The Best Way To Use Egg Shells To Power Plants & Recharge Your Soil!

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Simple garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated
<v Speaker 1>to keeping the yard of gardening simple, fun and always rewarding.
<v Speaker 1>Now Here are your hosts, Jim and Mary Competti.
<v Speaker 2>Hello and welcome everybody to the Simple garden Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>I am your co host Jim Competti.
<v Speaker 3>And I'm Mary Competti, and.
<v Speaker 2>Together we are the dynamic duo today talking about the
<v Speaker 2>biggest mistake gardeners make with eggshells and more importantly, how
<v Speaker 2>to use eggshells correctly to power your garden and flower beds.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, we talk about eggshell's NonStop on the website.
<v Speaker 2>We've done a podcast on eggshells and coffee grounds Mary,
<v Speaker 2>but today we get so many emails about it. We
<v Speaker 2>really wanted to cover the subject of how to really
<v Speaker 2>use eggshells the right way.
<v Speaker 3>Right with garden season coming up, it's the perfect time
<v Speaker 3>to talk about this topic.
<v Speaker 2>It is so remind everybody that this is the Simple
<v Speaker 2>garden Life website. You can follow our podcast on simplegardenlife
<v Speaker 2>dot com. Just hit the podcast tab up there at
<v Speaker 2>the top and you can see all of our years
<v Speaker 2>of podcasts. This is our second episode of the twenty
<v Speaker 2>sixth season, and we've got a full slate this year
<v Speaker 2>and really really excited. And today's subject is one of
<v Speaker 2>the ones that a lot of vegetable gardeners and flower
<v Speaker 2>gardeners should also be really aware of before we get
<v Speaker 2>into how to use them, Right, Mary, I think we
<v Speaker 2>have to talk about you know, why eggshells are so
<v Speaker 2>incredible there are.
<v Speaker 3>They're one of the most commonly recommended organic ingredients for
<v Speaker 3>powering both your garden soil and your plants.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and for good reason. I mean they're rich in calcium,
<v Speaker 2>which happens to be, you know, a big time nutrient
<v Speaker 2>for strong plant cell walls, but it's also vital for
<v Speaker 2>the overall plant health. We've talked about this before. Most importantly,
<v Speaker 2>people associate lack of calcium with blossom.
<v Speaker 3>Rot right, and blossom and broad For those that don't know,
<v Speaker 3>is that annoying little thing that comes up throughout the
<v Speaker 3>garden season when you think you have the perfect tomato
<v Speaker 3>or pepper growing on your plant and you go to
<v Speaker 3>pick it, or you go to check it and you
<v Speaker 3>touch it and finger goes right through the bottom of
<v Speaker 3>the tomato or pepper.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's just exactly what it sounds like, the end
<v Speaker 2>of the tomato or a pepper where the blossom was
<v Speaker 2>attached will start to rot away and it really ruins
<v Speaker 2>the entire fruit. Now, just to let people know, blossom
<v Speaker 2>in rot, don't confuse that with the first few tomatoes
<v Speaker 2>of the season or the peppers of the season. Your
<v Speaker 2>plants are young, they're very immature. We always get a
<v Speaker 2>ton of emails and messages about, oh my gosh, my
<v Speaker 2>tomato plants just produce their first tomato and they've got
<v Speaker 2>blossom in rot. Remember that when they're young and immature,
<v Speaker 2>those first few tomatoes are probably likely going to have that.
<v Speaker 2>That's why we always tell people pick those first few
<v Speaker 2>fruits off of your tomatoes or even your pepper plants
<v Speaker 2>and allow them to grow. But real blossom in rot
<v Speaker 2>is when that problem continues on through the spring and.
<v Speaker 3>Summer, right And when you have those tomatoes and pepper
<v Speaker 3>plants that are doing that in the early season, it's
<v Speaker 3>most likely, dude, that we're overfertilizing in the stores, or
<v Speaker 3>that they're just young and immature and they haven't had
<v Speaker 3>it ability to absorb calcium correctly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they really are. So let's talk about really what
<v Speaker 2>eggshells do in the long term for your soil and
<v Speaker 2>that calcium. So why are eggshells so important for this Well,
<v Speaker 2>for starters, eggshells are ninety percent calcium carbonate. I mean
<v Speaker 2>that you're talking nine tenths of an eggshell is pure calcium.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that is what can provide that to your
<v Speaker 2>plants and the soil they grow in. But here's the issue.
<v Speaker 2>Most gardeners don't use them in the way that maximize
<v Speaker 2>those benefits for the crops this year.
