossing the whole thing, has anyone else had a kitchen hack backfire on them that badly?

3 comments

3 Comments

janah831mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, coffee grounds destroyed my peace lily last spring! I thought I was being all eco-friendly and saving on fertilizer, but nope. The whole pot started smelling like a damp basement and within a week there were these little white fuzzy patches all over the soil surface. I tried scraping them off but they just came back worse. Had to throw out the whole plant and the pot too because I couldn't get the smell out of the ceramic.

morgan.rose1mo ago

@janah83 I wonder if the issue was actually the mold breaking down the coffee too fast and stealing nitrogen from the soil. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen but they need to break down slowly, and if you layer them thick they basically smother the roots while the mold party happens. I've had better luck just sprinkling a tiny pinch on top of established plants once a month and letting the worms handle it if you have them in your pots. Another thing nobody talks about is that some plants like peace lilies are actually pretty sensitive to caffeine too, it can stunt their growth at certain levels.

evan_green521mo ago

Wait, you had to throw out the actual ceramic pot because of the smell? That's wild. I've had moldy soil before but it usually just goes away once you let it dry out, I didn't know it could soak into the pot walls like that. I guess the organic matter really gets into the porous clay or whatever, but man that's a bummer.