Banana Peel Fertilizers for the Garden
01. June 2018
As anyone who has watched “Back to the Future” a million+ times knows, banana peels make terrific fuel. But even better than adding them to the Mr. Fusion unit on your time traveling DeLorean, you can add them as fuel for your garden. That’s right, compost those slimy banana peels and make your little green friends happy!
Banana Peel Nutrients
Bananas are a super food, and the peels are loaded with nutrients that your vegetation craves. First and foremost of these is, of course, potassium. Potassium greatly helps your plant’s overall strength. It makes the cell walls more robust on the fruit. I also helps generate stronger plant stems and promotes healthy root development.
Phosphorus has the next highest mineral concentration in banana peels. That’s great, because your garden loves phosphorus! Phosphorus is vital for vigorous plants. It aids germination, healthy roots, and strengthening production of blooms, pollen, and fruits.
Not to be forgotten, peels also contain calcium and magnesium. These are important in your garden’s healthy development. Banana peels do NOT contain nitrogen. But the calcium helps make nutrients in the soil, such as nitrogen, more available to plants.
Our Vintage canning label is a great match for banana compost tea!
How to Make Banana Peel Fertilizers
How do you transport all those amazing nutrients from your kitchen to your garden? You can individually chuck banana peels on your garden or make a compost tea or a dry fertilizer.
Banana peel compost tea is simple to produce. Keep a pitcher of water in your fridge filled about 3/4 full. Whenever you eat a banana, deposit the peel into the pitcher. Keep up this process until the container is full (or after about a week). Then strain the liquid into a new container. Put the peels aside, you can still use them in your garden! Clean the pitcher out and start the exercise all over again. The tea is nutrient-rich because the liquid has been slowly leeching Potassium, Phosphorus and nutrients out of the peels. In this form it is too concentrated, so you need to dilute it before putting it on your garden. One cup of tea per gallon of water should do the trick. Apply to the base of your garden plants and watch them thrive.
Okay, so you’ve made your pungent tea and now you have a bunch of slimy-gross banana peels leftover. That’s great! Take those peels and make more food for your plants! The easiest way would be to toss the peels into your compost bin. But if you want a quick fertilizer, put the peels into your blender with some water to make a puree fertilizer. Or you can try the powdered banana peel route so you can use them later. Use a food dehydrator to dry the peels (usually about 8-10 hours at 160ºF). Or place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake them in the oven (extra low temperature) for about 8-10 hours. You can also let them bake in the sun. Once they are dry, chop them as fine as possible in a food processor or coffee grinder. Then you can add some PBP (powdered banana peel) to your new seeds or seedlings when you are planting.
How to Use Banana Peel Fertilizers
Add one cup of banana tea per gallon of water. Apply to the base of your garden plants and watch them thrive. Add some dried banana peel (powdered or cut pieces) to your new seeds or seedlings when you are planting. Some gardeners also use fresh banana peels in their garden. Burying them deeper around plants will help keep animals and pests away. The peels break down quickly, so plants are able to use the nutrients sooner. Just make sure the soil is moist so the peels can break down.
Banana peels are not a complete fertilizer! So don’t use them alone, especially if your plants need a lot of nitrogen. They work great for potassium-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers. To get the most out of peels, compost them with nitrogen-rich materials.
Read our blog post on Trench Planting Tomatoes (with banana peels) for EPIC root growth & strong plants.
Add a banana peel directly to the hole when you plant tomatoes.
Use Banana Peels as an Aphid Pest Repellant
Banana peels are also helpful for deterring aphids on plants. Aphids hate the smell of banana apparently. While adding peels around plants should help deter aphids, spraying a plant with the tea should help protect it more. Dilute the banana tea with water at a 5:1 ratio (5 parts water with 1 part tea). Spray the leaves and stems with the solution. The spray will also help feed your plants.
