? About composting

[Tussiemussies]

I need to know if I can put bananas and their peels in my compost? Thanks...Chris

[dinah]

we do.

[catherine]

I do, too. Mostly peels.

[Tussiemussies]

Thanks for letting me know, this is the first time we have some and I want to make sure I do the right thing!

[Williamsmith]

Any decomposable organic material except not: human excrement, diseased animals or plants that have been treated with herbicides or pesticides.

Banana skins are 3.25 % phosphoric acid and 41.76% potash. Source : U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture

[iris lilies]

Of course.

Both break down pretty quickly because the are full of water.

[CathyA]

Williamsmith......aren't bananas pretty heavily treated with chemicals?
(I do put them in my compost pile).

[Williamsmith]

I would say from what I've read that testing the levels of chemicals by the government entities responsible has yielded low toxicity findings in the actual fruit. The peels are not tested to my knowledge. But that said, application of most of these chemicals is in the development stage of the fruit mostly and so I wouldn't expect it to be different. Those who apply the chemicals....hey are in a hazardous environment. My thought is....why not buy organic labeled bananas to lessen the worry.

[nswef]

I put bananas and coffee grounds next to my roses.

[awakenedsoul]

Yes. I compost bananas and their peels. I've heard that some people don't compost citrus peels, because they feel they take too long to break down. I compost them, and they break down fine.

My neighbor gives me free horse and goat manure for my compost pile. It makes amazing compost!!!

[Tussiemussies]

Thanks Williamsmith for the information and CathyA, maybe I should not compost the peel if there are quite a lot of pesticides on them...

Hi awakenedsoul...your compost sounds fantastic!

[lessisbest]

I cut banana peels into 1-inch chunks so they decompose faster in the small ComposTumbler we use, and I toss the hard woody ends into the trash. The Tumbler makes compost very quickly, unlike a traditional compost pile - or what we call, a "wildlife buffet". If you've ever found a skunk going through your compost pile, you'll understand why we switched to the enclosed Tumbler. The stem ends of bananas don't decompose as fast and get screened out anyway, so I just don't add them to the Tumbler to begin with. I dump the Tumbler and screen out any large seeds or large bits that didn't break down. If you don't screen your compost, you can end up with "volunteer" plants growing where you really didn't intend them to grow.

I also have a GardenTower (http://www.gardentowerproject.com/) I feed with organic matter, and once again, I don't add the hard woody stems of the banana, just the peel (and I cut the peel with a pair of kitchen scissors to make quick work of the task).

I don't compost citrus peels (you're not supposed to toss them in the GardenTower, and they take too long in the Tumbler). I dehydrate citrus peels and use them that way. I'll compost the pith (white part).

[SteveinMN]

Remove the stickers -- they'll survive long after the rest of the produce is unrecognizable.

[kally]

do you know how we turn our compost to get it all mixed up....????


we don't.

The bears do. Every now and then they come into our residential neighbourhood and just bust that plastic compost wide open. Now we can get all the good bits in the corners that are so hard to scrape out. lol