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Some social media gardening trends, like using cinnamon as a cure-all, are not supported by scientific evidence.Banana peels do not create a nutrient-rich fertilizer simply by soaking them in water for a few days.The nutrients in banana peels are best released through composting rather than making “banana water.”Expensive windowsill herb growers may be unnecessary when a few pots and a sunny windowsill can suffice.
This is the time of year that I usually pen a column covering a short list of cool and useful gift ideas for the gardener in your life. Of course, I realize that I’d have to run it sometime in July for it to be of use to some of you (I’m talking to my wife now). So, consider this edition aimed at the rest of us.
But this time I decided to do something a little different.
I realize that for the avid non-gardener, gift giving can be a daunting task. Fortunately however, if you find yourself in this category, there is the ubiquitous internet there for your researching and shopping pleasure. As you sit there on your living room sofa, smart phone in hand, you have at your disposal the most complete, up-to-date, indexed and fully AI-searchable collection of the worst and most unreliable info available anywhere on the planet.
So to provide a little assistance this holiday season, I picked a few items you can avoid this year.
Christmas gifts for the gardener to skip in 202550 pound bag of cinnamon
You’ve probably seen those social media videos of various fast talking garden folk skipping around their garden beds, spreading pounds and pounds of cinnamon. That’s right, cinnamon, the stuff that more properly belongs in pumpkin pie or eponymous sweet rolls.
First, I should remind you of my quick and easy way to evaluate the trustworthiness of social media videos. The higher the production value, the faster the host is talking, and the more likely the kinetic nature of the video is to send your nervous system into full-on seizure mode, the more likely the information delivered is to be viewed with a certain level of circumspection.
The cinnamon version of snake oil falls into this category.
Cinnamon has been widely touted as a cure-all for anything that plagues the garden. Got bugs? Douse ‘em with cinnamon. Got fungus? Release a pumpkin spice latte on the problem. Crooked bench, wobbly stepping stone, or rotting fence post? Dust the whole place till it smells like Santa’s kitchen pantry.
To be fair, there is some research out there that holds some intriguing promise for the spice. There do seem to be some antibiotic capabilities connected to powdered cinnamon, particularly it seems, for decreasing damping off – that annoying pathogen-caused collapse of your newly emerging tomato plant crop for the coming spring. Extracts of cinnamon, and in particular several organic volatiles and essential oil compounds extracted from cinnamon, have yielded some pretty impressive results in terms of deterring insect and fungal activity.
The problem, though, is that it is pretty typical for those fast talking salesfolk in the trendy flannel shirts and undisclosed marketing contracts to skip over the details. Most controlled studies that have shown insect discouraging or fungal inhibiting activity of “cinnamon” actually have been conducted using cinnamon extracts — not the half pound jar of fresh spice off the Costco shelf.
Indeed, one of the most promising cinnamon extracts for anti-pest activity is a compound called alpha-cinnamaldehyde. Unfortunately, it is such a volatile compound that its half-life in the soil is less time than it takes to slurp the cinnamon dust off the top of your $10 latte. Not all that practical.
And beyond all that, mulching your whole garden with half an inch of off-the-shelf cinnamon … well, I’ll let you do that math in your head.
A bucket of bananas
If you’re looking for that ultimate budget gift this year, you might be persuaded to give your favorite gardener one of those ever-useful 5-gallon, white buckets and a nice, ripe bunch of Chiquita bananas.
If you believe Fast Talkin Tony online, all you have to do to avoid ever having to buy fertilizer again is fill the bucket with water (pro tip for the really budget-minded gardener: rain water is free …) and after you enjoy your morning bowl of Cheerios with a cut up banana, drop the peel in the water. Within days, the magic of agricultural alchemy will turn it all into the best darned fertilizer since God invented the chicken.
Actually, after a few days floating in a bucket of water, your old, smelly and likely gnat-infested mess will include … nothing of nutritional value.
Yes, there are various mineral nutrients locked up in that banana peel. The problem is, they don’t leach out into the water in a few days. In all likelihood, you’ll end up with a dilute solution of whatever pesticide was still clinging to the outside of your banana. Banana peels are very low in mineral nutrition and those nutrients generally stay locked up inside the peel, only to be released through extended microbial action (aka composting.) And that composted banana peel is likely more beneficial to soil as a physical component of soil than as a nutrition source.
Enjoy the banana. Throw the peel in your compost pile.
A windowsill herb grower
There are several herb growers on the market these days, all consisting of some combination of a few little pots, often a bit of a water reservoir, and a small LED light above.
They’re designed to grow a bumper crop of herbs right there next to the dish strainer on the kitchen counter. And I suppose if you’re OK spending $16 on a teaspoon of avocado spread on two pieces of toasted bread for breakfast, the $100 dollar plus price tag might not seem to be out of line.
But at a few cents each for a few 4-inch plastic pots (or a whole dollar for the arguably more sustainable terra cotta version) and pocket change worth of seed, all you need is a windowsill. Some of these contraptions even come with a phone app that reminds you when to water your seedlings.
Talk about taking all the gardening out of gardening. Maybe I’ll just have a banana for breakfast.
Paul Cappiello is the executive director at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, 6220 Old Lagrange Road, yewdellgardens.org.
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