How I'll Use Banana Peels in MY Garden
I plan to use the banana peel fertilizers for my tomatoes and garlic. The peel fertilizers will be great for tomato plants since they don’t need much nitrogen. Potassium is a must for increasing the size of garlic bulbs. During the growing season, garlic also needs lots of Nitrogen which isn't in banana peels. However, Nitrogen supplementation needs to stop in the late spring or early summer before the scapes appear. Otherwise, there will be leaf growth at the expense of the bulb. So since there isn’t Nitrogen in the peels, it should be good to use after the scapes appear. This is my first year growing garlic, so I hope to have big bulbs with the help of these peels.
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Do you use banana peels in your garden? If so, have you tried them fresh, composted, or as a tea fertilizer? What results have you seen?
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Comments (115)
I’d like to do this but have limited room in the fridge. Does anyone know why it is necessary to refrigerate especially after the peel is removed?
Becky, the liquid will most likely mold and/or get stinky if you don’t refrigerate it.
Alison
CanningCrafts
How can I print this info? There is not a print option.
Quite informative; easy to do tips. I am a beginner gardener I’ve already made many mistakes
Can you use this in house plants?
Velma, yes, you can use this in houseplants. Some people have experienced it attracting gnats, but I have never had that issue.
Alison | CanningCrafts
For many years I have made banana tea. I take a gallon jug with water and drop banana peels into jug. I date lid and when full let set for at least a month or little over. I’ve had roses which were size of saucers. Everyone was stopping to see up close and asking what I did to grow such beautiful roses, The yellow rose bush was $2 at SaveAlot. A local nursery owner was amazed with the size of the roses. Banana juice or tea is worth making
Here in England we don’t use Pitchers and Cups. So how many Milliliters are there in each.
I have used them fresh but sometimes the possums dig them up so I will make a tea instead.
To Alison
I have used crushed egg shells for years around my hydrangeas and it works wonderfully. I save them all year after drying upside down in an egg carton and then crush them into a coffee can. I the sprinkle them fairly heavily around my plants and have no problem with snails.
I did the banana peel liquid to pour on my plants. It smelled so bad I almost got sick! Never again.
What can you do with banana itself when they are too old or to ripen to eat can you make tea
or feed them to plants.
Norman,
You can add overripe bananas to your compost bin. But you can also still eat bananas when they are super ripe & mushy by adding them to baked goods. I often freeze blackened overripe bananas to bake them in muffins, bread, or pancakes.
Alison
CanningCrafts
Thanks for the information
I make up the mixture of egg shells, banana peels and tomato ends…blend in food processor, add a bit of water if needed. Then I put them around the roots of my clematis plants Spring, Summer and Fall. Bonus this year, beside my clematis, I ended up with a large tomato plant which has lots of tomatoes on it now. I saw this on Pinterest and this was the Best year ever for flowers and the clematis are now flowering a second time. This would likely be beneficial for most areas of a garden, vegetable or flower.
Thank you 🙏 for your hints my Vega will love 💖 it
Can you use it in your greens garden
Thank you for the information.Very nice people you have to be.
Just this morning I put the banana tea around my vegetable plants. How often can I use it?
WOW! This is very interesting I’ve come to read all your messages, I’m going to try myself, thank you guys for all your comments 🙏💖🥰
All this time I’ve been throwing my peels away wow!
Buenas noches
Yo utilizo las conchas de plátano con las conchas de verduras y se me da un buen abono de tierra negra. Las plantas salen con fuerza y saludables. Estoy en Caracas Venezuela.
If I use the tea method for aphids, will it harm monarch eggs or caterpillars?
You can also rub the inside of the banana peel on your face. Yes, I know it’s a little sticky or yucky but the vitamins in the banana peel are wonderful for your skin so just rub it on your face after you eat the banana let it dry and then wash your face. Then take the banana peel and use it in your compost or your tea for your garden. Win-win.
Valerie,
WOW, I hadn’t heard of using banana peels as a facial rub. That is cool to know! Thanks for sharing!
My husband cuts up fresh peels & boils them into a tea to drink. The peels contain tryptophan so they are a natural sleep aid. But it smells & tastes gross… I call it “Hot Garbage Tea”!
Alison
CanningCrafts