austinl01

This may be a silly question, but I couldn't find the answer when I did a search.

Are store bought banana peels bad to use in the compost pile or buried in the planting hole? Do they contain any bad viruses or any diseases that could cause harm to the banana trees that I'm growing? My reasoning is that they would be good to use because of the additional potassium added to the soil.

Any thoughts?

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Richard

Fresh plant material, including fresh banana peels should never be used in a soil mix where roots will come in contact with it. On the other hand, well-composted plant material in a soil mix is good for many plants, with exceptions like desert cacti, many California natives, and most plants that do not have a significant amount of organic material in the soil of their natural environment.

Add as many banana peels to your compost bin/pile as you wish. To have a measurable effect on a single banana plant or fruit tree, you will need 5 pounds of composted peel: think about how light a single dried banana peel is! To provide one year's worth of potash to the plant you will need at least 50 pounds of composted peel.

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austinl01

Richard, thanks for the detailed information. You really put it into perspective!

__________________
Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Lodewijkp

so if i compost banana peels and use them 3 months later they can still can carry on virus etc ?

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bencelest

Thanks Richard for an eye opener. 50 lbs of composted peel to provide a year's worth of potash to a single banana?
Then how much banana should I eat a day (lol). Now to think of it I I have 30 bananas (?????)

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Banana Nut

Richard

This is something I would like to learn about.

I can tell you that plant virus' are typically born by bacteria, which are killed by a true composting process; i.e., a mulch pile is not enough.

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Richard

I started with a store-bought banana, 7 inches long not counting the stem.
Peeling the banana, I weighed:
Fresh fruit alone: 160 grams (yum!)
Fresh peel alone: 64 grams

Drying the peel at 180 deg-F in a convection oven for 3 hours:
Dried peel: 8 grams

So that peel was 87.5% water, which seems about right.

How many peels in 5 pounds?
5 pounds = 2268 grams, so there are 283.5 of those peels in 5 pounds!

If you want to fertilize a banana plant solely with banana peels, you’ll need about 50 pounds composted banana peels = 2835 peels of the variety I tested.

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bencelest

so Assuming that there are 10 bananas in one bunch , there will be 283.5 bunches you have to consume.
At Costco the price of one bunch being $1.30 or .33/lb therefore it costs $368.55 for the fertilizer.

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Banana Nut

austinl01

Wow, those are some very interesting statistics! You guys are great. Thanks.

__________________
Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches