For what it's worth, I use tea grounds on my potted plants with no adverse affects. Sometimes larvae grows in them though. My roses seem to love them.

I let the tea bags ferment in water for a few days and then use them grounds and water on the plants. They don't seem to complain, ha ha!

I also drink lots of tea, and use it as mulch, especially for acid-loving plants, though it hasn't stopped my gardenia from wasting away!

I don't expect it to have much nutrients, but it does alright as mulch. One note of caution, though, if you use it indoors, you may find it promotes the growth of those annoying, nasty, *%$&(&% fungus gnats!

P.S. If you switch to loose tea, you don't have to bother with cutting open the bags!

Jim

Which tea would work better..herbal or caffeine? Does it make a difference?
I save old milk containers filled with water.. I used to add used tea bags to the containers, but after thinking it over, (I use honey or sugar in tea) if honey would 1. harm a plant 2. attract mice..
Later, I found Dollar Stores sell 50 tea bags for 1.00..can't go wrong, right? bags are fresh, w/o honey or sugar.
Does anyone know which tea to use?
Would caffiene waken plants opposed to herbal which might relax/dormant them???? LOL

Jim, after pondering your post, perhaps allowing soil to dry more would have prevented those (&()(&)( gnats..LOL
Seriously, gnats are attracted to soils kept constantly moist/wet, and air is dry. Is it possible?
I've seen numerous plants packed with fungus gnats when moss was used atop soil. Especially sphagnum. (worked at a retail nursery)
I don't have an answer about tea, but now that spring is here, (officially not in reality) days are longer, I'd like to add/use something to perk up plants..be it something to help soil that lost nutrients to acidic turned neutral/alkaline. Plus a basic pick-er-up.

One last comment. The heading of this thread is Tea leaves as fertilizer....IMO, tea leaves wouldn't provide adequate if any NPK. Aside from possibly converting alk to acidic soil, fertilizers would be needed..Toni

Re: Fungus gnats! I hate them! Someone posted on here about if you want to get rid of them, put about a half inch of sand on top of the soil. It really works! I had gotten rid of mine over the course of a summer, then over the winter I forgot and brought in a pot of dirt from outside and stuck something in there. Now I have them back, but they don't breed in the sand, because it dries up so fast.

are used teabags safe to use as fertilizer/mulch?

Yes, they are safe but as Toni says they aren't going to add much in the way of nutrients. They can have an acidifying effect on the soil which may or may not be what you want.

I do add mine to my compost bins but I don't dump anything "raw" on my plants.

umm ya im going to probably be doing this for an expermient in school so any tips would be appreciated and websites to (reasearch sucks)

Tea Grounds NPK content: 4.15/0.62/0.4 Good website breakdowns of many food wastes: http://www.lundproduce.com/N-P-K-Value-of-Everything.html

I'm Howard Martin and, I'm doing something with the used leaves they say not to do but I'm getting results by putting the tea leaves of used tea bags around my young lemon seedlings as fertilizer and they're doing well

citrus like slightly acidic soil and add sweetener to soil can acidity the soil

Yes and I always dry the tea and pour the dries, used leaves in the soil around my plants.

I'm just putting them on top of the soil