banana peel
 

hi guys, has anyone tried using banana peels as fertilizer or compost for their banana plants? seems like it would be a great idea?

Re: banana peel
 

Roses do well with them.

Re: banana peel
 

I compost the peels and the plants.

Re: banana peel
 

OH Yea baby! cut them peals up in small size pieces and place them in you garden or any where your growing a plant. You can just mix then into the ground.. Or bury the complete peel in same area.. I took the time once to toss them in my blender made a paste mixed it into my sunpatiens flowers and BANG!

Re: banana peel
 

Put them in a patch of pineapple or in bromiliads, to promote flowering (or that's what I learned growing up, but I don't have any data on whether ours flowered more than they would have otherwise)

Re: banana peel
 

nanner peels are great potash source..
i have a source local that i get around 50# of peels a
week..
mine get split (no pun intended) between my worms and
composting..
in the fall when i put vegy garden to bed..i have alot of
peels spaded into the soil with shredded leaves and rabbit
manure.. they slow decompose and makes great addition to
the soil..
good luck to ya !!!!!

Re: banana peel
 

I used to do this with all my banana plants I just stopped for somereason, maybe I wasn't eating bananas any more at the time. Thanks for the reminder I will start again today!

Re: banana peel
 

All of ours get eaten by the cattle so the compost falls short, Our catle love banana anything, I think they are nore bananas than us.

Re: banana peel
 

To be a significant source of potash, you need to apply over a thousand peels per plant per year.

Re: banana peel
 

So far I do not have any bananas out of my own garden. I wonder if the supermarket bananas are treated with chemicals lets say like citrus or apples to make them look better or to prevent them from rotting too fast. So actually I might add some unwanted chemicals this way.

Re: banana peel
 

After a bit of searching, I found the original post and discussion about Banana Peels.

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.

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.

Re: banana peel
 

You have to learn how to JUST SAY NO Richard.



ALL MY BANANAS ARE SENSIMILLA :08:

OR
maybe since those chemicals are used by the people who do this for a living you might be adding some WANTED chemicals to your garden ROFL
But seriously, this question about food waste contaminating compost can be answered by googleing "half life pesticides".
Find your pesticide (say Dimethoate to kill fruit flies) find the half life in soil, realize the only thing being contaminated is YOU for eating the fruit.

Re: banana peel
 

The obvious unstated benefit of using compost, (banana peels, or almost anything else composted), is the whole soil- circle of life-food web thing! Those benefits are kinda unmeasurable, but anyone who uses compost and mulches, has experienced the difference it makes. If for no other reason, that's good enough reason to compost those banana peels!

Re: banana peel
 

Giving your plant something with a higher analysis than spit is also excellent.

Just think, if you apply nitrogen and potassium at the proper rates you could have your thousand banana peels to compost !!! :goteam:

Re: banana peel
 

thanks guys, i add banana peels, apple skins, and coffee grounds in additon to my regular store bought fruit tree fertilizer.
anyone know how often i should fertilize with the store bought fertilizer? the bag says every couple months, but other online articles says at least once a week or with every watering (which would be every 3 days)?

thanks,
dean

Re: banana peel
 

Depends on the fertilizer. What is the brand name and analysis (NPK) ?


Just for clarity, I was not suggesting to avoid composting. Certainly curred compost is an essential ingredient in a good soil mix.

Re: banana peel
 

hi richard, i bought a local brand (I live in Hawaii) called, Island Supreme Fruit and Flower Fertilizer. The numbers say 10-20-20.

thanks again!
dean

Re: banana peel
 

These are the maximum dosages I would recommend for fertilizing fruiting bananas with 10-20-20. Also, I recommend that when it is economically feasible for you -- switch to something with a 2:1:3 (e.g., 10-5-15, 20-10-30) or a 4:1:6 (e.g., 12-3-18) ratio.

• Very Young Plants, TC's. These have 1 inch or less diameter base, with little or no corm (bulb) development. Dosage: 3/8 teaspoon per gallon of water every watering.
• Young Plant in 2 gallon pot. This has a diameter of about 1.5 inches or more. It might have been a TC that has been successfully grown for a couple of months, or a "pup" with at least a tennis-ball size corm that has been cut off a mother plant. The pstem height (not counting leaves) will be 12 to 18 inches or more. Dosage : 3 tablespoons per month, diluted in enough water to reach the roots.
• Plant (not juvenile) in 10 to 20 gallon pot, or in the ground with a similar amount of root space. This plant has at least a 3 or 4-inch diameter base. Dosage: 3/8 cup per month, diluted in enough water to reach the roots.
• Plant in ground with significant root space; i.e., 1/2 to 1 cubic yard of root volume. Maximum dosage: 9/8 cup per month, diluted in enough water to reach the roots.
• Hydroponics -- Only If The Product Does Not Contain Urea Nitrogen. Dosage (regardless of plant size): 1.5 Tbs per 6.5 gallons of water.

Re: banana peel
 

thanks richard! ...when you say "per month", is it better to divide the dosage weekly or give all at once?

Re: banana peel
 

For plants in soil, it can take up to 3 weeks to uptake all of the inorganic mineral nutrients, and then a few weeks to assimilate them. So even though you may notice a quick response from a plant from some of the constituents, I see no point in applying more frequently than once per month for plants in the ground -- unless you have a fertigation system. Then I'd feed them continuously.

Re: banana peel
 

thanks richard! do you know if they would have this type of fertilizer for sale at the big box retailers or would i have to make it myself? i went looking at home depot bout had no luck. also, does it have to say "water soluble" on the label. most fertilizers i see say to sprinkle on soil and water down. i'm assuming it'll dissolve when you water it down, but would this be the same as dissolving in water?

also, anyone have any thoughts on carrot peelings for supplemental compost/fertilizer? i ate some carrots the the other night and figured, "hey...why not?"

thanks again,
Dean

Re: banana peel
 

I use all kinds of vegetable for compost !
carrot skins
potato skins
lettuce cores (the big chunks left after pulling all the leaves off)
cucumber ends
Yuca scraps
leaves from trees
Banana skins
lawn clippings
I use a trash can
here’s a link to a pdf on composting . It explains stuff much better than I can in a post :)
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/pdf/ag-467.pdf

The single most important thing about composting is … Just do it, after you have produced some then you will see its easy

Re: banana peel
 

thanks trebor! this composting/gardening is quite addicting! :ha:
so far, i've been just chopping them up and throwing them in the pot... but i'm planning to get a small composting bin soon!

Re: banana peel
 

What type are you referring to?

If it does say water soluble, then definitely dissolve in water first before coming into contact with soil. Otherwise, you will lose about 1/2 the nutrient content into the atmosphere.

Re: banana peel
 

hi Richard, the fertilizers you mentioned earlier...
"These are the maximum dosages I would recommend for fertilizing fruiting bananas with 10-20-20. Also, I recommend that when it is economically feasible for you -- switch to something with a 2:1:3 (e.g., 10-5-15, 20-10-30) or a 4:1:6 (e.g., 12-3-18) ratio."


can I dissolve the fertilizer in water even if it doesn't say to? rather than sprinkling?

thanks,
Dean

Re: banana peel
 

Shopping for fertilizers at Big Box stores is kind of like shopping for groceries at 7-Eleven. Look in the Yellow Pages under Farm Supplies or Agricultural Supplies for a fertilizer supplier in your region.

Usually not.