My good friend Iesha told me a few years ago that if you bury a banana peel in the soil when you’re planting your tomato plants it will feed them potassium all summer long as the peels decay in the soil. If your tomato plants are looking a little sickly and you didn’t happen to have any bananas around when you planted your tomatoes, there’s an easy, organic way to add some much needed potassium to the soil. Hint, hint…it has to do with those banana peels.
Tomatoes need three important nutrients to flourish, besides plenty of water and lots of sunshine; nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Most commercial fertilizers contain these essential nutrients, but ensuring your tomatoes have plenty of potassium will result in more flavorful fruit. It helps regulate water uptake, promotes stronger growth and increases yields. It is an important nutrient for tomatoes so adding it to the soil will produce better tasting and greater yields.
So how do you know if your soil is deficient in potassium? You may notice brown edges on the leaves, which may look like the edges of the leaves have been burned. But the biggest concern is when you have a potassium deficiency it may affect the overall quality of the fruit. A potassium deficiency can result in leaf yellowing, blotchy ripening, along with tasteless tomatoes.
So adding more potassium to the soil is always a good thing when you are growing tomatoes in your home garden. Rather than using commercial fertilizers I riffed off my girlfriends idea of using banana skins to increase the potassium levels in my soil.
Even if you didn’t have any bananas when you planted your garden you can easily add more potassium to the soil. It only takes a few minutes, it’s totally organic, and will cost you you nothing!
Take a few banana peels (be sure to use organic bananas) and place them in a blender.
Add some water (enough to cover) and blend on high speed.
Purée until you have a thick slurry like this.
Pour this slurry around the base of your tomato plants.
Then water it into the soil really well. You want the slurry to soak down to where the roots of the plants are so they can soak up the nutrients.
Give it about a week and you will start to notice a visible difference in the overall health of your plants and the added potassium will ensure you get better tasting tomatoes.
Who doesn’t love sun ripened, juicy sweet tomatoes, straight from the garden!
Give this simple garden idea a try. What have you got to lose? Those banana peels were going into the trash anyways, might as well find a better use for them. A few minutes of your time will result in the sweetest, juiciest tomatoes all summer long. Happy gardening!
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The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
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