We all know that oranges are healthy since they are packed with vitamin C and boost our immune system. But, did you know that they are also helpful for your lawn and garden? Learn how to compost orange peels and how they benefit your plants.
Composting is where you recycle green and brown material in a compost bin and break it down into rich fertilizer. It’s an excellent way to reduce waste; plants thrive from compost’s nutrients. In fact, oranges revived Del Oro, Costa Rica’s forests, in the mid-1990s through decomposition.
While you’re probably familiar with putting leaves, branches, manure, grass clippings, wood chips, and other organic material in your composter, adding food waste is also beneficial for composting. Instead of throwing a banana peel, eggshell, citrus peel, and other food scraps into the trash or garbage disposal, why not add them to the compost heap?
Composting With Orange Peels
Composting leftover food scraps is a great way to recycle. However, adding more than just fruit and vegetable scraps to the compost pile is essential to balance the decomposition process. Discover how to correctly compost orange peels and ways to use your composted material to enrich the soil and promote plant growth.
Can You Compost Orange Peels?
In previous years, home gardeners thought composting lemons and orange peels was bad. Can you compost orange peels? We now know that citrus peels are perfect for composting, even if they are moldy citrus peels.
Left over orange peels can be used in many different ways. Consider learning how to make a homemade orange multipurpose cleaner with the left over peels in your home.
Compost Orange Peel
Can oranges be composted? While it takes a long time for a fresh orange peel to break down, it is compostable. Some believe that chemical residue from organic pesticides remains on the rinds, affecting the compost material. However, the chemicals evaporate before you place the peels into the compost pile.
What are the Advantages of Composting Orange Peels?
While orange peels are not as valuable for vermicompost since many worms do not like to eat them, there are many good reasons to add them to a compost pile. Find out the benefits of composting orange peels with other green and brown materials.
Are orange peels good for compost? There are several advantages to composting them. A lemon or orange peel adds potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen, and other minerals to the material. Additionally, they speed up the composting process and help avoid fly larvae in the compost pile and deter other pests.
How to Compost Orange Peels
Composting is an excellent way to produce rich fertilizer without the cost by recycling leftover materials like citrus fruit. Prepare and compost oranges in the compost pile or heap.
Can you compost orange peels? Orange peels are a common kitchen scrap that is an excellent addition to the compost pile as long as you add even layers of green and brown materials. For example, add a layer of pine needles, dry leaves, twigs, straw, sawdust, and other browns, followed by fruit peels and other greens.
Cut the orange or lemon peel into smaller pieces since a small piece breaks down faster than a large one. Then, put orange peels in compost with other greens like grass clippings, animal manure, seaweed, and food scraps.
Water the compost material once or twice a week, and wait two weeks between turns to allow the center to heat up and decompose. The composting process takes two months to a year, and the finished product is a dark brown and earthy-smelling fertilizer.
Ways to Use Composted Orange Peels
Once you have a finished composting product, it’s time to put that fertilizer to good use. There are a few ways to use composted citrus peelings for your lawn, vegetable patch, and plants.
Add finished compost to the dirt any time of year without fear of burning plants to build soil structure, retain water, add nutrients, maintain soil pH, and protect plants from various diseases.
The easiest way to apply citrus peel compost is to use it as mulch. Spread a thick layer of compost over exposed areas to hold in moisture and prevent weeds. If you have a raised bed or container garden, combine three parts compost to seven parts potting soil and two parts sand.
Another use for compost is to top dress your lawn. Spread a quarter to a half-inch of mulch over grass by raking the material in all directions. Water the yard with a sprinkler.
Other Food Scraps to Add to the Compost Pile
Composting orange peels is a great way to let nature turn leftovers into plant food, and an orange rind is not the only food scrap to compost. Learn the types of safe foods to add to the compost pile.
Many food scraps you toss into the trash are compostable, including fruits, veggies, nuts, grains, coffee grounds, tea bags, and eggshells. These are green compost materials. Even items like brown sugar and vinegar are safe for composting.
Either add the food scraps to the composting pile or bury small bits of scraps beneath the soil. Apply orange peel powder, dried orange peel, or orange zest to the dirt around your plant to lower the pH levels, or add crushed egg shell to give plants calcium.
However, not all foods are safe for the compost bin. Avoid composting fish and meat scraps, fats and oils, and dairy products since these foods attract unwanted visitors like raccoons, skunks, rats, flies, and other troublesome pests.
Orange peel compost is perfect for growing azaleas, hydrangeas, and other plants that enjoy acidic soil. Not only are citrus peels a great addition to the compost pile, but their scent keeps scavengers out of the composting material. All you have to do is cut pieces of an orange rind and toss them in the bin.
Now that you understand how to compost orange peels, why not share our orange peel composting guide with your gardening social circle on Facebook and Pinterest?