How To Use Eggshells In The Garden

How To Use Eggshells In The Garden

An egg is more than just a breakfast staple for gardeners. It turns out, you can use egg shells to make your garden even more productive.

Eggshells contain a wide variety of nutrients that plants love including calcium carbonate, sulfur, magnesium, and potassium.

They also contain organic matter once they decompose that is rich in nitrogen that’s useful for your plants. Eggshells definitely decompose in your garden, but keep in mind it doesn’t happen overnight – it happens pretty slowly. 

Today, we’ll be going through five of the best uses of eggshells for the garden. Let’s get started!

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Prevent Blossom-End Rot

One important benefit of using them in the garden is the addition of calcium from eggshells to the soil which is an essential ingredient. Calcium deficiency can cause blossom end rot in tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Blossom end rot is exactly what it sounds like – the end of your fruit is rotted:

One way to prevent your crops from having water-soaked spots at the blossom end, is by using crushed eggshells in the garden at the bottom of planting holes. This can add a steady supply of calcium to the plants as it breaks down.

Eggshells can help you prevent blossom end rot as they begin fertilizing eggplants, peppers, as well as tomatoes when used in your garden.

Use as a Seed Starter

Another one of the uses for eggshells in the garden is that they can be used as biodegradable and no-waste seed starters.

Here’s how to prepare eggshells for the garden as well as planting in them. Simply use deep eggshell halves after sterilizing them in a 200°F oven for about half an hour.

Once done, make a hole at the bottom of each shell using a nail or an awl. Add potting mix and sow the seeds according to package directions. When sprouts start to appear, you can plant them right into the garden soil without having to throw away anything.

Deter Pests

Pests with soft undersides like slugs, snails, and cutworms can wreak havoc in any garden. You can sprinkle some crushed eggshells on the soil’s surface to deter these pests.

The eggshells can damage the soft bodies of these pests and kill them or deter them from crossing through the sharp shards of the eggshell pieces.

In addition, if you live in an area where there are deer roaming around, you can use eggshells to keep them away from the garden.

Deer are known to detest the scent of albumen so your crops can stay safe from these creatures.

Add Calcium to the Soil

II get this question a lot: “Are eggshells good for the garden?”. One answer is that if the soil in your garden is particularly low in calcium, you can add eggshells into your compost pile to help.

Once your compost is finished breaking down, you can apply it to the soil as an amendment ensuring that your garden has an abundant supply of calcium to feed your plants

Alternatively, you can use eggshells as a form of mulch. Apart from delivering calcium to the soil and moderating soil acidity, a layer of eggshells on top of your soil can also help aerate the soil, prevent water loss, and deter weeds and pests.

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Bird Food

Eggshells make for an excellent addition to bird food. If you have a bird feeder in your garden, add in some crushed eggshells. Female birds who are getting ready to lay eggs or have recently finished laying can benefit from the extra calcium that eggshells can provide.

Which Plants Like Egg Shells

Any plant that needs calcium. So that means all plants, as calcium is essential to all plants. But as I mentioned above tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will benefit especially due to them being prone to blossom end rot will benefit greatly.

There are many things that you have right at your fingertips that can help your plants and you may not even know it.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you crack an egg…

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