18 Uses of Banana Peels : How To Use Banana Peels In Your Garden

Wondering how to use banana peels in your garden? If so, we are here to help you out as today, it is all about showcasing the wonders of banana – a magical fruit, loaded with tons and tons of nutrients like potassium, calcium and phosphorous. Its not only the fruit that has immense benefits, its peel too is nutritious, specially for your plants. Banana peels can be used as fertilizers, and also as polishers for beautifying your plants. There are other multiple benefits of banana peels that must be written about. So, let’s start discovering how you can use banana peels to nourish your garden.

1. Make banana peel compost tea

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If you are trying not to use harsh fertilizers for your plants, then you can always bank on banana peels. The peels can become a very good source of nutrients when they are added to compost. You can now prepare compost tea comprising of banana peels and water. All you need to do is take a bucket or a mason jar, then, fill it up with water and a couple of banana peels. Allow the things to mix well and thereafter, keep the mixture as it is for a few days. The wait is worthwhile as you get an organic compost tea that is loaded with nutrients, and when added to your plants, can encourage their proper and fast growth.

2. Banana peels can be used for nourishing air plants

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In simple words, air plants are such plants that grow on other plants, and are known as epiphytes. Such plants, like most others, too need proper nutrition and nourishment. You can use your banana peels to fertilize these plants instead of just throwing them away as trash. These plants like the Elk Horn and Staghorn ferns can benefit a lot with an organic banana peels fertilizer that will keep away all kinds of pests and also enable them to grow well. Either, you can spray this peel fertilizer all over the plants, or else, simply make a banana peel solution or tea. Then, soak in the air plants for at least 3 to 4 hours.

3. Dry Banana Peels can ward off pests

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Now, there is one more reason why you mustn’t throw away your banana peels! Banana peels make great natural pesticide. Yes, now, you can make use of dried up banana peels to shoo away irritating pests like aphids and fleas, a curse that affects most plants all year round. Pests hate the smell of bananas and will not come close to plants that have been sprayed with a banana peel fertilizer. Okay…got it…but, how to use banana peels for this purpose? You can start by chopping a couple of banana peels and place these under the plant, in the soil. Dried up banana peels can be buried in the soil below the plant. There is another way to use the dried banana peels, and that is placing all the chopped peels in a tray near the plant. The enzymes will eventually kill the pests that come near the plant.

4. Banana peels can help in preparing your garden bed

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Before spring arrives and its time again for planting fresh blooms and plants, it is essential to prep up your garden bed to enrich it with nutrients. The best way to add nutrition to your garden bed is by burying banana peels in your garden bed. Bananas are packed with all kinds of nutrients like sodium, phosphorus and potassium, and when you add these to your garden soil, you help in improving its quality. Banana peels, when added to soil, increase the growth of microbes and worms that are instrumental in boosting the quality of the soil.

5. The use of banana peels for roses

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You can help your roses to bloom in full swing by adding banana peels compost to the soil. When preparing organic compost, make sure to add a couple of banana peels to it to load it with essential nutrients like potassium and sodium. The peels, when breaking down, release nitrogen and enzymes that boost the soil’s quality and helps deter all kinds of pests. If you are not in the mood for composting with banana peels, then there is one more way to use them. You can add the banana peels directly all round the rose plants. Simple! If you are transplanting your roses, then, you can use banana peel to be placed at the end of the hole, and then transplant. Other ways of using peels are baking them and then burying these just next to your rose bush. Even frozen peels can be ground in a mixer and then buried around your rose plants.

6. The use of banana peels as a feed for young plants

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If you want to know how to use banana peels as a feed for young plants, here is a simple way to do it. Collect a couple of banana peels and chop them into small pieces. Then, dig the top soil of your garden bed, and bury these pieces. This will ensure that the soil gets packed with rich nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and nitrogen that are required for boosting plant growth. But, when you bury the peels in the soil, ensure that the seeds or the body of the seedling is not in direct contact with the peels as this will have a harmful effect. Banana peels are acidic in nature, and when in direct contact with a young tender plant, can burn it and its roots.

Also Read: 15 Natural Ways to Kill Weeds in your Garden

7. Welcome the arrival of birds and butterflies with banana peels

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How can banana peels be used to attract birds and butterflies to your garden? Well, simply choose a raised platform where you can place ripe banana peels. The platform has to be above some plant or the garden bed that is accessible. But, make sure that there is some portion of the fruit that can act as an attraction for these insects and birds to venture to your garden. Once they have visited, you have to remove the peels before dark as the smell or fragrance can attract other unwanted animals like moles and other rodents.

8. Banana peel can be used for trapping flying insects

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Instead of throwing away your banana peels, use these to make traps for fruit flies or any other kind of flying insect that seems to be bothering you when you venture out in the garden. All you have to do is gather a container with a lid, fill it up with apple cider vinegar and some chopped up banana pieces together with their peels. Now, puncture some holes in the container’s lid so that it allows the entry of fruit flies or other tiny insects. Place the container with the mixture at a raised platform in your garden, and see how these insects enter the holes and get killed in the mixture.

