LifeSocial media is rife with claims that banana skins can have a transformative effect on our houseplants. James Wong unpeels the science behind the trend 8 January 2025 Can banana peel really help your houseplants?Shutterstock/ThamKCBack in the 1990s, the kids in my high school were convinced that banana peels contained a mysterious psychoactive substance that could apparently induce vivid hallucinations when smoked. I suppose its the tragic fate of the elder millennial that, 30 years later, the same people are now positive that the real excitement banana peels have to offer is in caring for their houseplants. With hundreds of social media posts touting the apparently transformative effect banana peels can have on plant growth, I set out to learn if there was any evidence for