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Just yesterday, from discussions in the DG Florida Forum, I became aware of a recent development in using coffee grounds in the garden. Anecdotal evidence from gardeners and growers in Florida indicates that coffee grounds around the base of a Asian Scale infested Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta and other species http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53327/ ) will help kill the scale, especially when this treatment is accompanied with regular spraying with a weak coffee solution.
This article about this topic appeared coincidentally yesterday in the Orlando Sun Times:
The Asian Scale (Cycad Aulacaspis Scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui) first appeared in Florida on Sago Palms in 1996. Sago Palms are a very frequently used, standard landscaping plant in Florida, so this invasion of the Asian Cycad Scale was a major threat to gardens and the commercial plant industry. I have personally doctored a scale infested Sago for some friends using the typical recommendations of a botanical oil and soapy water. It is a very difficult and time-consuming task and requires frequent treatments just to control the scale without much hope of totally eliminating the infestation. Coffee grounds are proving to be more effective than other treatments in controlling the Asian Scale on Sago Palms, especially when the coffee grounds are used as a preventative measure prior to infestation by the scale.
Thus far, I've not seen any scientific evaluation as to why the coffee grounds should affect the scale. My own guess, after the research done on this article, would be that the slight amount of caffeine remaining in coffee grounds acts in some manner to kill the scale (similar to the neurotoxic effects of caffeine solutions on slugs and snails as found by Hollingsworth, et al.). In any case, I'm going to start putting a mulch of used coffee grounds around my Sago Palms which have not yet been infected by the Asian Scale. It can't hurt, and from the reports going around, it certainly seems to help!
(Sago photo by DGer noxiousweed from the DG Plant Files)
