Do you absolutely love cooking potatoes and have tons of peels left over on a regular basis?
Well, instead of throwing them in the bin, you can use them productively to boost soil fertility and plant growth in your garden!
Use Potato Peels As A Fertilizer In Your Garden: These 9 Plants Love Them!
Here are 9 plants that would definitely appreciate some potato peel action:
1: Strawberries
So, when we talk about using potato peels in the garden, it’s mostly due to their phosphorus and potassium content. Because they’re rich in good nutrients, berry plants like strawberries and even blueberries can benefit from potato peels as they aid with better plant growth and fruiting.
For ideal results, you want to add your potato peels to a compost bin first and let them decompose.
This will make them easier to handle and allow important nutrients to be absorbed much more effectively once you feed them to your strawberry plants.
2: Basil
The potassium and phosphorus from potato peels can be useful for making basil leaves stronger and more lush, reducing any chances of early breakage or discoloration.
If you’re looking to grow the best basil you can, I definitely suggest you mess around with some potato peel fertilization.
Decomposing your peels in a compost bin is ideal as it significantly reduces absorption time.
3: Oregano
Like basil, oregano is another popular herb that can benefit from potato peels. The natural fertilizer will boost potassium content in the soil, resulting in stronger, healthier, and more vibrant leaves that will probably also taste better when added to dishes of your choice.
If you want, you dry your potato peels and crush them into a powder before mixing them in with your oregano soil or simply compost them for more efficient use.
4: Sunflowers
Sunflowers can benefit from potato peels because of their rich nutrient composition. Once those beneficial nutrients are absorbed by the soil, it will lead to more vibrant, longer-lasting blooms that can withstand various challenges and conditions without giving you much trouble.
The root system of your sunflowers will also improve thanks to the nutrient boost and your plants should become much less vulnerable to root-related diseases.
5: Roses
With roses, navigating around natural fertilizers can be slightly more tricky as they tend to be a lot more delicate and susceptible to issues.
The abundant potassium and phosphorus in your potato peels can encourage strong root system development, improve your rose plants as a whole, and lead to more vibrant and vigorous blooming.
For these, I’d suggest you boil your potato peels and make a tea out of them which you can water your roses with.
6: Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas are a special one for me since I’ve written so many articles around them and have them in my backyard garden as well. Believe it or not, I’ve actually tried experimenting with potato peels for my hydrangeas and they work quite well.
The only thing you may want to do differently with hydrangeas, however, is to use the composted potato peels as mulch around the base of your plants and not mix them in with the soil.
Apart from improving overall fertility, this will help the soil retain some moisture which can be particularly beneficial for hydrangeas.
7: Cucumbers
Yes, you read that right! That cucumber vine in your garden can drastically benefit from potato peel fertilization. The additional potassium and phosphorus help encourage more vigorous vine growth and spreading, essentially resulting in higher fruit yield and long-term vine health.
Again, either method works here, and you don’t need to use potato peels differently. For convenience, you can simply make a nutrient-rich tea or compost them.
8: Pothos
Houseplants like pothos and spider plants love a little extra potassium boost. The thing with these plants is that they’re quite vulnerable to root rot issues and other fungal infections that take a huge toll on their long-term health.
A potassium boost can improve the root system of your pothos and encourage lush foliage development which will be both healthy and vibrant.
9: Tomatoes
Tomato plants can be a major beneficiary of potato peel fertilization. A little potassium and phosphorus boost never hurt any tomato plants and just made them stronger.
You can expect stronger, healthier roots, plenty of new foliage growth, and improved fruiting, resulting in better fruit yields in the bigger picture.
You can attain all these benefits in your tomato plants simply by composting your potato peels and mixing them in with the soil instead of throwing them away. The latter even takes more effort sometimes.
Conclusion
Although using natural fertilizers like composted potato peels isn’t necessary in the garden, I highly suggest you do so due to the convenience factors.
You’ll be wasting less part of the vegetable and actually putting it to productive use where it can give you a positive return in the form of promoting new plant growth. Good luck!
