Coffee chaff as mulch

Was curious how many of you were familiar with this...
Coffee chaff is a waxy residue that comes off during the roasting process.
It's hydrophobic, and contains a modest percentage of nitrogen. It's a hell of a mulch.



chaff w/ drip irrigation...



Get in touch with your local roasters and save this resource from the landfills...

Peace -

Thanks for posting pics.  I think I have a source for this but I couldn't really picture it in my head.  With all of the scarey stuff happening to commercially produced compost or other additives I am afraid to put any thing in my garden that I don't produce - I try to keep it a 'closed loop'.  The coffee chaff might be a safe way to bring in a little extra goodness.

Those are some nice looking beds you have.  Being hydrophobic, it would have the benefit of not absorbing any of your irrigation water, thereby sending all of it to the plants.  A possible down side would be using it on a slope.  I tend to think that its hydrophobicity would cause it to "float" or "wash" to the downhill end of the bed in any substantial rain.

The photos show the chaff used as a mulch thoroughly covering the soil.  The soil protection is the key feature here.  If the tilth of the soil is right, there would be little floating off except in the heaviest of storms.  I think that the stuff would serve well as part of a blend of mulching material. Some larger material such as stray/spoiled hay/leaves would help to reduce the floating.

Having never worked with the stuff, I am curious about its matting properties.  Does the stuff pack into a layer or maintain the fluffiness seen in the photos? 

I've been experimenting with mulch this year, too darn busy to do much else, and too hot and dry to work compost, so the piles of stuff around here have been spread by the chickens.  I have several piles of stuff around: mulched/mowed leaves, raked up hay the bull pooped on, grass clippings, scythed weeds, and pine needles.  The pile of stuff that I find showing the best promise as a mulch looks to be the material that is the most diverse-some of everything.  Its the only pile that has mushrooms growing in it.