Banana Peels. Use or Toss?
ApprenticeRosarian
22 years ago
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north_jersey_girl
21 years agoHawkeye_Belle
21 years agoRelated Discussions
Banana peels
Comments (3)Banana skins are known to be fairly high in both Potassium and Phosphorus but how quickly those nutrients might be available to your plants depends on how active a Soil Food Web you have. Can you put too many in the soil? Probably, too much P is known to interfere with the plants ability to use Zinc, Iron, and Cobalt and too much K is known to interfere with the plants ability to use Nitrogen. However, like anything else just the skins of bananas is not a complete nutrient source. Banana skins can be part of the organic matter put in a garden but should not be the only organic matter put in the garden....See MoreBanana Peels Will Eliminate Aphids?
Comments (34)I have a bannana peel laying by danahue that isn't buried. If this works I'd be curious guess I will bury some tomorrow around various roses.. The Rose Clear has come out and the spraying commenced on the little buggers. I tried Neem Oil but it just does nothing but burn the leaves of my Austins. So we are now back to rose clear. I use another brand called growing success that has been bought out by Westland that is mostly organic. Then I spray soapy water if I'm in the mood but being they aren't fungused and blackspotted up yet the rose clear is the better choice. -- Nothing like your expensive roses smelling like lemon dish soap . lol...See MoreBanana peels???
Comments (9)Andrea, let me venture a more "meta" answer to your question, "What will it do for my roses?" The answer is the same for all 17 essential plant nutrients. An adequate supply will allow the plant to grow normally; a deficiency will keep it from growing normally. An excess will have no effect, or in some cases will cause problems. A few micronutrients are toxic in excess. A number of nutrients, if present in great excess, can interfere with the uptake of other nutrients. (But banana peels are not going to cause problems.) So instead of piling on stuff that somebody says is "good for roses," the better approach is to know what is in your soil and fertilize (or not) accordingly. If plants aren't growing well, get a soil test. Lacking a soil test, proceed with caution. Gardeners would like to believe they can make plants do one thing or another by adding extra amounts of this and withholding that. Unfortunately there are lots of garden books and articles that encourage that belief. But it's not the way plant nutrition works. As an example, you may have read, "nitrogen for green growth." But nitrogen is also required for roots, stems, flowers, fragrance, fruit, and any development whatsoever....See MoreBanana peels?
Comments (5)Hi everyone. Mayfirst – I’m pleased to see you’re not stopping at just one question ("What is this?"); you say you are “relatively new to bromeliads and generally all plants”, so what better place to learn all about them than here on our friendly forum. There are many growers who read these posts regularly, and for the most part are happy to share any helpful knowledge with you, all you have to do is ask and if the answer is known, you’ll very soon get a response, so I encourage you to keep the questions coming as well as pictures if relevant to the particular post. The one thing to be aware of when reading advice from forums and books though, is that people giving this advice are often from countries other than your own, so you have to make allowances for seasonal variations. Now for your question about banana peel: Banana peel has been used for years in the garden as a natural fertilizer and nutrient supplement. As well as being rich in phosphorus, and calcium, along with a host of other minerals your plants need, they also contain Potassium which is a very important chemical which helps defend plants by creating thicker cell walls, and making it difficult for germinating fungal spores to punch a hole through the side of the cell wall and cause disease. It’s also known to increase the colour in coloured foliage plants as well as increasing flower production which of course leads to better fruit production. Potassium is one of the three main chemicals in most fetilisers; These are Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium and its main advantage is that it’s beneficial to the “total” plant. In its commercial form it’s available in various accurate percentages and ratios specifically designed to benefit specific plants (and usually shown as an N:P:K ratio on the container). However in its basic natural “banana skin” form these percentages will vary from fruit to fruit. I once knew a man who grew magnificent Staghorn ferns; they were gigantic! When I asked what his secret was, he said he just threw old (over ripe) banana skins up behind the dead growth at the rear of the plants and watered them every time he walked past them. He said you needed to be careful you didn’t use too much or it would start to smell as they rotted down, (something you should consider if growing inside the house) but apart from that, the results were astounding and were there for all to see. I have been using commercial high potassium liquid fertilisers for my Billbergias and Neoregelias for about three years now and I’ve never had better foliage colour or stronger looking plants which rarely show evidence of any disease, so whether you go the natural route via banana skins or via the commercially produced forms of granules, soluble powder or liquid, it's up to you; but all will benefit your plant. There are various ways of using banana peel and applying it to your garden. The peels can be chopped and added directly to the garden, they can be composted, they can be made into a Banana Peel Tea and applied as a liquid fertiliser, dried and ground into a powder and watered into the soil to just mention a few, and the list goes on as you will see if you open the link below to an interesting article. http://thefrugalchicken.com/10-ways-to-use-banana-peels-in-garden/ I have never added banana skin to the central tank of a bromeliad and although in theory it should rot down naturally and become a weak liquid fertiliser, it could also possibly start to rot the plant if there is any damaged foliage tissue within the tank. For this reason before I use it I would like to find out more about this method from someone who uses it and can demonstrate the results. Of cause if you have several plants of the same type and can afford to experiment with one. That would be the best way to try it as you could use one untreated plant as the “control plant” by which to compare the treated plant against. I do hope some of this may help you, unfortunately I do sometimes tend to ramble on one I get wound up. All the best, Nev....See Moreflowerchild_tx8b
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