How to Compost with leftover Tea Leaves
WHAT IS COMPOST AND WHY SHOULD WE COMPOST?
“Compost” - the noun - can be mixed into soil or used as topsoil. Plants LOVE this stuff! It improves soil structure, texture, and aeration. This increases the soil’s water-holding capacity thereby preventing problems caused by overwatering like root rot.
HOW TO BEGIN COMPOSTING AT HOME:
Adding Tea to Your Compost:
Did you know? Looseleaf tea leaves make a fantastic addition to any compost pile. But instead of throwing away your used leaves, try recycle them!
Composting with tea leaves is a great way to reduce your organic waste production and provide all your plants with some nutrient-rich soil all in one!
There are a variety of ways to use tea leaves in your garden, indoor or outdoor, but the simplest would be to just throw your used leaves into your compost bin.
Tea leaves compost is chock full of nutrients that plants love, and the microorganisms in your compost will certainly appreciate the moisture left in the leaves after steeping. But there are a few things about tea leaves that you have to keep in mind if you decide to use them in your garden.
SHOP LOOSE LEAF TEA HERE
Pros and Cons of Caffeine in Compost
Composting/recycling the used leaves is one of the best ways you can reduce your personal organic waste production.
But composting a product with caffeine can be tricky. Caffeine is a stimulant for both plants and humans. Very, very small amounts of caffeine can stimulate plant growth, but if you give your plant too much caffeine, that growth becomes unstable resulting in a dead or stunted plant.
Fortunately, when you brew tea and coffee, most of the caffeine is removed during brewing (caffeine is very soluble so it comes out as one of the first components to enter your hot water). There’s less and less caffeine left in the tea leaves with each successive brewing. That means reusing tea leaves can reduce your waste and the caffeine risk to your plants.
Like a great party guest, compost feeds both the plant and its neighbors, the microorganisms in the soil which produce nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus that help plants grow.
