▷ Are eggshells really useful for plants?

You can accumulate a lot of eggshells during the winter, especially in preparation for the holidays, but where to use them? If you have a garden or farm, eggshells are useful not only for improving the soil, but also for fighting slugs. Let’s examine how useful eggshells are for plants and whether it is worth collecting them from now on.

HOW EGG SHELLS CAN IMPROVE SOIL

Traditionally, eggshells are used for plants by placing the shells in compost or simply burying them. Contains egg shells more than 90% calcium carbonatethey also contain proteins and minerals. Calcium is necessary for plants such as tomatoes, peppers, beans, pumpkins.

Calcium is not one of the three most important minerals (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), but it is no less important for plants to grow successfully. If you can enrich the life of your vegetables by simple organic means, of course, do so.

Another important thing is to shell eggs efficiently neutralizes the soil if it is acidic. Many plants grow best in a neutral environment, so soil that is too acidic (too low pH) is not suitable for them. And calcium increases the pH of the soil, in other words, neutralizes it (more information here).

It seems that everything is simple: we break an egg, scramble eggs for breakfast, shells for the garden. However, a very important question is how much calcium is transferred from the eggshell to the soil and how much is absorbed by plants. It depends on whether it is convenient for us to start taking care of shells in winter.

HOW MUCH CALCIUM ENTER INTO THE SOIL AND PLANTS

Eggshells provide calcium to plants, i.e. the soil, only when they decompose. Scientists did research and found that intact eggshells did not enrich the soil with calcium, or only in negligible amounts. Over a long period of time, the peels decompose on their own in the soil or compost container, but if you want to use them faster and more, there are two conditions for this:

First, it’s worth it chop the egg shells. You can do it now: let the peels dry a little in the oven and chop them with an electric grinder. The finer the dust, the better the release of calcium into the environment. And it will be very convenient to store such powder until spring.
Secondly, there is another condition in which the release of calcium into the environment is more efficient: this acidic medium. Our ancient people already knew that eggshells help neutralize the soil if it is too acidic. That’s right: calcium increases the pH of an acidic environment, i.e. neutralizes it. And as a result, the peels, being in acidic soil, rot faster than in alkaline soil. If your soil is more alkaline, don’t be surprised to see discarded peels intact after a year.

If you don’t want to collect and grind the peels now, you can load them directly into the warm season compost container. During the maturation of the compost, various reactions take place, including acidic ones, and then microbes, mites, fungi and small animals get to work. So eggshells in compost will not decompose in a week or two, but should decompose within a year.

HOW EGG SHELLS HELP FIGHT Snails

It is also worth stocking up on shells for snails or other snails. Their invasion has already covered the whole of Lithuania and no way has been thought of to fight them. Let’s learn from other countries that have been dealing with snails for decades.

Blueberries are a delicacy for slugs and other slugs, unfortunately it goes without saying. photo L. Liubertaitė

Those that are particularly affected (e.g. blueberry, nasturtium, lettuce) and all young seedlings need to be protected more. Eggshells should be ground and scattered around the plants. And that’s how the shells protect against snails, that’s it two versions.

Some argue that snails do not crawl through the sharp shells and therefore simply do not reach the plants. Others claim that the snails crawl, but are badly scratched. Those microcracks and scratches are fatal for them, so they don’t survive long. Either version will work if you don’t have eggshells ready and won’t be able to check.