<v Speaker 3>Right, And we've learned over the years as well. We
<v Speaker 3>used to use eggshells in every planting hole and we
<v Speaker 3>would just crush them up with our hands and throw
<v Speaker 3>them in the planning hole, which does provide some benefits
<v Speaker 3>for the tomatoes and plants in the years to come,
<v Speaker 3>but not for this year's plants.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and why is that. Well, let's just go back
<v Speaker 2>to the famous compost pile. Have you ever thrown eggshells
<v Speaker 2>into your compost pile, or for a better part, thrown
<v Speaker 2>them into your soil. You go out one month, two months,
<v Speaker 2>three months later, and there's still bits and pieces of
<v Speaker 2>those eggshells. Why is that? Because they take a very
<v Speaker 2>long time to break down. And when they take a
<v Speaker 2>long time to break down. What's that mean for your plants?
<v Speaker 2>Means they're not going to get those nutrients because they
<v Speaker 2>haven't broken down in the soil where they can absorb
<v Speaker 2>the calcium from the eggshells to really help them.
<v Speaker 3>So the real secret is to making most out of
<v Speaker 3>your eggshells in your garden is how you prepare them.
<v Speaker 2>It really is. I mean, they can correct calcium deficiencies,
<v Speaker 2>and they can help plants not have weak stems and
<v Speaker 2>curled leaves and poor fruiting. I mean it's not even
<v Speaker 2>just for tomatoes and peppers, it is for flowers. Calcium
<v Speaker 2>is such an important part of the overall makeup of
<v Speaker 2>what the soil needs to be healthy and what plants
<v Speaker 2>need to be able to absorb. You know, overly wet soil,
<v Speaker 2>overly dry so calcium has a hard time sofium with
<v Speaker 2>the plants. But there's a lot of times that there's
<v Speaker 2>just not the calcium in the soil that plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, flowers,
<v Speaker 2>big time annuals, like dreams, all of those that they
<v Speaker 2>just can't absorb it. And when they can't, then all
<v Speaker 2>the problems occur.
<v Speaker 3>However, when properly use eggshells can provide a wonderful, slow
<v Speaker 3>release source of calcium throughout the growing season.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I mean, it's one of the best. That's why
<v Speaker 2>we always talk about them. So what is this big
<v Speaker 2>mistake that we talk about. Well, we've already kind of
<v Speaker 2>hit on it a little bit. You know, many gardeners
<v Speaker 2>assume that tossing large chunks, even semi crushed egg pieces.
<v Speaker 2>I even saw last week and you know, if it's
<v Speaker 2>on the internet, it's a tree right now. Yeah, right,
<v Speaker 2>But I saw last week where you should just plant
<v Speaker 2>two whole eggs with every tomato plant, and I started
<v Speaker 2>thinking it through it I'm like, Okay, you know, the
<v Speaker 2>yolk and things like that are going to have some benefits,
<v Speaker 2>but you're not getting the calcium benefit from a whole
<v Speaker 2>egg put in a hole, because again, that crush shell
<v Speaker 2>is not going to break down. Egg Shells take a
<v Speaker 2>long time to break down in the soil. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>especially when they're left in pieces. It can take months
<v Speaker 2>even years for that calcium to become available to the plants.
<v Speaker 2>So that means that simply placing an eggshell in the
<v Speaker 2>planting hole it's not going to provide any immediate benefits
<v Speaker 2>to the plant. To that spot during the current season.
<v Speaker 3>So the question is what makes eggshells beneficial for this
<v Speaker 3>year's garden.
<v Speaker 2>Well, there's a really simple thing. That delay that they
<v Speaker 2>have when they're breaking down is what causes it. So
<v Speaker 2>you have to help break those egg shells down a
<v Speaker 2>whole lot more to really help them absorb quickly into
<v Speaker 2>the soil and become a part of it. So let's
<v Speaker 2>take a break, and when we come back, we'll get
<v Speaker 2>to the way we handle our egg shells and how
<v Speaker 2>we plant them and how much we use, and then
<v Speaker 2>more importantly, how we start to store them all the
<v Speaker 2>time year round to really have eggshells on hand at
<v Speaker 2>any moment. We'll be right back after these messages, and
<v Speaker 2>we are back for the best way to use eggshells
<v Speaker 2>in the garden. And Mary, I guess, I mean, what
<v Speaker 2>is the secret?
