Should banana peels go in compost bin?

If banana peels are OK to include in the bin, do they need to be cut up first for faster decomposition?

Thanks,
Ann

My husband always asks what the banana peels are doing in the rose bed along w/the little heaps of coffee grounds. I just smile and tell him that I am making the worms happy.

Ann

I put my banana peels in the compost bin whole & I've never seen them in the finished compost. Probably the only things I ever cut up first are melon rinds.

If I didn't have 3 banana trees to feed, the peels would go in my compost bin. As it is, I bury them under the banana trees.

Puddle, that's very interesting. I didn't know that in 5b you could grow banana. I'll have to check that out.

I have a pair of Musa basjoo trees growing next to my patio. After the first killing frost, I chop them down and leave about a foot or so of trunk sticking up out of the ground. I cover each one with mulch to insulate it.

After the Spring frosts pass, I pull the mulch aside and scatter compost and spent coffee grounds around each mushy stump. In a few weeks they start to grow again.

My other banana tree's a Cavendish of some sort in a big planter. I bring that one inside from October to May. When I put it out on the patio in the Spring, I mix some compost into the potting soil and stick a fertilizer spike or two in there.

All three benefit from the concentrated potassium found in banana peels. I also sprinkle a handful or two of hardwood ashes around each Musa basjoo after it starts to grow back (I don't do that for the Cavendish because the ashes would be too concentrated for a container).

Do those Musas give you bananas, or just look lovely? (Just wondering...)

They haven't fruited yet, but they've only been in the ground for a year and a half.

Thanks, everyone, for the help--I'm always afraid I may put something in that may not decompose well. My bin isn't huge and I need to use most of what's in it by the following spring.

Ann

Ann, where you're from, you should be able to start scrounging leaves for your compost bin. They break down better if they're shredded, which can be done with a lawnmower, or buy putting some in a trash can and add a weed whip. Works like a charm! Just add right along everything else. They are browns, so you might need to add greens, like alfalfa pellets to help speed up the break down. :)

doccat5, thanks for the tip about the alfalfa pellets! I have plenty of leaves which I do shred and which go into the compost bin. In fact, leaves and coffee grounds make up the bulk of what's in the bin.

Ann