Should You Use Banana Peels In The Garden? Experts Weigh In

You've likely heard that burying banana peels in your garden is a good way to add important nutrients to the soil to grow healthy plants. Banana peels do contain nutrients, but not as many as you may think. Plus, it's not as simple as placing them in the soil and skipping fertilizer or compost.

We spoke to two gardening experts about why burying banana peels in the garden isn't the best idea, what can happen, and why composting banana peels is the best option for using them in the garden.

Should You Bury Banana Peels In Your Soil?

Banana peels contain potassium and phosphorus, which are important nutrients to grow thriving plants. Placing banana peels directly in the soil may seem like a good idea, after all, it's a way to reduce food waste and put minerals back into the soil. But you'll want to rethink your strategy. The nutrients in banana peels aren't automatically accessible after you put them in the soil—they need to break down first. "Bananas are mostly water, will break down slowly and won't provide enough nutrients, " says Barbara Smith, Consumer Horticulturist with the Clemson Extension Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC).

The issue with this method is you may assume that your plants are getting adequate nutrients when they aren't getting enough. "Banana peels take so long to decompose that your plants won’t get the nutrients they need when they need them," says Pam Farley, author of The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening. "It could take your banana peel more than a year to decompose in your garden, and your vegetables will be long since harvested by then." 

When you use banana peels in this way, you don't know how much, if any minerals are being added to the soil, whereas when you use a fertilizer you know what you're adding. "You can’t control the quantities of nutrients using the banana-peel method," says Farley. "Fertilizers are specifically created for different applications—you’ll use a different fertilizer for your strawberries than you would for your indoor cactus, for example." 

What Happen If You Bury Banana Peels

Soil is alive and has its own ecosystem. If a banana peel is buried in the soil, microorganisms will work to break it down. But this can take away from the microorganisms providing the current nutrients in the soil to your plants. "Adding them to your plants can backfire as the soil organisms that work to break down the peels will reduce the available nitrogen that helps plants properly grow," says Smith. 

Organic food waste buried in the soil can attract unwanted guests to your garden, too. You may be creating more problems than solutions with this so-called garden hack. "Your local neighborhood raccoon, rat, or possum would love to dig up your garden and munch on that banana peel," says Farley. It's not only rodents that you have to consider, either. Decomposing banana peels can emit odors that attract pests. "The putrefying peel could attract fungus gnats, whose larvae can damage roots and stunt plant growth," says Farley.

The Best Way To Use Bananas In The Garden

To get the most out of your banana peel, the best place to put it is in the compost bin. "The warm, moist, aerobic environment of the compost pile allows the peels to quickly decompose," says Farley. "They’ll add trace amounts of calcium, magnesium, phosphates, potassium, and sodium to your compost, which you can then use to amend your garden soil." 

Do A Soil Test

If you're curious or concerned about the nutrients in your soil, do a soil test. Most county extensions offer soil testing for a reasonable fee. "Contact your state's extension cooperative service for information on how to send in a soil sample for testing," says Smith. "This way, you will know exactly what your plants need to grow well."