<v Speaker 3>Well to ensure your curtain garden always gets the full
<v Speaker 3>benefit of eggshells. It's actually best to grind them into
<v Speaker 3>a fine powder before adding them to the soil. But
<v Speaker 3>a lot of people say, Okay, what does that mean
<v Speaker 3>or how do you do it? So you know, it's
<v Speaker 3>actually very easy to do.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, you know, Look, you can go the hard route,
<v Speaker 2>you can get the what's it called a mortal and pest.
<v Speaker 2>I always thank you. I'm not the chef of the
<v Speaker 2>of the two of us, but here's here's the really
<v Speaker 2>easy way get yourself an inexpensive coffee grinder. I mean
<v Speaker 2>you can get them now for eighteen nineteen dollars, just
<v Speaker 2>the small, small hand ones and keep it around to
<v Speaker 2>pulverize egg shells. We use ours. You can put we
<v Speaker 2>crush them by hand. You can probably put I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to say, what six to eight egg shells marion and
<v Speaker 2>a little one, just like you're making coffee grounds. Right.
<v Speaker 3>But the important key here is, yes, we're recommending using
<v Speaker 3>a coffee grinder or some grinder, but it really needs
<v Speaker 3>to be dedicated use to the eggshells.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, unless you're going to clean that thing out every
<v Speaker 2>single time, and you can. You can wash out and
<v Speaker 2>clean it. But we just like to go to that
<v Speaker 2>inexpensive route and say, okay, this is our grinder for
<v Speaker 2>all the things we're going to use. But you can
<v Speaker 2>grind that down not into small egg shell pieces, but
<v Speaker 2>into a very fine powder and I'm talking talcum like powder.
<v Speaker 2>That's what we do. We just grind it down over
<v Speaker 2>and over. It doesn't take long, and that actually has
<v Speaker 2>a lot of benefits for the plants. But before we
<v Speaker 2>do that, let's talk about storing them. It has a
<v Speaker 2>lot of benefits for us because let's talk about the
<v Speaker 2>years past when we would collect these eggs shells and
<v Speaker 2>we'd crush them by hand, put them in freezer bags,
<v Speaker 2>and we would just fill our freezer over the winter
<v Speaker 2>trying to save and have all this all these egg shells.
<v Speaker 3>Right, So there's a better way to actually store your
<v Speaker 3>eggshells throughout the winter and getting ready for garden season. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>we're not quite ready to plant yet, No, we're not.
<v Speaker 2>We're still saving all of our eggs shells and for that.
<v Speaker 2>So what we do is, you know, we'll save so
<v Speaker 2>many A lot of people like to put their egg shells.
<v Speaker 2>We get all these questions, so I'm just going to
<v Speaker 2>cover them right now because I think it's important to
<v Speaker 2>talk about it. Do you have to dry them? Well, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they're going to grind a whole lot better. We usually
<v Speaker 2>we get a grinding process. What every three or four weeks,
<v Speaker 2>we'll save our eggshells, will crush them by hand, put
<v Speaker 2>them in a freezer, luck bag, throw them in the
<v Speaker 2>freezer and when we get enough, we'll take them out
<v Speaker 2>and we'll freeze them or excuse me, not freezom we'll
<v Speaker 2>grind them up into that powder. You can, and a
<v Speaker 2>lot of people love doing this. Put them on a
<v Speaker 2>cookie sheet, put them in your oven, I think one
<v Speaker 2>p fifty and dry them out. We've never really done that.
<v Speaker 2>It's not necessary. People say, well, can you get this? No,
<v Speaker 2>they're eggshells. They're not going to carry all the other
<v Speaker 2>things we talk about, but a lot of people like
<v Speaker 2>to heat them up to dry them, and you certainly can.
<v Speaker 3>Right The big concern is salvonilla, and you know you
<v Speaker 3>definitely we get the questions should you rinch your eggshells
<v Speaker 3>before you store them or crush them? Sure, printing is
<v Speaker 3>not going to hurt them. Putting them into a powder
<v Speaker 3>or grinding them into a powder is going to help
<v Speaker 3>get rid of at of that access to salvanilla. But again,
<v Speaker 3>you can rinse them and then dry them and freeze them,
<v Speaker 3>or you can put them in your oven. Most ovens
<v Speaker 3>are about one eighty to two hundred degrees and you
<v Speaker 3>can dry them out before you grind them. But you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's just an important thing. Is that we want them
<v Speaker 3>to to powder before they go into your planting holes.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then you freeze that and there's really little
<v Speaker 2>worry of anything. So once you get that powder and
<v Speaker 2>we save it up a lot, So now it really
<v Speaker 2>comes down to how are you going to use these
<v Speaker 2>to really benefit your plants. So you know, think before
<v Speaker 2>when you would crush those eggshells up and you might
<v Speaker 2>put an eggshell or two, and again we talked to it,
<v Speaker 2>it's not going to get to those plants this year.
