Field Evaluation of Coffee Grounds Application for Crop Growth Enhancement, Weed Control, and Soil Improvement

Abstract

The use of coffee grounds in crop fields were evaluated in terms of crop growth enhancement, soil improvement, and weed control during four successive cropping seasons for two years. Six summer and three winter green manure crops were grown from June 2009 to May 2011. In the first cropping season, the growth of all green manure crops was significantly inhibited by the application of 10 kg m^-2 of coffee grounds. However, the inhibitory effects spontaneously diminished after the second cropping season (about 12 months later), and the growth of guinea grass, sorghum and sunflower was about 2-fold higher than that of the control. The application of horse manure at 10 kg m^-2 effectively alleviated the inhibitory effects, even though the high concentration of coffee grounds was included. Although top dressing application of coffee grounds at 16 kg m^-2 permitted weed control, the impact maintained enough only for half a year. Coffee grounds application effectively increased both carbon and nitrogen contents of soil and reduced CN ratio. The soil amendment effects were significantly higher in terms of nitrogen enrichment and CN ratio improvement as compared with the horse manure application. These results indicated that coffee grounds are useful to enhance long term crop growth, short duration weed control, and soil improvement in agricultural fields by considering the inhibitory effects on the plant growth for half year after the application. Agricultural use of coffee grounds was also discussed in term of fallow periods in crop rotation.