Banna peel fertilizer boost

[thebahamiangardener]

I herd that banana peels boot your plants .How would you use them.What r the bennefits.

[soil]

just feed them to some worms. wormcastings will definitely boost your plants.

[rainbowgardener]

They are a good source of potassium. You can just bury the banana peel in the ground near your plant. As it breaks down it will feed potassium and other nutrients to the plant. Roses and tomatoes especially benefit from this.

[applestar]

Banana peels are high in potassium and manganese, as well as some calcium, iron, and other trace minerals and provides essential macro and micronutrients for your plants, as well as adding organic matter to the soil.

Depending on your lifestyle, you can use banana peels in a variety of ways. A head gardener at a well-known botanical gardens supposedly buried his/her daily snack banana peel in the mulch under favorite rose bushes -- a different one every day. I toss mine in the kitchen compost collector to be incorporated in the compost pile later. I've heard of people carefully chopping up banana peels or blending them into a slurry before digging them into the soil. If you have a worm compost going, banana peels are supposed to be one their favorites, right up there with used coffee grounds (another great fertilizer from your kitchen).

Whichever method you use though, banana peels don't take long to break down. Just be sure to bury them well because they do attract fruit flies and other bugs, and animals may dig them up.

[Sage Hermit]

Hi- I did this and I attracted fruit flies. Covered it with some mulch. It got worse but I have them in check.

Where is that vacuum cleaner?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Notice how slimy a banana gets as it breaks down. That slime is called [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucilage]mucilage[/url] and it is both a great bacterial food and an excellent soil amendment as it helps aggregate soils (helps them stick together), increasing porosity and therefor holding capacity (for water AND nutrients). Plus more bacteria means more protozoa means more nitrogen looping and weak acid effect, which means more nutrients (including a good shot of the aforementioned potassium the banana is bringing). Banana peels rock, and if it's getting flies, just turn it more. Especially early on, turning never hurts...

HG

[Sage Hermit]

Q1:What is the white mold on the peels called? It shows up on the face down ends, and boy were you right abot how fast it biodegrades. Amazing by the time I sucked all the fruit flies into another dimension the peels had merged with the soil and my sage had begun to absorb it! Looks a bit healthier too.
Q2: Hey is it ok to put earth worms in your indoor containers and add peels and compost stuff on it then put a mulch layer on it? There was a talk about not adding earthworms because they simply don't belong in your area but how about in pots that you have already becoming recycle bins for your bananas and produce scraps?
Thanks 1 million!

[applestar]

Most of my pots have at least one earthworm in them. My motto is "an earthworm in every pot" I'm reassured to see "wormsigns" on the surface once in a while to indicate that they're doing well. I occasionally supply used coffee grounds and loose leaf tea as well as ground up eggshells, not to mention pulling out occasional weeds and leaving them on the soil surface, but my home made container mix has compost in various stages of decomposition in them so they seem to manage OK. (My commercial vermicomposter came with a brick of coco coir for initial bedding so I think most potting soil will contain *something* that the earthworms can feed on.) The worms are pretty self sufficient and will migrate from one pot to another if they're not happy -- too dry, too wet, not enough food, ... who knows. Just keep an eye on the floor because once in a rare while, I've found a lost worm squirming on the carpet. Once found a long-dead dried up worm on the kitchen floor.

[Sage Hermit]

The centipedes needs some company.

[applestar]

Are you saying you're worried about centipedes in your containers? I leave centipedes alone since they're predatory and will eat other soft-bodied bugs. They do also eat earthworms and spiders, but I'm hoping they'll go for any slugs and snails first. It's all nature's balance. If you're going to maintain a living container soil environment, you're bound to have good guys as well as bad. They need moist environment to live so they're not going to leave the pots to wander around the house.

[Sage Hermit]

They are actually my pets. I want an ear wig for christmas!

Dermapteras are cool but I have not seen them in MN