Mixing Wood Ash with Used Coffee Grounds

Wood ash is a good source of carbon and is alkaline, Used Coffee Grounds are a good source of Nitrogen and are acidic. Any thoughts with mixing the two and using as a soil amendment?

Unbrewed coffee grounds are acidic. Brewed coffee grounds usually test out between 6.7 - 7.0

Still, a great amendment (especially if you let them half decompose first...you'll have tons of worms).

I don't see any theoretical problems to the mix just don't think your balancing ph, more than your adding lime to your coffee as a additional nutrient. a 50/50 mix could be disastrous, same thing goes with how you apply it, ash on the leaves kills spiders and acute foliar application could really screw up plants. On the flip side if you can apply it onto mulch the ash will boost the coffee's slug repellancy while dry and slowly at potash as water leaches it through the soil layers. I can't seem to do anything delicately so i usually throw grounds at the plants in the rain hoping to hit slugs in the face and let the rain wash it down. I figure why put it where slugs might be, put it where there going so each time the climb it falls in their face. I wonder if at the right moisture would coffee help bind up the ash so it's less mobile, or would it just destroy the bacteria that the worms are actually feeding on when they go at coffee grounds.

I compost all my wood ash and coffee grounds. I always have plenty of both. I'm with John. Let the worms have at it.

The nice thing about both wood ash and coffee grounds are their nice small structure and especially their spread ability. They can be spread upon grass or garden as is with no composting. The only reason to compost them would be to bulk up the compost or to inoculate the wood ash or coffee grounds with a mix of bacteria and other wee beasties to better spread them around to work for you. Mixing the two and then spreading would be even better due to more even distribution of both. Maybe half right out into the garden and half into the compost. First post. I think I was nice. Being nice is not in my nature. It was hard work.

Thank you, Nancy. And Welcome!

The great thing about composting them is that if there is too high a concentration of some nutrient the process mixes this in and distributes it evenly through much of the compost thus eliminating any chance of burning your plants.