Coffee grounds make good compost

A: Starbucks has been promoting the idea and several stores offer their coffee grounds for gardens. If there are other coffee shops out there doing the same thing, please let me know.

These grounds are fresh and have not yet broken down or rotted. Composting is a process that good gardeners use to take vegetable matter like coffee grounds and break it down to usable nutrients. The grounds will begin to compost once added to soil, moistened and aerated.

Yes, coffee grounds add benefit to our soil and they contain enough nitrogen so that they will compost nicely. I would use no more than about one-third in volume — one scoop of coffee grounds and two scoops of soil. Of course, it is even better if the grounds are composted first.

Q: Your recent article mentioned that this time of year is about the best for seeding some of the damaged spots in my lawn. Unfortunately, I’m physically unable to repair them right now and will be out for the next couple of weeks. What are the general criteria for seeding? Are there any rules of thumb when I get ready to plant that I can go by?

A: It just gets riskier the later you wait. The weather is usually good right now for seeding and planting plants that like cooler temperatures. This doesn’t include palms, many heat-loving cacti and warm-season lawns like hybrid Bermuda grass.

The longer you wait, the more likely it is that the seed will not germinate due to bad weather.

The soil needs to be above 50 F for seed germination. That is about the minimum temperature. You can approximate the soil temperature in full sun by averaging the high and low air temperatures for the past week.

As the soil gets colder, it will take longer for the seed to germinate. Seed should germinate in about five to seven days if the soil is warm. It might take 10 days to two weeks in colder soils.

If you have to wait, then top-dress the seed lightly with the darkest topdressing you can find. In full sun, the dark surface will help warm the soil a few degrees. You also can use clear plastic if these are small areas. Clear plastic will add a lot of heat and speed germination, but it is hard to pin it to the soil.

I am not sure you can find it, but you also can use white-spun fabrics that are called floating crop covers. They will add five or six degrees to the soil in cold weather. They are easy to find in agricultural areas but may be more difficult to locate in Southern Nevada. You might find it at some nurseries or farm supply stores. I know you can find it online.

Q: I have some questions regarding your column. What is the difference between foliar feeding with Miracle-Gro and a liquid fertilizer? If I foliar feed my crape myrtle, can I also foliar feed my mimosa or silk tree?

A: As long as a fertilizer dissolves in water, you can use it to foliar feed plants. Don’t forget the organic fertilizers like fish emulsions, compost teas, seaweed extracts and the like that are great as well.

Foliar feeding a fertilizer is short-lived, with the impact lasting maybe four to six weeks, but it gives you a very quick response and you can sometimes see the results in only hours. Root feeding, by applying fertilizers to the soil, is much slower, taking several days to impact the plant, but its results last longer.

You can foliar feed any plant with green leaves. The fertilizer is taken up directly into the leaves. In the fall, I would not foliar feed any plant that is sensitive to freezing temperatures. This could reduce its cold hardiness. Mimosa and crape myrtle do well with foliar feeds and it can be done now.

Q: Your recent article got me thinking about a little project that I have in mind. I have some property with native pinion pines on it. I want to transplant some of these on the property nearer to the entrance. Any thoughts?

A: Native grown trees will be tough to relocate. Their root systems are usually tied to available water and more extensive than landscape trees.

Most native pines have long tap roots which make them difficult to transplant. I would say your chances of successfully moving them are slim unless you found some maybe a foot tall.

It would probably be best to dig around them this fall but don’t move them until spring. Cutting the roots now and giving them a chance to regrow closer to the tree will improve your chances of moving them. Take the smallest trees possible.

Bob Morris is an associate professor with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Direct gardening questions to the master gardener hot line at 257-5555 or contact Morris by e-mail at extremehort@aol.com.