Orchids can be considered to be houseplant royalty with the plant’s bright colours and charming fragrance but, for many plant parents, they can be difficult to make last.
In spite of their easy-to-look-after nature, most people find that their plants won’t stay in bloom as long as they’d hoped for.
Many orchid owners are failing to do one simple trick that could have their plants in constant bloom. According to one orchid expert, bananas could be the answer to your prayers.
Mark Curran, creator of the Heavenly Orchids blog, shared that banana peel in your plant’s water acts as a “good organic fertiliser”, as the peel contains potassium, phosphorus, and calcium.
Potassium is said to build up the plant’s resilience against pests while phosphorus improves flowering and calcium helps to promote root growth.
These key elements combined make banana peel the best thing for your orchid – and one person decided to put this theory to the test.
On TikTok, @kivakriti shared a video where they recommended those with orchids to add the ingredient to their water.
The video suggested you start by taking a banana peel, chopping it into pieces, and leaving it to soak in warm water for a few hours – the longer the better.
Then, people should use the water from the banana peel to feed the orchid, waiting until all the water drains out from the bottom of the pot; this is to prevent overwatering.
The TikTok creator recommended that you follow these steps every 10 days or so in order to get the best results; they claimed that this quick trip will help your orchids to “bloom constantly”.
Orchid expert Mark Curran added alternative ways to make the best use of the fruit. He suggested to cut banana peels into thin strips, dry them in the sun over a couple of days, and grind them up to create a powder that can be sprinkled onto the plant’s soil.
Mark also claims that rice water is a “very good organic fertiliser” as it contains trace amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as starches that are great for the roots.
He also explained that rice water is “particularly beneficial” for an orchid when it is flowering.