We all love fruits, in winter we prefer citrus fruits.

But they are not only tasty and useful for human health, but also useful for feeding indoor plants and various crops in the country, in the garden.

Therefore, after tasting a delicious orange or tangerine, do not throw away the peel.

Why don't you throw away the peel from oranges and tangerines 

  • The use of citrus peel is due to the presence in it of a fairly high concentration of macroelements vitally necessary for any plant.

    The fact is that the peel of an orange, tangerine or lemon contains more vitamins A, C, E than their flesh, which is rich in essential oils, flavonoids and pectin substances.

    It contains a lot of potassium and phosphorus, sodium, which participates in cellular metabolism and increases the winter resistance of plants. 

  • Making fertilizer from citrus peels is also necessary because it is a completely environmentally friendly and safe fertilizer.

  • This fertilizer has no restrictions for use during flowering and fruiting of plants.

  • Fertilizer made from citrus peels is universal, suitable for any crops.

  • It is very simple and inexpensive to prepare top dressing from orange peels, citrus fruits are available all year round and are relatively inexpensive.

  • Citrus peel repels many pests.

The only caveat to using fertilizer from citrus peels for top dressing is that if you add too much of it, the acid-alkaline balance of the soil may change, and acidified soil is not suitable for all crops.

Young plants are most sensitive to changes in soil acidity, so it is not recommended to use orange peel fertilizer in the first weeks after planting crops.

How to prepare and use citrus peel fertilizer for indoor plants

If you do not plan to use the peel immediately, it should be dried naturally or in an oven or electric dryer. 

To feed indoor plants, orange and mandarin peels are dried, ground in a coffee grinder or in a blender and added to the prepared soil at the rate of 2 tablespoons per liter.

You can prepare liquid fertilizer - fresh or dry skins are filled to about a third of the capacity and poured with boiling water.

Put in a dark place for a day.

Before use, the infusion is filtered and half diluted with water.

It is not possible to brew the skins again, there will be no benefit from it.  

Indoor plants are fed with fertilizer from citrus peels every 10-12 days. 

Citrus peel as a fertilizer

How to feed plants in the garden with fertilizer from orange and mandarin peels

To fertilize crops in the garden, fresh or dry skins are crushed and dug to a depth of 5-7 cm. This should be done 2-3 times per season.

Such fertilizer saturates the soil with useful substances, becomes a nutrient medium for useful soil microflora.

The peel is harmless to earthworms and other organisms that process organic matter.

Fresh peels of oranges or tangerines can be buried directly in the ground near the plant, the main thing is to bury them no deeper than 5-8 cm. 

Shredded peels can be added to the compost pile and thus later obtain a universal balanced fertilizer. 

It is suitable for fertilizing garden plants and infusion of skins, which is prepared in the same way as for indoor flowers.

The rate of feeding — pour up to 2 liters of liquid per one square meter.

In the same way as for indoor plants, the skins of tangerines, oranges or lemons can be dried and crushed using a blender or meat grinder, and the powder can already be used.

Such fertilizer can be used as top dressing by pouring it on the open ground.

After that, to enhance the effect, the plant needs to be watered.

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