Using Banana Peels In The Garden

Bananas are both delicious and healthy. And you may have wondered after finishing your morning shake or afternoon snack whether those peels you’ve been throwing away for years could be used for other things.

What can you do with banana peels? It turns out quite a lot, and lucky one best uses is as fertilizer. Using banana peels in the garden is not just simple but it’s of course a way to put those peels to use in a natural way that is great for both your plants and soil.

Benefits Of Using Banana Peels In The Garden

Bananas are nutritious for us but their peels also contain a lot of nutrients, minerals, and trace elements that are ideal for the garden. As they break down they release them into your soil.They are particularly high in potassium which helps nutrient and water transfer in plant cells and also protects plants from disease.

Potassium is also well-known for promoting healthy blooms and tastier fruits and vegetables. It’s very common for gardeners to use banana peels for roses in particular along with other potassium-loving plants such as tomatoes and green peppers.

Peels also contain iron, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, along with manganese which helps plants with photosynthesis. But that’s not it. Those peels you’ve been tossing in the trash also have phosphorous which is one of the main nutrients needed by plants in order to grow.

Free Worm Food

Peels help your plants indirectly as well. They are a great worm food and of course more worms equals more worm castings. Those castings add nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous to the soil. An added benefit is that the tunnels those worms create to move around help air and water to reach the roots of plants.

Natural Aphid Repellent

Using banana peels in the garden can help to keep pests such as aphids away. Aphids eat plant sap and can quickly infest your garden. They can pass viruses to plants and the damage they cause when feeding can destroy them.

However, they hate the smell of ripe bananas so adding peels can work as a deterrent for these annoying and destructive pests. That’s without using any harmful sprays or chemicals which is always a good thing.

How to Use Banana Peels As Fertilizer

There are a couple of ways you can use your peels as fertilizer. You could just toss them whole into your garden, patio planters, or pots. However, this may attract unwanted visitors such as rodents, moles, rabbits, skunks, raccoons and a range of insects.

In order to keep backyard pests away all you’ll need to do is cut up your peels into small inch-long strips. And then using a trowel dig a hole or trench about two to four inches below the top soil near your plants. After placing the pieces inside cover them up.

You may also want to think about adding pieces of banana peel when you’re actually planting your plants in the ground. An easy way to do this is to place them in the hole you have dug for your plant before you put it inside. Fill the hole in with dirt and when you get a few inches from the top of the hole you can add a few more.

Save Them For The Future

If you’d like to save your peels for future use you can always dry them out. All you’ll need to do is to place them on a paper towel and wait for them to dry. When they do, just crumble them up, and put them in an airtight plastic bag or container until you’re ready to use them.

Make Your Own Fertilizer Tea

Another alternative is to make your very own banana peel fertilizer tea. To do so, just cut up a bunch of peels and place them in a bucket of water for a few days. This will allow them to steep just like tea. After about a week strain out the peels and you can pour your liquid fertilizer right into your soil or potted plants.

Composting

Of course you can use banana peels in compost too and they will add potassium, phosphorous, and their other benefits to the soil you are creating. Plus, your worms will love them. Depending on the type of composting you are doing you can expect entire peels to decompose in around three to four weeks.

If they are cut up into smaller pieces they will decompose faster though. When adding banana peels in compost bins or piles you should keep in mind that they will count as green materials not brown ones.

Using banana peels in the garden is a fabulous way to make the most of your food that will be sure to enhance your soil and plants as well. But remember while they are an excellent natural fertilizer they aren’t a total substitute for more complete fertilizing options they’re more of a supplement.

Start Shopping for Gardening Supplies!