Give Rose Bushes A Natural Boost With A Kitchen Scrap You'd Be Tossing Anyway

Before you toss your old banana peels in the compost bin and bid them goodbye forever, you might want to consider holding on to them. While they'll no longer be of any use in your kitchen, the nutrient-packed peels might be the solution to keeping your rose plants healthy and hydrated. Filled with fertilizing nutrients and, may we add, also incredibly affordable, these fruit scraps have the power to help your rose garden thrive. There are a few different ways to incorporate banana peels into your rose garden care routine, ranging from chopping them into small pieces to drying them to mixing them into a mulch. 

As beneficial as banana peels might be to your roses, it's important to note that they are not a cure-all for a dying rose bed. In fact, if you're not careful with how you add the peels to the soil, you can accidentally attract pests and bring harm to the plants instead. In order to not accidentally endanger your plants, make sure to prepare the peels first. Also, we may as well bust an often-spread myth while we're here: banana peels won't directly affect the flowers in terms of aesthetics and blossom numbers. However, they can boost the health of the soil and in turn the plants.

The more you study the issue of food waste, the more you'll learn just how beneficial many of these "waste" items, like banana peels, are. Not only can you reuse food waste in the kitchen, but you can even recycle it to boost the health of your plants. Plus, no one is going to say no to saving a few extra dollars on fertilizer. Banana peels can naturally improve your rose garden's health, from bolstering soil quality to controlling pests. They're filled with important nutrients like potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and sulfur. Phosphorus can boost root growth, while potassium aids with disease resistance. Along with those, banana peels also contain iron and calcium, which help with root and chlorophyll production. In short, these compostable items are like natural rose multivitamins. 

However, while banana peels do contain a significant number of nutrients, they are still missing a few key ones that your rose garden needs, like nitrogen. That's why it's best to use banana peels alongside a fully balanced fertilizer, so your roses don't miss out on their other nutritional requirements.

There are a myriad of suggestions online for how to incorporate banana peels into your rose care routine. It matters which method you choose, as if not executed carefully, you could do more harm than good. One of the most popular ways to use banana peels as a fertilizer is to plant small pieces directly into the soil. When opting for this method, make sure to cut the peels into very small sections and bury them in the soil at least 4 to 6 inches deep to ensure they don't attract garden pests. Another method is to dry out your banana peels and sprinkle them into the already existing mulch around the base of your roses.

In one study, the most successful method was when the banana peels were dried and utilized as part of a composite fertilizer with orange peels. From boosting the plants' abilities to efficiently use water to increasing stress tolerance, banana peels were deemed beneficial to overall plant growth, though it's clear that there is still more research to be done.