The Effects of Banana Peels on Garden Soil

Nutrients

• Banana peels are loaded with nutrients plants need to flourish, including potassium, potash, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphates and sodium. According to Melinda Page and Elizabeth Wells from Real Simple, banana peels also help plants resist disease.

Effects on Soil

• Organic materials, such as banana peels, help the soil retain water, making it lighter. Bananas also decompose quickly in soil, allowing their nutrients to enter the soil faster than some other natural materials.

Which Plants Benefit Most

• Some plants benefit more from banana peels than others. Deborah Tukua from Farmer’s Almanac writes that banana peels especially help tomato and green pepper plants thrive. For generations, gardeners have been using banana peels to feed their roses.

How to Use

• According to Discovery’s Planet Green, you can bury an entire banana peel under one inch of soil near the roots of a plant, or you can simply throw a discarded peel on top of the soil and let it decompose. To minimize the attraction of pests or animals, liquefy the peels in a blender or food processor with one quart of water and then pour it on the plant or bush. Tukua recommends chopping the peels and placing some into holes when planting seedlings to strengthen trunks and stems. For roses, try placing a banana peel in a spray bottle with warm water and letting the sealed bottle ferment for at least two weeks. Then spray your roses with the liquid.

Tips

• Banana peels are a very common spot for fruit flies to lay their eggs, according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. So unless you add your banana peels to your garden immediately after eating one, it’s best to store them in a sealed container, preferably outside, to avoid an infestation of fruit flies in your home.

Other Benefits

• According to Nicole Willner from Discovery’s Planet Green, composting, or using natural materials from your kitchen as fertilizer, is also beneficial to the environment. It reduces the amount of trash volume sent to landfills, which lowers harmful methane emissions into the atmosphere. Banana peels are one of the easiest items to use as a natural fertilizer, because you can use them even if you don’t have an outdoor compost pile or worm bin.

Other Natural Fertilizers

• Banana peels are just one of many food waste products you can use for compost, such as orange peels, apple cores, and melon rinds. Willner also recommends throwing coffee grounds in your garden soil for added nitrogen, calcium, copper and potassium, as well as crushed egg shells for calcium. Never use meat as compost.