<v Speaker 2>That's really not going to help the soil. But when
<v Speaker 2>you're taking a tea spoon or two of eggshell powder
<v Speaker 2>and you're putting it in that planting hole of a
<v Speaker 2>tomato or a marigold or a pepper plant, days are
<v Speaker 2>all going to almost within you know, days, absorb into
<v Speaker 2>that soil, the watering comes in, it starts to leach
<v Speaker 2>those nutrients right into your plants and really provides them
<v Speaker 2>of the calcium boost they need. Right.
<v Speaker 3>That calcium is going to last pretty much all growing
<v Speaker 3>season once you put it into the planting hole.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it is. And so how much should you use?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, this is the great question. So here's here's
<v Speaker 2>our roll of thumb and what We've been doing this
<v Speaker 2>for a while now with a lot of success. And
<v Speaker 2>so what's the old saying, When something works, you know,
<v Speaker 2>don't break it.
<v Speaker 3>Right, right exactly?
<v Speaker 2>So for eggshell powder, for our vegetable plants, tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers, zucchini,
<v Speaker 2>you name it, we put i'd say two to three
<v Speaker 2>tablespoons in every planting hole.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. I think for the larger vegetable plants or the
<v Speaker 3>larger flowers, I think, you know, two to three tablespoons
<v Speaker 3>is more than plenty smaller plants, pansies you know you
<v Speaker 3>can put Oh yeah, you can put a.
<v Speaker 2>Little bit in. You're absolutely right. And again we talk
<v Speaker 2>about this. Why is this called the simple garden life?
<v Speaker 2>Because sometimes people make gardenings so difficult and so frustrating
<v Speaker 2>for themselves that it's not fun. And you have to
<v Speaker 2>make it fun. So for us, when we say two
<v Speaker 2>to three, we really mean that. It's not like if
<v Speaker 2>you put three tablespoons, your tomato plants are going to
<v Speaker 2>produce six point eight pounds of tomatoes and two tablespoons
<v Speaker 2>are going to have some blossom rot. It's not the
<v Speaker 2>way it works. This helps your soil over time, but
<v Speaker 2>grind him. It helps your soil much more immediately in
<v Speaker 2>the same growing season and can help your plants just
<v Speaker 2>develop far better with far less health issues. And again
<v Speaker 2>it's not just beyond the blossom. Calcium also plays a huge,
<v Speaker 2>huge role in that initial plant health for all of
<v Speaker 2>those annual plants we're talking.
<v Speaker 3>About, right, And it also helps with soil to absorb
<v Speaker 3>when your plants are having difficulty absorbing calcium because they
<v Speaker 3>are too wet, Giving that calcium boost helps your plants tremendously.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and we talk about planting holes. That's where people
<v Speaker 2>really need to concentrate their efforts. So many people get
<v Speaker 2>composts and worm castings and all the great things that
<v Speaker 2>you really do need, and they spread them all over
<v Speaker 2>their garden and tilimin or they think that's going all over.
<v Speaker 2>Concentrate those things, just like this ey powder, right in
<v Speaker 2>your planting holes, because that's where the roots of your
<v Speaker 2>plants are going to grow and they're going to take
<v Speaker 2>them that season. So when you know in our planting
<v Speaker 2>holes we put composts, we put coffee grounds, we put eggshells,
<v Speaker 2>we put worm castings, those are all in the planting
<v Speaker 2>hole because they're helping that plant that year right where
<v Speaker 2>it needs it the most.
<v Speaker 3>Right at the roots. But also use the eggshell powder
<v Speaker 3>on top of our soil after we plant.
<v Speaker 2>And why is that? It's a It's a great cause
<v Speaker 2>because what happens when it rains.
<v Speaker 3>Right, it's a slow release calcium boost to your plants.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, every time it rains or you water, that calcium
<v Speaker 2>is leaching down into that soil and helping out. And
<v Speaker 2>again we might put a tea spoon around the top
<v Speaker 2>of each plant. And if we have enough, we sometimes
<v Speaker 2>you know, it depends how many eggs I've had.
<v Speaker 3>That you eat a lot of eggs, we're good.
