Tried a coffee ground side dressing on my peppers, got mold city

So I read online that coffee grounds add nitrogen and all that, figured why not. Spread a thin layer on top of the soil around 6 pepper plants last Tuesday. By Sunday there was this fuzzy white mold all over the surface. Plants seem fine for now but it looks gross and I'm worried about fungus gnats. I heard you're supposed to compost them first or mix them in deep. Anyone else make this mistake or have a fix that doesn't mean repotting everything? I'm in Portland so it's damp here anyway, maybe that made it worse.

1 comments

1 Comment

hugo23620d ago

That mold is just the coffee breaking down, happens all the time when the grounds sit on top. One time I put them on my tomatoes and the whole pot looked like a science experiment gone wrong. Ended up just scraping the top inch of soil off with a spoon and tossing it in the compost bin. Then I mixed a little bit of the remaining coffee into the soil with a fork and watered less for a week. Plants never cared. Portland dampness does make it worse though, that's for sure.