9. Nourish your soil with banana peels

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Banana peels can play a vital role in loading your soil with essential nutrients that will ultimately lay the foundation for growing healthy plants and crops. Bananas are rich sources of nutrients like potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and iron. When you add the peels to your soil, these break down to release these rich nutrients into your soil, thereby, nourishing it. All you have to do is dig a deep hole in the soil, then, place the peels with their insides facing the sky, and then cover.

10. Use fermented banana peels for bigger and brighter blooms

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Fermented banana peels work wonders for your blooms specially roses and other varieties. Banana peels help in producing bigger and brighter blooms as these are packed with potassium, a vital ingredient that helps in producing better looking blooms. Take a couple of banana peels and then put these in a mason jar. Now, cover with a lid, and wait for the mixture to settle for about a week. This will ferment the mixture and produce good and healthy bacteria that aids in plant growth. Once the waiting period is over, blend the mixture in a mixer and puree it. Now, use the puree as a dressing for your blooms. But, apply this puree to the soil or mix the puree with water and then, spray the solution on the whole plant.

11. Banana peels aid in the growth of acid loving plants

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Banana peels vinegar can be sprayed on plants that are acidic in nature, like blueberries, and gardenias. This vinegar spray enriches these plants with more iron that is needed for better growth and propagation. Just collect a few banana peels and then put these in a container filled with water. Put a loose fitting lid over the container. Let the mixture settle for a week and ferment. Now, remove the peels. Wait for another 6 weeks for the vinegar to form. Once it’s ready, collect it in a sprayer and spray it on the plant and the soil. This vinegar will act as a booster for the plants and help in the production of healthy foliage. Banana peels can be used in soil to grow Cardamom in home as well.

12. Use a banana peel as base for your air plant

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An air plant can be made to grow on a leftover banana peel. All you have to do is choose a healthy looking banana peel, and then, add organic mulch and moss to hide it. Thereafter, plant an air plant of your choice over the hidden banana peel. That’s it! The banana peel will not only become the base for the air plant to grow, but will also offer it all the nutrients that it needs for its growth and propagation.

Also Read: 15 Ways for Using Eggshells in the Garden

13. Dump banana peels to a pile of compost

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If you want a healthy and organic compost, then put in some banana peels to the pile to enrich it with rich nutrients like potassium, phosphorus, iron and calcium. While adding banana peels, make sure that you add only chopped peels that will break down quickly than whole peels. Also, this will prevent animals like moles and raccoons to invade your compost pile.

14. Use banana peel fertilizer for tomatoes

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Tomato plants will grow optimally when you fertilize them with nutrient rich fertilizers. The best and the cheapest way to use a nutrient rich fertilizer is to make use of leftover banana peels. All you have to do is place at least two to three peels at the bottom of a hole dug in the soil. Cover and sow tomato seeds on top. This will enrich the soil with essential nutrients that aid in plant growth. Also, you can feed the tomato plants with an occasional spraying of banana peel vinegar. Here, ensure that the vinegar doesn’t burn the plant. You can learn to grow Roma tomatoes at home here.

15. Dry banana peels can be fed to animals

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Animals love to eat bananas simply because these fruits taste sweet. In case your garden has a section for chickens or pigs, you can use your leftover banana peels as a feed for them. You can leave full portions of the fruits inside the peels, or can also feed them with dried peels. Mixing dried up banana peels to the rest of the animal feed is another alternative. Animals that are fed nutrient rich feeds are healthier and produce better offspring.

16. Banana peels can be used for polishing houseplants

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If you see your houseplants looking dull and a bit dirty, you can use banana peels to brighten and polish them up. The inside portion of a banana peel is acidic in nature and can help in adding luster to a dull plant when rubbed over it or over its leaves. Once you rub your plants with a banana peel, you will notice how glossy the foliage looks. Apart from giving the plants a glossy look, the peel also enriches them with rich nutrients. Banana peels can also be used in maintaining and growing tropical house plants.

17. Use banana peel on a backboard for supporting other plants

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Now, there is another wonderful use of banana peel. You can use the peel on a backboard for growing other plants like Staghorn Fern, orchids and Elkhorn. Place a banana peel on any backboard that you have placed on your garden, then, support the stem of your plant against this backboard which will release essential nutrients from the decaying peel once it rains, or when the plants gets watered. Stick banana peels to the trellis to add more nutrition to the vines. Here are some great DIY trellis ideas for gardens.

Also Read: How Aspirin Helps Plants Grow

18. Use banana peel to make a spray on fertilizer

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You can use leftover banana peels to make a spray of liquid fertilizer, apart from using it in the form of vinegar or puree. Banana peels are packed with growth nutrients like potassium, calcium, and phosphorus, and can give a boost to already established plants. The advantage of using a spray-on banana peel fertilizer is that you can fertilize a lot of plants quickly without wasting your time. You can make a spray-on fertilizer using ground peels, Epsom salt, egg shells and water.

Final Thoughts

Banana peels are a boon for your gardens as these offer multiple benefits. From using banana peels for roses and tomatoes, to utilizing them for polishing houseplants, to making compost tea, there are a number of ways you can use these wondrous peels to boost the growth of your plants and blooms.

So, before trashing them away in dustbins this time, try using the peels if you really want to see your garden grow healthily. Hope, reading our post on how to use banana peels in the garden has been inspiring for you all.

Do try these and come back to us with your valuable comments!