<v Speaker 2>So again, just take it like that. It just realized
<v Speaker 2>that when you use the powder versus bits and pieces,
<v Speaker 2>you're going to get a lot more. Now, I want
<v Speaker 2>to say something before we go. There still is a
<v Speaker 2>use for the bits and pieces. And this is what
<v Speaker 2>we have talked about. We're like, wait a minute, wait
<v Speaker 2>a minute. You're said, grind, grind, grind. But if you
<v Speaker 2>have a lot of problems with slugs broken eggshells around
<v Speaker 2>the rims of your plants. When I say the rims,
<v Speaker 2>you plant on your top and you circle a little
<v Speaker 2>maybe three inches out and you crush up some eggshells
<v Speaker 2>around there. That can actually help prevent slug damage because
<v Speaker 2>with the slugs cannot crawl across that without getting cut,
<v Speaker 2>which drives their skin out and they can't make it
<v Speaker 2>to your plant. So there still was a use for
<v Speaker 2>some crushed eggshells. And yes they'll break down eventually and
<v Speaker 2>help put some soil in there as well, but for
<v Speaker 2>the majority of the use of it, you want to
<v Speaker 2>use that ground.
<v Speaker 3>Powder, right And for those that don't eat eggs, there's
<v Speaker 3>some people that candied eggs, like me because I have
<v Speaker 3>an egg allergy, or people that just don't choose eat eggs,
<v Speaker 3>you can still utilize eggs in your eggshells in your garden.
<v Speaker 3>For many years, we would go to our local diner,
<v Speaker 3>breakfast diner and ask them to save their eggshells for us.
<v Speaker 3>And we would go there every Saturday with our five
<v Speaker 3>gallon bucket and switch it out and they would give
<v Speaker 3>us their eggs shells from their breakfast and we would
<v Speaker 3>just replace them with a clean bucket.
<v Speaker 2>I'm pretty sure they gave us their egg shells, their potato, peelium.
<v Speaker 3>And coffee gross.
<v Speaker 2>All their coffee we did, and all we had to
<v Speaker 2>do was take them a five gallon bucket every Saturday
<v Speaker 2>and we would go in for breakfast and they would
<v Speaker 2>hand us a full one. We would like we, you know,
<v Speaker 2>had won the lottery. Taking it home. We got a
<v Speaker 2>lot of strange looks though, yeah we did, but you
<v Speaker 2>know what it was. It was great because you were
<v Speaker 2>saving that from going to a landfill and it was
<v Speaker 2>really helping. That was until we got our own chickens
<v Speaker 2>and could start doing our own things. But Mary's right,
<v Speaker 2>there's always a way to find these these soil amendments
<v Speaker 2>that that don't have to be so costly. You know,
<v Speaker 2>you can make your own compost, you can go out
<v Speaker 2>and find coffee grounds, you can go out and find
<v Speaker 2>eggshells even if you don't have them. But the important
<v Speaker 2>thing is, and what we hope you take home today
<v Speaker 2>as we wrap this up, is that egg shells can
<v Speaker 2>be so beneficial to helping your soil and helping your plants,
<v Speaker 2>but it's best to always grind them down as much
<v Speaker 2>as possible and leave you with this this last thing. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>if you're asking and you're thinking, well, wait a minute,
<v Speaker 2>I put eggshells in my compost, ben, Yeah, if you
<v Speaker 2>if you grind them up, they're going to break down
<v Speaker 2>that much faster, and that calcium is going to.
<v Speaker 3>Leach into there as well one percent, and they're beneficial
<v Speaker 3>in all areas of gardening.
<v Speaker 2>All right, so I think we've wrapped up our second
<v Speaker 2>podcast of the season. We're really enjoying getting back into
<v Speaker 2>this and we hope you are too. Again. You can
<v Speaker 2>always email us at the farm at owgarden dot com
<v Speaker 2>with your questions. We're always happy to answer. We try
<v Speaker 2>to get back with everybody within at least a day
<v Speaker 2>or two. We enjoy it and we get a lot
<v Speaker 2>of emails from it, and you can follow us at
<v Speaker 2>simplegardenlife dot com. I'm Jim Competti for Marycompetti and Mary.
<v Speaker 2>What do we always say at the end?
<v Speaker 3>Happy gardening? Everyone?
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Happy gardening. We'll see you next time. We
<v Speaker 2>hope you've enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple Garden
<v Speaker 2>podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of your
<v Speaker 2>favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to simplegardenlife
<v Speaker 2>dot com where you can listen and read all of
<v Speaker 2>the show notes to every episode and.
<v Speaker 3>If you have any questions, any ideas for show topics,
<v Speaker 3>or if you want to share your favorite garden tip,
<v Speaker 3>email us at the Farm at owgarden dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Until next time, Thanks everyone,