I love using eggshells and egg boxes as seed starters to get my garden off the ground. I leave our eggs on the counter without washing them most of the time, but I do rinse them before I use them. The egg shells are rinsed and left to dry in a bowl or jar after the egg is cracked into it. As soon as I have enough shells, I plant them in our yard along with the seeds.
Because they have a lot of calcium, eggshells are often used by farmers to improve the soil. Find out the best ways to use eggshells in the garden and bust some gardening myths about them.
Why Do Gardeners Use Eggshells?
Because they are high in calcium, chicken eggshells are often used in farming. Calcium helps people build and keep strong bones, which are what our bodies are made of. This is similar to how calcium helps plants grow by giving cell walls strength.
Potential Benefits of Eggshells
Not only is using eggshells in the yard a great way to keep food scraps out of the trash, but it may also be good for the soil.
- Raise calcium levels: Eggshells may raise the calcium levels in your soil over time because they contain a lot of calcium. Eggshells take a while to break down, so the smaller the pieces, the faster you’ll see benefits. Check your soil to see if it lacks calcium before adding eggshells as a soil nutrient.
- Improve aeration and drainage: Finely crushed eggshells can make small holes in the soil, which can help air flow and drainage in soil that is too compacted. It will be easier for water, air, and nutrients to move through the earth and get to the roots of plants, which will make the plants stronger.
- Lower the acidity: Some plants, like radishes, do well in acidic soil, but most plants do better in soil with a pH that is closer to 7. Before you change the pH levels, check the pH of your soil and learn about what your plants need. Small pieces of eggshells mixed in with plant soil might help neutralize acidity, but it won’t work right away: The calcium in eggshells can break down over time.
1. Use as a Soil Amendment
How can you tell if adding calcium to your plant will help it?
Read our helpful piece on this subject to learn more about what kind of soil you’ll be working with right away.
You might even want to test the dirt to find out how much calcium it already has.
What you want to grow may depend on whether adding a source of calcium to acidic soil is helpful.
But there are times when acidic soil is better, like when you want to grow blueberries or other plants that grow in acidic soil. In that case, you might not want to add an alkaline ingredient like calcium.
What your soil test tells you will help you decide if adding calcium to your soil is a good idea or not.Adding calcium from eggshells to your soil before you plant tomatoes or other food plants that can get blossom-end rot could be very helpful.
- Eggshells Make healthy soil
The next time you crack some eggs for breakfast or baking, don’t throw away the shells. They can be used to add organic matter to your yard. Eggshells that have been crushed can add important nutrients back to the soil. For example, the high calcium content is great for plants. Now that Easter is almost here and the sun is shining, it’s a great time to use a traditional type of egg outside.
2. Use as Pots for Starting Seeds
You can also use eggshells in creative ways in your yard by putting seeds in them.
Even though this is a good way to reuse cooking waste, you should know about some restrictions and make some preparations before you start.
This way of starting seeds works best for small plants that grow low. These small pots will not be big enough for plants that grow tall quickly, like tomato seeds.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use this method to start tomatoes from seeds, but if you do, you’ll need bigger nursery pots ready to move them to in a few weeks.
Also, remember that repotting most transplants too many times can hurt their roots and put them under too much stress.
But plants that don’t grow very tall, like thyme, cucamelons, or some types of cacti, would do well in eggshells.
Pots that are free of germs are best for starting seeds, so if you choose to use eggshells as seed pots, make sure you clean them really well first.
Shells that are thicker will be easier to clean without breaking than shells that are smaller.
When you buy eggs from a farm, you might ask if they have any eggs from young layers. The shells of eggs from older hens are usually smaller than those from younger hens.
Put the eggshells in warm, soapy water and gently wash them off. You can also boil them in hot water to make them clean.
Along with a clean place to grow, young plants need drainage.
Finally, make sure the seedlings have well-drained dirt by poking two or three small holes in the bottom of each eggshell. This will help the shells stay clean. This can be done with the metal tip of a paper clip.
When it’s time to plant your seedlings, keep in mind that whole eggshells don’t break down very quickly. Certainly not fast enough for the roots of your young plant to spread out into the dirt.
So before you plant, you’ll need to take the seedling out of its shell. You can either use a widger or a small spoon to lift the seedling out, or you can crack the shell to get the seedling out.
Follow the helpful steps in our guide if you want to learn more about how to start your own annuals from seeds.
3. Control Pests
You can also use eggshells to get rid of pests in a healthy way. Put broken eggshells around plants where slugs, snails, and other moving pests like them like to hang out if you have problems with them in your garden. The shells will keep them away from your plants because they are like broken glass.
People who grow brassicas also think that the egg shells keep away cabbage white butterflies, which think the white sheen is another plant that they can eat. Egg shells are great for cats that like to use your flower bed as a litter box because cats don’t like to walk on things that are noisy, sticky, or sharp.
4. Fertilizer
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) makes up about 96% of the shell of a chicken egg. Calcium is an important nutrient for plants and keeps the soil from being too acidic. Plants that grow quickly quickly use up calcium in the soil, so egg shells are a great way to feed and supplement your garden’s flowers, veggies, and fruit trees.
In the winter, use a mortar and pestle to break up the shells and then sprinkle them over the pot or yard border where you will plant them in the spring. You can also put broken eggshells right into the bottoms of your planting holes. Whether you’re growing your own plants or veggies, egg shells can help. Egg shells can be used for plants like roses, hydrangeas, spider plants, ferns, and ivy.
Making a calcium mix is another way to give this home-made fertilizer to your plants. The shells can be finely crushed to make calcium that dissolves in water. This can be added to the watering can and the plant’s roots will easily take it up.
5. Composting
In a “green and brown” waste pile, you can put almost any living thing. Over time, egg shells break down. They are great for your trash bin because they are full of important nutrients like calcium, minerals, and proteins. We strongly suggest that you visit the RHS if you want to find out more about what dirt is best for your plants.
If you don’t want animals to come and eat your egg shells, make sure you wash them first. You will need to grind them up into a powder. Adding this powder to your soil will help plants grow and build cell walls. This makes the egg shell pieces come out small, and they are hard to see among the leaves and waste.
Egg shells can be used in the yard, which is a cheap way to reuse something that is usually thrown away because it is trash.
6. Mulch
Eggshells that have been cleaned and ground up are sometimes used as mulch in gardens. It might take a lot of eggshells to cover a whole yard, but mulch can keep the soil moist and keep weeds from growing.
7. Food for chickens
If you have chickens, you can just put the shells back into their food. Even though it seems odd, birds need the extra calcium to make their own eggs. Even if you don’t have chickens, you can add eggshells to the bird food in your dish.
8. With coffee grounds
Eggshells and used coffee grounds can be mixed together in your fertilizer or waste pile to raise the nitrogen level in your soil while keeping the acidity level low. The nitrogen in the coffee grounds is high, and the eggshells may help the body absorb it.