bananas as a potassium source

[rollinronan]

i was thinking bananas break down readily, are high in natural sugars, phosphates and potassium and would make for a great organic tea or soil addative. I have searched this whole site and found nothing but banana bread!

has anyone ever heard of this before or has trials done???

seems like a great idea to add to the taste while being cheap, a good potassium and carb source for the buds and easy to produce at home.

 

[robert 14617]

banana peels and over ripe fruit go into my compost i make a tea with it every so often and water with it so yes i do take advantage of the benefits of bananas

 

[Serapis]

banana peels and over ripe fruit go into my compost i make a tea with it every so often and water with it so yes i do take advantage of the benefits of bananas

That is the only method I would use to introduce banana into my soil grow. Anything else is going to atract pests.

 

[rollinronan]

what sort of ratios do you use in the tea? i was thinking adding lavander and coffee mite be good too (just too add to the taste though)
im sure there could be a way around the pests...dilute it or something

 

[Viagro]

If you put banana peel in your soil mix, chop it up and dry it first or you might have fruit fly problems. I can't say with authority if it is a good choice, but I use banana peels and I think they are a great source of potassium.

edit: The mention of coffee above is another thing I like to use in my soil mix. I also put a little charcoal in it.

 

[robert 14617]

what sort of ratios do you use in the tea? i was thinking adding lavander and coffee mite be good too (just too add to the taste though)
im sure there could be a way around the pests...dilute it or something

i don't know you so i have to ask...you do know what compost tea is don't you ???

 

[Serapis]

http://www.ehow.com/how_2126328_use-bananas-as-fertilizer.html

I guess you can use fresh peels....

 

[rollinronan]

i don't know you so i have to ask...you do know what compost tea is don't you ???

well im no expert so i cant be sure, my previos experience involves leaching the nutrients out of other plant material in a warm water bath for about 2 weeks
i do it with nettles for nitrogen around the garden but its sum strong stuff so i have to add water at a 4 parts water to 1 part juice
am i close?

 

[wiseguy316]

potatoes are actually a better source of potassium i guess you could use the peelings for tea.

 

[rollinronan]

potatoes are actually a better source of potassium i guess you could use the peelings for tea.

hey good idea
if you spit in it it would accellerate the breakdown of the starch into mare basic sugars too


to Viagro: whats the charcoal for?

 

[stoneyluv]

kiwi is also very high in potassium

 

[robert 14617]

whats up japanfreak ?

 

[rollinronan]

so why respond like this?

oh i meant to the soil, but why not put it in the liquid, lavander would take longer because they are more woody than nettles and coffee beans would have to be crushed or even roasted would be a nice experiment

 

[Carl Spackler]

There are several disadvantages to using bananas or banana peels as a potassium source. 1. Unless you are planning on composting the peels (as a earlier poster suggested) the amount of time needed to break it down into usable "K" is prohibitive at best. If your plants are in dire need of K at any critical point of your grow, chances are that your grow will be long over before your K source is ready...not good. 2. Even if you are lucky enough to get it to break down into a usable form, the minute amounts present are almost impossible to calculate as part of a fertilzer analysis. Ask a hydro grower if he/she is willing to put a analysis of say "5-??-10" on their carefully grown babies...I would say no. Finally, why would anyone want to use this method when their are literally hundreds if not thousands of commerically available fertilizers that would be more than adequate for the job? The plants don't care that this element was bought at a store? They only have the requirement of this basic element for growth.

 

[rollinronan]

well what i use at the mo is AN sensi bloom a/b, hammerhead, bud blood, overdrive and final phase and evryone knows there way overpriced, so i would also like to find a cheaper (bought) alternative that would produce the same results
these ideas with the fruit are purely for taste

 

[Viagro]

well what i use at the mo is AN sensi bloom a/b, hammerhead, bud blood, overdrive and final phase and evryone knows there way overpriced, so i would also like to find a cheaper (bought) alternative that would produce the same results
these ideas with the fruit are purely for taste

Yeah, I prefer to make my own nute concoctions, so many products are just lazyman rip-offs.

 

[SilentBob024]

potatoes are actually a better source of potassium i guess you could use the peelings for tea.

Glad to see someone else uses potato as well. I go about 50/50 with potato and bananas peel and all once over ripe. And let that sit in water for a week before straining it.