DIY Fertilisers: How to Feed Your Garden With Banana Peels

by The Micro Gardener - Anne

Easy

Want to save money in your garden and grow healthier plants? One of the easiest ways to do this is to make your own free DIY fertilisers. How? With organic materials and household food 'waste' like banana peels. Recycle valuable nutrients back into your soil to feed your plants. A sustainable solution for home gardeners. This is how I do it.

diy fertilisers how to feed your garden with banana peels, how to

I grow my own bananas, so have plenty of peels! If you're a banana lover, you probably do too. I recycle all food 'waste' from the kitchen back into my garden. Cycling nutrients from the garden -> kitchen -> garden is a 'closed loop' system that helps grow more food by constantly adding free organic matter to the soil. So how exactly do you recycle banana peels to make free fertiliser?

Chopped banana peels decompose faster

There are 4 easy ways you can turn the banana peel 'waste' into a plant food supplement:

1. BANANA WATER: Soak a fresh banana peel in water for a day or two. Then use the water with the leached nutrients in it to water your plants. Bananas contain potassium, phosphorus and calcium - all major minerals needed for healthy plant growth.

2. COMPOST & WORM FARMS: Chop up peels to create more surface area and add to your compost or worm farm. The microorganisms and worms will decompose the nutrients and they will become soluble (or in a liquid form). Add the worm castings or compost to your garden or in your potting mix/seed raising mix to encourage healthy plant growth.

3. BANANA PEEL ON A BACKBOARD OR TREE TRUNK: If growing a staghorn, elkhorn, orchid or similar plants, put a whole banana peel between the plant and the backboard or tree trunk it is supported on. By placing it in this position, the banana peel will gradually decay and slowly release nutrients when the plant is watered or it rains. I also toss my peels into the centre of birds nest ferns every month or so. As you can see, they're pretty healthy and regularly grow new leaves.

4. DRIED BANANA: Chop banana pieces and dry in a slow oven or put out in the sun under a strainer to dry out for a day or two. Scatter dried banana pieces in the centre of staghorns or ferns and water them in. You can also bury these 'banana chips' in pot plant soil. Each time you water or it rains, they will provide slow release nutrition.

Phosphorus-rich bananas help boost blooms

Bananas are rich in nutrients, particularly phosphorus. Flowers and flowering plants including edibles need phosphorus to produce many blooms and fruit. I also bury my banana peels around roses, flowers and my edibles like tomatoes, fruit trees and beans etc. Helps more buds form. My article also shares 5 tips for using your bananas as free DIY fertilisers and explains how to feed your garden. Dig in!

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1 question

Katherine on Jul 01, 2019

What plants need the amount of nutrients excreted from banana peels?

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2 comments

Valerie on Dec 10, 2016
What a wonderfully informative post! I know what I will be doing with my banana peels from now on ...!

2 Reply
- The Micro Gardener - Anne on Dec 10, 2016
  Thanks Valerie. So glad you enjoyed it.
  
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