Even aside from compost, tea bags can be useful in your garden. Tea is generally a great fertilizer for plants that need acidic soil, Dump used tea bags or sprinkle used tea leaves around the base of your plants to fertilize the soil and deter garden pests, especially mice.
When potting plants, place a few used tea bags on top of the drainage layer at the bottom of the planter before adding soil. The tea bags will help to retain water and will also leach some nutrients into the potting medium.
Old tea bags and tea leaves are great for your seeds and can serve as excellent organic plant fertilizers, provided that the bag itself is compostable. We already talked about their ability to hold water.
When you next make a cup of tea don't throw away the old bag because it has many uses that you might not know about. Black tea contains tannic acid and theobromine which removes heat from sunburn so rubbing cold tea water on sore skin will soothe pain. Old tea bags can also be used to flavour rice or pasta.
Not only can you compost tea bags as fertilizer in the compost bin, but loose-leaf teas and compostable tea bags may be dug in around plants. Using tea bags in compost adds that nitrogen-rich component to the compost, balancing the carbon-rich materials.
Tea is relatively forgiving, and rarely spoils as long as it's stored properly. Old tea may simply be less flavorful and fresh than new tea, and will brew up a weaker cup with a stale flavor. In this sense, tea doesn't actually have an “expiration date” after which it will be unsafe to drink.
Help Roses Grow
Since roses love the tannic acid in tea, sprinkle old tea leaves around your bushes so when you water them, the nutrients from the tea will seep into the soil. You'll see them grow like crazy as a result.
As mentioned, tea bags do not expire. Neither does loose leaf tea. Dry tea leaves and bags are typically good for a whopping two years before quality starts rolling down a hill. All teas made from the camellia sinensis plant, whether green or black teas, will begin to lose their flavor over time [3].
Can you compost Twinings tea bags? No. Twinings teabags recently started using plant-based plastic (PLA). Unfortunately, this type of material is only biodegradable by industrial composting services.
After brewing, the tea leaves still contain nutrients, including nitrogen. By burying your tea bags in the garden, you are providing a natural fertilizer for plants. Your plants grow faster and stay healthy in the face of climate change and pests.
Because orchids aren't potted in soil, they need nitrogen for optimal health. Orchid fertilizer and all-purpose flower fertilizer will contain the necessary nitrogen. Another high-nitrogen option for fertilizer is tea bags. With this option, you just open the bag and spread the contents in the potting media.
Used tea bags and coffee grounds are a great way to prevent pests from eating and destroying your garden. Simply bury the tea bags or sprinkle the coffee grounds around your plants. Another way is to brew the used tea bag again for a weak tea that can be poured over the leaves and around the plants.
A tea bag should be soaked in about 5 gallons of water for 24 – 36 hours until the liquid turns a golden-brown color. This water can replace tap water when your succulent is dry and needs a drink.
Pest Deterrent: Pre-steeped bags are a great way to rid your garden of slugs, bugs, and rodents: just sprinkle the wet or dry leaves directly onto the soil. According to Tip Hero, the caffeine also deters pests from eating, nibbling, or peeing on your garden turf.
By adding coffee grounds to your roses, you create a barrier that will keep pests away and allow your rose bushes to thrive. So if you're wondering whether coffee grounds are good for roses, the answer is a resounding yes! Coffee grounds are an inexpensive and readily available organic fertilizer for your roses.
Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus in tea can be beneficial to our best indoor plants as well as those in the backyard. As Leslie says, nitrogen encourages leafy growth, so, in theory, burying teabags in soil, watering with cold tea or sprinkling dry tea leaves onto soil might help leggy plants to look more bushy.
In short, both tea leaves and tea bags retain good quality for about 6 to 12 months past the best-by date.
Another great fact about tea bags is that they can also be reused once more. We suggest to reuse the tea bags just one more time, or else the tea will become too weak.
Generally speaking, you shouldn't use a teabag more than twice in 24 hours. After 24 hours have passed, the tea bag should be discarded. You can reuse tea bags more as long as they are kept in a place that is safe, but realistically a lot of people won't do that.
Eggshell Benefits
As it happens, eggshells can provide all the calcium carbonate the soil needs, which helps to lower the soil's pH level and make it more alkaline as opposed to acidic. This is incredibly beneficial for plant growth because many plants prefer to grow in soil that has low acidity.
The Benefits of Composting Green Tea Leaves
A lot of store-bought plant fertilizers contain nitrogen which promotes and encourages plant growth. Green tea leaves are perfect organic materials to compost as they are packed with nitrogen.
The shell of a chicken egg is comprised of about 96% calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Calcium is an essential plant nutrient and moderates soil acidity. Fast-growing plants deplete the soil of calcium very quickly so egg shells are an ideal supplement and feed for outdoor flowers, vegetables and fruit trees in your garden.