Surely when reading this title you have wondered how you did not think about it before or what is simpler, that you ask in your head the question: is the eggshell good for plants? And the answer is simple: yes, the eggshell is very good for plants. Chicken eggs are a very rich contribution due to their nutritional properties, but these are not only inside it, but also in the shell. Although we do not eat them, plants do know how to get all their benefits. In addition, beyond fertilizing the plants that we have at home with eggshells, they have many uses.
In the same way, it is also important that you know that the shell of a chicken egg has 96% calcium carbonate. This makes it one of the best ecological sources of calcium for plants in pots, gardens, or orchards. But its uses are not limited to this and, therefore, at Green Ecology, we want to show you everything you can do with eggshells to improve the life of your beloved plants. So, if you are interested, read on and discover what the eggshell is for plants and how to use it.
What is the eggshell for in plants
This ecological resource, which you surely always have on hand, offers the opportunity to improve the health of your plants thanks to its different properties and uses. For this reason, we wanted to collect some of the benefits of the eggshell in plants so that you can get to work with recycling that part of the egg that is almost always thrown away.
Fight slug and snail pests
To do this, you only need to spread small pieces of crushed eggshell and spread them around the area of your garden or the pot that is suffering the ravages of a plague of snails or slugs. The eggshell helps create a barrier that slugs or snails will not want to cross since these animals do not like the shells because they are pricked and disturbed.
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Make a calcium-rich fertilizer
If you are looking to make calcium for plants at home, we encourage you to use eggshell to achieve it in the simplest and most economical way possible. For this you only need, as we have explained before, crush the eggshell and place them on the substrate that you use as soil for your plant.
Calcium for plants is one of the richest minerals to improve their development. For this reason, as the release of calcium in the soil is quite slow, there are many who choose to add eggshells to help the crops prevent rot. If you have roses in your home or garden, we also advise you to use the eggshell to improve the soil and promote its flowering.
Reduce the acidity of the soil
Many plants need a specific type of soil for their growth. Therefore, a home method to control the acidity of the soil where your plants are is to add ground eggshell to the plants . To achieve this you need to add the well-ground eggshell for a long period of time to achieve good results. The irrigation water will facilitate the release of the components of the shells in the soil.
Make homemade compost
If you are one of those who are encouraged to make your own organic compost or compost, we encourage you to add remains of eggshell so that it is much richer and more complete for your plants.
How to Prepare Eggshell Calcium for Plants
Although we have already discussed how to prepare the eggshell to improve the state and growth of your plants, we want to show you other ways to prepare them beyond crushing them to add them as organic fertilizer or as a repellent. Take note of these tips on how to make calcium from egg shells for plants :
- You can use the crushed eggshell to make an infusion of these, using the shell of 6 eggs and bringing them to a boil in 3 liters of water. This eggshell water for plants is a very simple way to add more calcium and other beneficial minerals such as magnesium or phosphorus to your plants through irrigation doses.
- Another way to prepare it is by creating eggshell flour. This takes a series of steps that are a little more precise, but that assure you almost immediate results in the well-being of your plants. All you have to do is make sure you let them dry in the shade to prevent them from losing the nitrogen they have. You will need quite a few of them, at least a dozen shells, to produce the flour. When they are dry, place them in a bag and crush them with the help of a mortar or a stone until they are a very fine powder and reserve them in a container with a lid until you use it. Remember that for some of the uses explained above, small pieces of shells are used, but that in the case of flour we are talking about using the powder of these shells, so they must be crushed to the maximum. Using eggshell flour is very simple: You only need to add one or several dessert tablespoons to your pot depending on its size for about 40 days. In this way, they will receive the calcium intake they need.
When and how is the eggshell used for plants
To finish, we detail a little more when and how to use the eggshell for plants :
- As we have already mentioned, eggshells are very rich in calcium, so it will help you enrich the soil in the garden or in your pots if you include it as part of the substrate or compost .
- We can also change the gravel for well-chopped eggshell to facilitate drainage and at the same time it will act as a natural fertilizer.
- In addition, if we do not break them entirely, we can use the eggshell as a seedbed . You only need to have half or a little more of the shell, make a small hole in the lower part to help drainage and you will get some curious totally ecological seedbeds.
- Finally, the eggshell is very useful to keep some pests such as snails and slugs away , so when you have problems with these animals, do not hesitate to remove them manually, take them to another place where they do not damage your crops and place a barrier of eggshells so that they do not re-enter your pots or garden or orchard area.
