Orange Peels in the Garden

🍊 Insecticide…

D-limonene

-Citrus plays a different roll at different stages of an insect's life. for example: can kill mosquito larvae but repel adults.

-The smell also keeps pets (Like cats and dogs) out of garden as well.

-Concerns of killing microbes and beneficials in your garden? ❗Several chemicals in citrus peels are used in organic pesticides. While they are effective as pesticides, these chemical oils break down rapidly and will evaporate long before you place your compost on your garden.

🍊Attracting Butterflies ...

-Orange peels actually ATTRACT butterfly's vs repelling them resulting in more pollinators in your garden...

❗️Bees do NOT like citrus.

🍊Composting…

-Use in traditional composting; is used as a GREEN in the compost pile, providing nitrogen.

-Most commercially sold citrus fruit are sold with a mild antimicrobial wax applied. Since penicillium mold is an issue for citrus growers, this is the standard way to prevent mold growth while the fruit is waiting to be sold. The wax on the fruit is mild enough not to affect your entire compost pile but strong enough to prevent the mold from growing on the surface of the citrus; SO When composting organically grown oranges you want to make sure to keep the pile WARM to HOT (aka Hot Pile method) to prevent mold from growing...

-❗️Though not the only organisms responsible for breaking down a compost pile, worms will leave compost pile if too much citrus content is there. They will begin to move back in once the decomposition of the peels has reached a certain point…

🍊Citrus Peel Fertilizers…

-Orange peels can be used to enrich your soil adding potassium, calcium, sulfur, phosphorus, magnesium and sodium to compost pile and garden beds.

-Can dry peels and blend them resulting in a powder form of “fertilizer”

-Mix orange peels(3parts), brown sugar(1part), and water(10parts)

•Let sit for a month / burp once a day (for a month)/let sit additional 2 months

•Natural fermentation process and activating useful enzymes … dilute 1:100 when you're ready to use

❗️use it UNDILUTED in your compost pile as a accelerant and activator to speed up the composting process

🍊Acidity! …

-Orange peels have a pH ranging from 3 to 4 (acidic)

-increases acidity of soil BUT not enough to drastically change pH of soil or compost pile. (Similar to the effects of fallen pine needles)

-MAY help boost acidic loving plants such as: azaleas, magnolias, hydrangeas, daffodils, nasturtium, camellias, and heather plant

🍊Combating Fungal Attacks…

-Anti-fungal capacities of orange peel polyphenolic extracts (OPE) have shown great results in inhibiting the growth of certain fungal diseases on plants and post-harvest.

🍊How to Apply…

-Spray (mix with hot water in spray bottle and allow to cool before using)

-scattered bits (bury bits shallowly near base of plants) OR apple as mulch

-powder (dry the peels and then blend them into a fine powder. Mix the powder directly into the soil)

-Burning dry orange peels in a fire (to repel insects) 💎 Can also be used as kindling to start the fire

❗️risk mold issues and diseases when applying peels and bits to garden beds before composting (preferably hot)