Knowledgeable people are not used to throwing away the peel left over from eating bananas. The skins account for up to 40% by weight of the fruit. It is not surprising that the concentration of trace elements in the soft and fleshy membrane is high. That is why fertilizer made from banana peels for indoor plants is very common among amateur gardeners. How to make mineral fertilizing? Let's talk about this in our publication today.
About the benefits of banana skins
What minerals does the banana peel contain? You can make a real substitute for potash and phosphorus fertilizers for your home plants, which have a beneficial effect on the development and growth of indoor flowers and vegetable crops (in particular, spring seedlings). Banana skins are the richest source of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and nitrogen. If you prepare a complex fertilizer, which includes grape twigs and banana peels, the use of such top dressing for indoor flowers will be very effective. It is believed that such a mineral fertilizer is in no way inferior in composition and properties to ready-made fertilizers.
Conduct an experiment and add the mineral composition yourself prepared in a pot with begonia, senpolia or cyclamen. In a week, the transformation of the plant will visibly become noticeable. In addition, your homemade beauties will only be happy with natural fertilizer. What are the ways to prepare the compositions, and are there any nuances in the technology? Let's talk about it right now.
Do I need to peel?
When transporting fruit to our region, the banana peel is treated with a wax coating and some hazardous chemicals, in particular, the dust group related to carcinogens. Therefore, make it a rule to thoroughly rinse the skin before eating fruit. But just treating the surface of the peel with room temperature water is not enough. It will be correct to wash with hot water, always using soap. Pay attention to the long white fibers inside the skin itself. These elements will not work for future fertilizer, remove them before you start preparing fertilizing.
Banana peel: home use
The simplest, but at the same time effective way of feeding home plants is to introduce crushed peel into the soil under the root system. This method is usually used for spring transplants of flowers into larger pots. If you do not plan a transplant, carefully remove the plant from the container, make sure that the earth remains at the bottom of the pot, or add a portion of fresh soil.
The peel of bananas is cut into pieces and does not fit too deeply from the root system of the plant. Some flower growers, using large containers, lay the whole skin because the microorganisms acting in the soil quite quickly completely process the planted element. It only takes 10 days for the peel to completely “dissolve” in the soil.
Topped with oven-baked banana skins
To prepare the fertilizer, crushed into powder, you must use the following recipe. The peel of bananas should be laid out on a foil-covered baking sheet. Before this, divide the skins into decayed elements. Place the particles for frying face down. Preheat the oven to the usual temperature and place the pan with the banana peel inside. Remove the skins when they are completely fried. Next, the dried elements are cooled and pulverized. Make fertilizer should be dosed.
Can a banana peel be dried without using an oven? Yes. Dry the skins by putting them on the battery, or in the hot season take them out into the open sun. Some summer residents use a flooded bath for these purposes.
How much ready-made fertilizer is needed to make a pot?
Fertilizer from a banana peel for indoor plants is used no more than 1 time per week. In order to fertilize the plant well, one teaspoon of the resulting powder is enough. Keep dry concentrate in an airtight container in a dry, dark place.
Liquid top dressing
Among amateur gardeners, liquid top dressing, which is usually applied along with watering, is very popular. To prepare a tonic mineral delicacy for home plants, you must adhere to the following scheme. Dried peel is brewed in an unnecessary container in the same proportions as regular tea. After the micronutrients are steamed and penetrated into the water, such “tea” cools and is introduced under the root into the pot instead of the usual watering. To obtain liquid top dressing, you can use dry banana concentrate, but it is better if it is whole dried skins. Store dried billets in a paper bag.
How else do you use dried peels?
We have learned many ways to obtain fertilizer for home flowers, among which are the use of raw ground elements, dry concentrate and liquid mineral fertilizer. Can dried items be placed in a pot? Yes you can. Dry banana peel is used in the same way as chopped raw skins, making it not too deep into the soil of a pot with an indoor plant. Using such fertilizer, it is necessary to ensure that the elements do not appear on the surface of the soil, otherwise putrefactive bacteria will develop.
Freezing Shredded Skins
To preserve more valuable nutrients for your pets, you can not dry the skins, but freeze them. The peel of bananas should be chopped and placed in a special tray or in a plastic container and sent to the freezer. From time to time, the capacity can be replenished. Feeding from frozen banana skins contains more nutrients than dry extracts.
For those who are not looking for easy ways. Composting
It may seem to someone that there is no simpler way of feeding than a banana peel for plants. However, this is not quite true. And if until this moment we considered mainly the hassle-free preparation of fertilizers, then now we will take up the responsible and time-consuming task - composting. If bulbous plants live in your house in pots , do not be too lazy to prepare a special treat for them. Banana compost can also be used for gardening onion crops. In order to prepare the composition, you will need a bucket of earth, Baikal fertilizer, as well as a large amount of banana peel. Paste all the skins into a bucket of soil, fill with fertilizer and mix thoroughly with a stick. Leave in a secluded place to decompose the peel for about a month.
In the meantime, save up the skins again, because after the specified time it will be necessary to repeat the procedure. Paste the peel again, fill with Baikal fertilizer, mix thoroughly. If it is possible and time allows, run inside the bucket a certain amount of small earthworms. Completely black and very rich in micronutrients, compost will be ready in another 2 months.
Banana peel against aphids
Our today's heroine fights very well against aphids, you just have to bury a few particles next to the problem plant. You can make an infusion that will resist the parasite. Do it this way: take 3 banana skins and place in a three-liter jar filled with water. Then the container is tightly closed with a lid and insisted for 3 days. It remains to strain the infusion and dilute with water in equal proportions. Aphid control fluid is ready to use.
Interesting information
Want to know how much a banana peel weighs? As we have already found out, the skin takes up to 40% of the total fruit mass. For medium-sized bananas, the peel weighs 87 grams, and for the largest, it reaches 95 grams.