Tomato plants should look tall and now have a lot of green fruits on the vine ready to ripen, but they may not grow properly if they are not fed regularly. Tomatoes are in the middle of fruiting and tend to be very hungry, and need a lot of potassium in their soil, which is a nutrient essential for fruit production.
Potassium helps plants transport sugar, nutrients and water from the roots to the fruit, and without it, your tomatoes are more likely to be small or not even grow at all. It also helps improve disease resistance, so if tomatoes are not fed properly, they can become very vulnerable to blossom end rot or even blight, which can be common in summertime.
However, Morgan McBride, a gardener and co-founder of Charleston Crafted, has shared a very simple way to keep tomatoes fed in summer is with leftover banana peels.
She said, “Bananas are known to be very high in potassium. Potassium is a key ingredient in many fertilisers. Potassium helps living things move water and nutrients between cells.
“Potassium is an essential nutrient that is said to make plants stronger, flower or fruit more, and more drought-tolerant. Bananas are known to be very rich in potassium, which tomatoes need to grow, but is also known to improve the size, yield and even the flavour of tomatoes.
They also contain the nutrient phosphorus, which helps plants grow stronger roots, and calcium, which also helps reduce the risk of disease.
This is a natural way to enrich the soil to improve the plant growing environment, so you are more likely to get bigger and plumper tomatoes during the harvest season in August.
How to feed tomatoes with banana peels
You cannot just throw the banana peels onto the soil, as the natural sugars in the fruit can attract pests, which will quickly eat your tomatoes and destroy your plant.
Instead, the best way to feed plants banana peels is by making a simple gardening tea, which you can use to water your tomatoes with.
All you need to do is chop up a few banana peels (use two peels per plant) and place them in a glass mason jar that has a lid.
Cover the peels with water from the tap, and then leave them to sit somewhere at room temperature to ferment. Leave them between two days to a week.
Then, all you have to do is strain the peels out of the water and pour the banana tea into the soil around your tomato plants.
Feed tomatoes banana tea every two weeks in summer, as this natural supplement will help you grow healthier and juicier tomatoes.