Banana peels and soil
-
February 1, 2025
-
Recently I’ve been seeing advice on Facebook about adding bananas to your soil for the potassium.
Bananas and their peels do indeed contain potassium (K), which is a major nutrient for plants. The other major nutrients are nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P).
Unfortunately, nitrogen is needed to break down the peel, making the nitrogen unavailable to the plant.
Another disadvantage: Adding banana peels directly to the soil may attract unwelcome varmints. It’s okay to add banana peels to your compost bin.
Two other myths that Master Gardeners have debunked are that adding coffee grounds will help acidify the soil and that eggshells are good for the compost pile. The truth is fresh coffee grounds are acidic, but used grounds are not. And the truth is you would need a huge amount of eggshells to make any changes in the soil.
-
Katie Martin