Do Tomato Plants Like Banana Peels?

Tomato Plant Needs

• Tomato plants need four specific minerals for healthy growth – nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and calcium. Nitrogen promotes leaf and stem growth. Phosphorous promotes strong roots, healthy formation of flowers and fruits, and disease resistance. Potassium stimulates plant growth, health and vigor and disease resistance. Calcium helps improve leaf and cell wall growth.

Banana Peels

• Banana peels are a popular compost ingredient due to their high potassium content. Left to rot in a compost heap, the peels leave a potassium-rich residue. Experiments with banana peel-derived liquid fertilizers in Asia produced an efficient, low-cost, high-potassium fertilizer. Banana peels provide higher levels of an essential nutrient needed by tomatoes and not available in sufficient strength in many common garden fertilizers or compost mixes.

Application

• Banana peels composted with other organic material produce a high-potassium mulch. Applied around the roots of tomato plants, this mulch not only helps hold moisture in the soil, but also leeches potassium into the ground to stimulate healthy plant growth. Organic gardeners often place a banana peel in the hole with each tomato seedling they plant to stimulate the growth of the young plants. Some chop up the peels and mix into mulch mixes to add potassium.

Action

• Banana peels planted in newly transplanted seedlings break down quickly, giving off ethylene and leeching extra potassium into the soil, which stimulates plant growth, flower production and fruit setting. The peel of the banana also contains anti-fungal and antibiotic properties which act against Mycobacteria and fungus diseases of tomato plants. Peels buried in the ground beneath tomato plants release ethylene gas, a substance that causes fruit to ripen more quickly.