I've been saving banana and orange peels (in a freezer bag) for my garden. What's the next step?

Answers

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited March 2023

    Welcome @idahooillady! Your post is empty, but your question is interesting. Burying your banana peels will be beneficial. If you soak them in water & then water your plants with it, it will also give them a boost.

    I have never used citrus peels in my garden.

    It will be interesting to see what others may have to say.

    Please leave a note in our Introductions section when you get a minute, letting us know where you are from in Idaho.

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,390 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Every year I try to remember to give seriously cut up banana peels and coffee grounds to my blueberry bushes. I forgot last year so hoping to get a bumper crop this year since I remembered.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Welcome @idahooillady.

    Here is a link to several ways to use banana peels in your garden. All good suggestions.

    I've never used citrus peels but here is a link to 15 uses for citrus in the garden.


  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Banana peels are one of the easiest, quickest things to compost. When I was a kid, I remember putting a peel in my pocket after eating the banana and then forgetting it was there. When I check the pocket again later, the peel had completely decomposed!

    I would feel good throwing banana peels directly into the garden soil

    Citrus peels are just the opposite. They will take much longer to break down and will tie up nitrogen while doing it, so be sure to compost them in your compost pile and don't put them in the garden until decomposed.

    Avocado peels are similar to citrus. It can easily take a year for them to break down. I throw them in my compost, but I have to leave them behind much longer than other inputs when taking the compost out of the pile and into the garden.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You can put banana peels worked into the soil around roses. For orange peels I put into the compost.

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin


    I forget about making banana-peel water, @LaurieLovesLearning -- so glad you mentioned this! It's still winter here, so I don't have anything in the ground outside that currently needs watering. But I DO have a lot of houseplants. Can you think of any downsides to using banana-peel water on houseplants? Wouldn't encourage the gnats too much or something? Thanks!

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin

    @idahooillady welcome to the TGN Forums! We have a really popular article over on the TGN Blog that offers some good ideas for using banana peels and other commonly available household items as fertilizer. Posting the link here just in case this is of interest/helpful: https://thegrownetwork.com/homemade-natural-fertilizer/

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited March 2023

    I don't know! I have never used it on my houseplants personally, but my aunt has & she has lots of problems with gnats! It could just be coincidence.

    I've given the banana peels to the pigs, but surprisingly enough, they tend to avoid them.

    The red wrigglers enjoy the peels. I only recently began to have a small gnat problem. I have been using the worm frass in my houseplants for much longer, so I doubt it came from that. I'm not sure where they came from, but I suspect they hitchhiked here on a new plant.

    I think that even though banana water would not be directly at the root of any garden plant because it is winter, your garden would still benefit from it.

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin

    Thanks, @LaurieLovesLearning! So weird that the pigs won't eat banana peels. I wonder what that's about?

    I agree that I could probably get away with using banana water on houseplants in winter, but I just hesitate if there is any possibility it would attract more gnats once the weather warms up. Ah well. I might do something with it outside once the snow melts and I can actually see the ground again.... :)