You’ve likely heard that burying banana peels in your garden is a good way to include essential nutrients to the soil to grow healthy plants. Banana peels do contain nutrients, however not as many as you may believe. Plus, it’s not as basic as placing them in the soil and skipping fertilizer or garden compost.
We spoke to two gardening specialists about why burying banana peels in the garden isn’t the best idea, what can happen, and why composting banana peels is the best option for utilizing them in the garden.
Should You Bury Banana Peels In Your Soil?
Placing banana peels straight in the soil may appear like an excellent concept, after all, it’s a way to decrease food waste and put minerals back into the soil. The nutrients in banana peels aren’t instantly accessible after you put them in the soil– they need to break down.
The concern with this technique is you may presume that your plants are getting appropriate nutrients when they aren’t getting enough. “Banana peels take so long to disintegrate that your plants won’t get the nutrients they need when they need them,” says Pam Farley, author of The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening. “It could take your banana peel more than a year to decompose in your garden, and your veggies will be long considering that gathered by then.”
When you use banana peels in this way, you don’t understand how much, if any minerals are being added to the soil, whereas when you utilize a fertilizer you know what you’re adding. “You can’t manage the quantities of nutrients using the banana-peel approach,” says Farley. “Fertilizers are specifically produced for various applications– you’ll use a various fertilizer for your strawberries than you would for your indoor cactus, for example.”
What Happen If You Bury Banana Peels
Soil is alive and has its own ecosystem. If a banana peel is buried in the soil, microorganisms will work to simplify. But this can remove from the bacteria providing the existing nutrients in the soil to your plants. “Adding them to your plants can backfire as the soil organisms that work to break down the peels will lower the available nitrogen that helps plants effectively grow,” states Smith.
Organic food waste buried in the soil can attract unwanted guests to your garden, too. “Your local community raccoon, rat, or possum would enjoy to dig up your garden and munch on that banana peel,” states Farley. Disintegrating banana peels can release odors that draw in insects.
The Very Best Way To Use Bananas In The Garden
To get the most out of your banana peel, the very best location to put it is in the garden compost bin. “The warm, wet, aerobic environment of the compost heap enables the peels to quickly disintegrate,” says Farley. “They’ll add trace quantities of calcium, magnesium, phosphates, potassium, and salt to your compost, which you can then utilize to amend your garden soil.”
Do A Soil Test
If you’re curious or concerned about the nutrients in your soil, do a soil test. “Contact your state’s extension cooperative service for information on how to send out in a soil sample for testing,” says Smith.
