Finding ways to reuse old coffee grounds is seriously satisfying, and it just so happens that during the festive season, there’s a great way to use them on a seasonal plant.
The Christmas cactus is a colorful houseplant that loves to show off its blooms in winter. And while we’ve looked into how to care for a Christmas cactus and keep it alive, there’s an extra special way to help it thrive.
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How to use coffee grounds to fertilize your Christmas cactus
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Now, it’s not quite as simple as offloading your old coffee grounds into the soil, but it’s definitely worth the little extra effort required.
All you need to do is follow these simple steps to get what you need from your old coffee.
Firstly, steep a teaspoon of coffee grounds into a cup of warm water overnight in a cheesecloth. Then, strain out the solids before pouring the remaining liquid into the soil of your Christmas cactus.
This process should be repeated once a month throughout the active growth phase of the plant, which is usually over the winter period.
Why it works
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Coffee grounds don’t just make a delicious beverage, there’s also 5 ways to use coffee grounds in your yard and that also translates really well to your Christmas cactus, too.
Coffee grounds are rich in nutrients, have a texture well suited to soil and a natural pH that provides added benefits. No surprise then that using coffee grounds is something your Christmas cactus will love.
And another thing, coffee grounds are slightly acidic and for acid-loving plants like the Christmas cactus, it’s a match made in soil heaven.
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For many plants, they’re a direct replacement for traditional fertilizer, and for the Christmas cactus, it can replicate the environment they’re native to, which is the humid, tropical rainforests of Brazil.
While it’s unlikely you’ll be able to reproduce the same climate in your home, the coffee grounds do the hard work for you by offering the soil a slight acidity, plenty of nutrients, and a moisture-rich soil.
Other ways to look after your Christmas cactus
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While a Christmas cactus shows off its blooms at winter, it’s certainly not a plant that’s just for the festive period — and there’s plenty of ways you can look after it all year round.
We’ve delved deeper into it in our guide on how to care for your Christmas cactus when the holiday season is over, but there are some main takeaways that are important to follow.
You should gently deadhead any withering blooms when you spot them. And, once flowering is over (around January time), make sure to keep the plant at temperatures of 60-70°F for the remainder of winter and only outside when it’s consistently above 50°F. Plus, be sure to water it less once the flowers have all died.
During the spring and summer months, the Christmas cactus loves to grow, and so, you should use fertilizer on a consistent schedule, around every two or four weeks.
You can also prune any longer stems to encourage further growth when it’s getting a bit out of hand, and even propagate these cuttings to gift once the holidays swing back around.
And, very interestingly, if you want the flowers to bloom year on year, you need to give the Christmas cactus 12 hours of dark and 10 hours of light starting 6-8 weeks before Christmas until the flowers begin to bud. Not quite as long as ‘feeding’ your Christmas pudding, but something you’ll need to keep a check on!
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