Surely when reading this title you have wondered why you did not think about it before or what is simpler, that you formulate the question in your head: Is eggshell good for plants? And the answer is simple: yes, eggshells are very good for plants. Chicken eggs are a very rich contribution due to their nutritional properties, but these do not remain only inside them, but also in the shell. Although we do not feed on them, the plants do know how to get all their benefits. In addition, beyond fertilizing the plants that we have at home with eggshell, 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 organic sources of calcium for potted plants, gardens or orchards. But its uses are not limited to this and, therefore, at EcologíaVerde, we want to show you everything you can do with eggshells to improve the life of your beloved plants. So, if you are interested, keep reading and discover what is eggshell 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. Therefore, we wanted to collect some of the benefits of eggshell on plants so you can get down to work recycling that part of the egg that is almost always thrown away.
Fight slug and snail pests
For this you only need to spread small pieces of crushed egg shell and spread them around the area of your garden or pot that is suffering the ravages of a plague of snails or slugs. The egg shell helps create a barrier that slugs or snails will not want to cross as these animals do not like shells because they puncture and bother them.
In this other post we explain more about how to eliminate slugs and snails naturally.
Make a calcium-rich fertilizer
If what you are looking for is make calcium for plants homemade We encourage you to use eggshell to achieve it in the simplest and most economical way possible. To do 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, since the release of calcium in the soil is quite slow, many people choose to add eggshells to help prevent rotting of crops. If you have roses in your home or garden, we also advise you to use eggshells to improve the soil and encourage their flowering.
If you are interested in knowing more about How to make homemade organic fertilizers, here we leave you this guide.
Reduce soil acidity
Many plants need a specific type of soil for their growth. Therefore, a homemade method for control soil acidity where are your plants is to add ground eggshell for plants. To achieve this, you need to add the well-ground eggshell for a prolonged period of time to achieve good results. The irrigation water will facilitate the release of the shell components in the soil.
make homemade compost
If you are one of those who dare to make your own organic fertilizer or compost, we encourage you to add eggshell remains to make it much richer and more complete for your plants. Here we explain how to make homemade compost.
How to Prepare Eggshell Calcium for Plants
Although we have already discussed how to prepare the eggshell to improve the condition 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. Is eggshell water for plants It 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 which ensure almost immediate results in the well-being of your plants. All you have to do is make sure to let them dry in the shade to prevent them from losing the nitrogen they contain. 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 a very fine powder remains and store it 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 in the case of flour we are talking about using the powder of these shells, so you have to crush them as much as possible. Using eggshell flour is very simple: you only need to add one or several tablespoons of dessert to your pot depending on its size for approximately 40 days. In this way, they will receive the calcium intake they need.
When and how is eggshell used for plants
Finally, we detail a little more when and how to use eggshell for plants:
- As we have already mentioned, eggshells are very rich in calcium, so it will help you enrich the earth from the garden or from your pots if you include it as part of the substrate or compost.
- We can also change the gravel for finely chopped eggshell to facilitate drainage and at the same time it will act as a natural fertilizer.
- Also, if we don’t 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 obtain some curious totally ecological seedbeds.
- Finally, the egg shell is very useful to keep some pests like snails and slugsso when you have problems with these animals, do not hesitate to manually remove them, take them to another place where they will not damage your crops and place an eggshell barrier so that they do not re-enter your pots or garden area or vegetable patch.
In this other article, we tell you more about the original and practical uses of eggshells.
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