Can you put banana peels in compost? You bet you can! While bananas offer us some extremely important nutritional benefits that help us to stay healthy, their peels can be used to add to the health of your compost pile as well.
Bananas are one of the most popular nutritious foods in the world. However, their peels are often discarded without a second thought. You won’t think of them as simple kitchen scraps anymore once you learn just how beneficial they can be.
Advantages For Your Pile
Banana peels are full of helpful nutrients that are great for your compost and they break down fast. So your pile will receive all of these goodies quickly. They are considered a green material and therefore are nitrogen-rich. Peels, like the bananas they protect, are rich in potassium but also contain phosphorous.
Placing them in your pile will also add iron, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, manganese, and sodium. An added benefit is that worms love to eat them. And this will help to break down your pile into usable soil fast while also contributing to the well-being of the current worm population in your compost pile.
Adding Your Peels
If you’d like you can simply toss entire banana peels into your pile, but don’t forget to remove the sticker first. Whole peels will usually take around three weeks to four weeks to decompose. But of course, how long it takes will also be influenced by the type of composting you are doing.
To help peels to decompose faster, you can cut them up into small pieces. This will also help to keep backyard pests such as raccoons from developing an interest in your pile. Bananas are a favorite place for fruit flies to lay their eggs. These eggs are often laid on them before you purchase them and bring them home. To prevent them from hatching in your pile you can destroy any existing larva first.
An easy way to do this is to place the peels in the microwave for one minute before cutting them up and adding them. Washing the outside of your bananas with warm soapy water when you bring them home from the store can also work. Freezing banana peels before placing them in the compost is another method that many people use.
Straight To The Garden
You may want to consider placing your peels right into your garden and skipping the compost pile altogether. The peels can be used just like fertilizer since as they decompose over time they release all of their nutrients to the soil. Burying them a few inches deep will help to hide them from pests as will cutting them up.
The added potassium they provide to the soil is often used to help roses in particular to have colorful blooms. Banana peels in the garden will attract worms and at the same time help to keep away destructive aphids that don’t like the smell they give off.
The next time you finish a delicious banana don’t toss that peel in the trash. By placing your banana peels in compost you’ll be helping to create balanced soil you can use in the future and cut down on unnecessary waste.
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