Banana Peels

[sastpierre]

I read in a gardening book that you should bury banana peels around your rose bushes. I did this spring. Anyone heard of this?

[Marlingardener]

Yes, it supposedly repels aphids. I haven't tried it myself, but others on the forum have.
Caution: do you have monkeys in the neighborhood?

[rainbowgardener]

I never heard that about the aphids. I just thought it was a way to feed the rose bush potassium, which bananas are a good source of.

[Marlingardener]

I hadn't thought of the benefit of the potassium. Here's an article about using banana peels to repel aphids (get ready for one of the world's longest URLs!)

http://www.helium.com/items/38421-how-to-stop-aphids-and-other-bugs-from-attacking-your-plants

[lorax]

Marlin, one of my gardens does have monkeys, and let me assure you - they're not after the banana peels. They will eat the roses, though!

[sastpierre]

Last year, my rose bush almost died. It wasn't doing well at all.

This year with the bananas, my rose bush is back in full flower and looks healthy.

Bananas? Who knows?

[rainbowgardener]

Bananas couldn't hurt, but at least where I am this is a very different year than last year, very much cooler and wetter. So some things are thriving that struggled last year. (And some things like lavender and other sun lovers that did great last year are struggling now.) So your rose bush may just like this year's conditions better.

[cynthia_h]

Bananas contain potassium, which is one of the three nutrients generally listed on standard fertilizers: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).

I use compost and worm castings on my roses (although, truth to tell, I'm very behind in attending to them this year, for various reasons), and they respond well, so my roses show me that the potassium level in my compost and worm castings is to their liking. (Heaven knows, there are enough banana peels in both of them to choke a moose! )

If you don't have any compost of your own yet, it would be worth your while to start one.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9