Orange Peel Won’t Actually Help Your Garden
There is a lot of debate around the role of citrus fruits in the garden: can they be composted? Will this repel pests? It turns out that while citrus fruits are probably not entirely bad for your garden and can (in limited circumstances) be beneficial, they’re probably not worth worrying about.
Citrus fruits are problematic as an ingredient in compost and mulch.
Worms don’t like citrus, and if you’re vermicomposting, you don’t want to be working against the proletariat. However, the idea that citrus fruits don’t compost well is a myth: everything on Earth will eventually decompose, and citrus fruits do so at about the same rate as other kitchen scraps, although separating the seeds, fruits, and piths is recommended. from the peel before doing this. Not only does this require more work than I’m willing to put into composting, but it also highlights one of the problems with composting citrus: the nutrients are mostly in the fruit, which will be gone by the time you compost. The seeds will ferment and germinate, and the peels repel composting worms, so there is no real advantage.
While it’s true that citrus fruits are a good source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the building blocks of your soil, it’s not surprising that your soil is very acidic. This can change the pH of your soil, and is not a good idea unless you use it sparingly and under plants that need that acidity, such as blueberries or azaleas. Even in these cases, you need to keep an eye on the pH level because although these plants will have a higher pH level, it is only a slightly higher range. After this point, the pH level begins to defeat the purpose of your plants.
Citrus fruits can repel pests, but only to an extent that cannot be achieved with kitchen scraps.
One summer, a neighbor’s cat settled in my yard, began using the garden as a litter box, and as a preventative measure, scattered citrus peels all over my garden. These are also old wives’ tales. It’s true that citrus fruits can repel some pests, such as rats and mice. They don’t like the citrus oil found in the peel. However, the concentration of oil required to achieve the effect is higher than you can get by simply spreading the peel, even indoors. Moreover, these peels dry out quickly, and then there is no oil. Also of concern in this case was that a compound in citrus peels, d-limonene, may be toxic if ingested by animals. Anyway, the cat wasn’t scared, and I had a rotten garden year.
I’ve also seen citrus fruits mentioned as a slug repellent, but that too is largely a myth. Slugs are attracted to citrus fruits (slugs are attracted to most edibles), so you can use them as a temporary trap and then get rid of the peels and slugs. However, if the goal is trapping, beer traps work more effectively without negatively impacting the bed. Ultimately, for a person living in an area where there are a lot of slugs, the best slug defense is Sluggo , which fortunately is organic.
Although d-limonene is found in many mosquito and tick repellents and can be effective, the required concentration to be effective would require commercial juice production in your home.
Finding gardeners who practice using citrus fruits in their gardens is difficult.
Over the course of two weeks, I interviewed gardeners near and far, including many master gardeners, authors of respected gardening books, and nursery owners, and not one of them had ever used citrus in the garden. I couldn’t find a single person with practical experience, good or bad. This is likely because any benefits you can get from citrus fruits can easily be obtained from other modern gardening materials.