Experienced flower growers have long learned to make top dressing from the remains of such a tasty and useful fruit as a banana. It’s simple, ecological and budget-friendly. Today we will tell you how to make fertilizer from banana peel. You can prepare natural and effective top dressing for plants in several ways.
Why a banana?
- Banana is one of the most nutritious fruits. Not only its fruit is useful, but also its peel, because it contains trace elements such as magnesium, phosphorus and potassium. Top dressing from banana residues helps to strengthen the roots of the plant, as well as its growth and flowering. Thanks to nutrients, it can save even a dying plant.
- Top dressing from banana skins acts gently and gradually, unlike more aggressive store fertilizers. The risk of damaging the plant when using most types of such fertilizer is practically reduced to a minimum.
- It is believed that banana fertilizer repels pests and prevents the occurrence of diseases in plants.
- If you grow fruit-bearing plants at home (avocado, lemon tree, or others), you need natural, harmless top dressing.
- Using banana peels as fertilizer is part of an eco-friendly lifestyle that involves efficient use of waste and minimal use of chemicals.
As you can see, there are many advantages of using this fertilizer. It remains to learn how to cook it.
Processing of banana peel
It should not be forgotten that ordinary store bananas can contain not only useful, but also harmful substances. Therefore, before using the skin, it is necessary to properly process it. Be sure to wash it thoroughly with soap. You can also pour boiling water over it, or keep it in the freezer for a while to kill bacteria.
Types of fertilizers from banana skins
From the banana skin, you can prepare feedings of different consistency.
Infusion
To prepare liquid feeding:
- Take about 500 g of well-washed skin.
- Grind it in a blender or coffee grinder, then put it in a liter container and fill it with cold water.
- Let the liquid infuse for 2-3 days. Then pass it through a sieve.
Plants should be watered with the resulting infusion as usual.
Shredded pieces of skin
This recipe is good for feeding plants when planting.
- Cut the banana peel with scissors into small pieces, or grind it in a blender.
- Put it in the soil under the seedlings.
There, the banana peel will rot naturally, providing the plant with the necessary nutrients.
Importantly! Do not leave pieces of skins on the surface of the soil, otherwise they can become moldy.
Powder from dried peel
This method is perfect for feeding flowering plants.
- Place newspapers or paper towels on the battery or window sill.
- Lay the banana skins inside out.
- Cover the top with cheesecloth. Leave for a few days. Make sure that the skin does not rot.
- Grind the dried pieces of skin in a blender or pound them in a mortar
- Put the powder in a glass container with a lid. Store it in a dry place, not in rooms with high humidity.
- To fertilize the plant, evenly sprinkle the soil with shredded peel, and then water well. It is enough to do such feeding once a month.
You can also dry the skins in the oven or microwave. To do this, heat them on the minimum mode for a couple of hours. This will be faster than natural drying, but in this way, you will reduce the nutritional value of the fertilizer.
The best, but also time-consuming method of drying the skin is drying. In addition, it is available only in warm sunny weather.
- Cut the skin into pieces and string it like vegetables or mushrooms.
- Hang the threads in the sun to dry.
This method allows you to preserve a maximum of useful substances in banana waste.
Compost
This recipe is suitable for experienced flower growers.
- To make fertilizer, you will need disinfected garden soil.
- Thoroughly mix it with pieces of banana skins, and then water with a special preparation such as “Baikal” or “Embiko”.
- Leave the resulting mixture to rot for a month, then repeat everything again.
The resulting soil can be used for planting, or as a regular plant fertilizer.