What plants like eggshells? You’ve probably been throwing away your eggshells without knowing the tremendous benefits they have towards some plants.
From promoting plant growth to nourishing the soil, and helping to get rid of pests, find out which plants enjoy these benefits below.
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List of Plants That Like Eggshells
1. Tomatoes
Tomatoes are convenient multipurpose fruits. Whether you want to use them in your stew or sandwich or eat them right out of the garden, they always measure up to the task.
If you want to start planting tomatoes in your garden and are looking for an organic fertilizer for your tomato plants, try using leftover eggshells from your kitchen. You will be amazed at the wonders they can perform.
– Benefits
Eggshells add extra calcium to your tomato plants, even though they already get enough from the soil. The extra calcium from the eggshells further strengthens the plant, improves the soil’s drainage, aerates the soil, and makes the soil more porous. However, one thing that you should remember is that eggshells don’t alter the pH levels of your plants.
Using eggshells around your tomato plants also deters unwanted garden pests such as some slugs or worms that would be damaging your plant. Because slugs have soft bodies that the sharp edges of the eggshells can easily damage, they will avoid your plants.
On another note, this organic fertilizer would also provide food for organisms that live in the soil, which helps improve the quality of the soil for the tomatoes you have planted.
– How To Fertilize
The best way to use eggshells for your tomato plants is to grind them up; the tinier the particles, the more calcium is released. To use it, you must wash and dry the eggshells to eliminate salmonella and sulfur.
If you can’t wait for your eggshells to be dried by the sun, you can put them in an oven for 10 minutes after washing them thoroughly, and it will be bone dry, easy to get crushed.
Next, you can use a coffee grinder or food processor to blend them into a fine powder, or you can grind them manually by yourself in a stone bowl with another stone.
But remember, the smaller, the better, or the more you pulverize it, the better it is for the plant. After doing all this, you can add the fine powder in a thick layer around your tomato plants once every month.
2. Aloe Vera
Commonly used to soothe burns, sores, and other types of injuries, aloe vera is a succulent plant that creates a gel-like substance inside its leaves while storing water.
This gel is what we use topically for skin problems or turn to medicine for other health issues. Therefore, the aloe vera plant is one of the indoor plants that reap the benefits of eggshells, but only when used appropriately.
– Benefits
Eggshells are very good for fertilizing your aloe plant and work by strengthening the roots of the plant. They also help prevent pests from causing damage to your plant by feeding on the leaves. The soil will also benefit from crushed eggshells as they help drain the soil and make it airier while giving it an extra boost of potassium and calcium.
– How To Fertilize
Using eggshells for your indoor aloe plant is easy, but you must ensure you follow the right processes. There are two ways you can use eggshell fertilizer for your aloe plant.
The first is making an eggshell tea by soaking the eggshells in water for about eight hours and sieving out the shells to extract the tea. You can then use the liquid to water your plant, as the nutrients would be diluted into the water.
On the other hand, the other way is that you can wash the eggshells thoroughly, dry them in the sun or with an oven, then crush them very smoothly into a fine powder before spreading them on the topsoil of the plant.
3. Eggplant
Eggplant is an edible egg-shaped fruit with colors ranging from white to dark violet and lavender. The eggplant is, however, one of many plants prone to blossom end rot due to a calcium deficiency, and the best way to heal it is to use crushed eggshells and it would revive as a result.
– Benefits
In addition to helping prevent blossom end rot, eggplants love the extra calcium and other minerals, such as phosphorus and potassium, provided by eggshells. These additional nutrients enable the plants to grow correctly and produce better fruits.
Eggshells also contain calcium carbonate, which is highly alkaline, and this helps to regulate soil pH levels. This, in turn, helps the plants absorb nutrients better.
– How To Fertilize
For optimal results, crushed eggshells are best added into the hole before planting your eggplant. Accordingly, they can be added to the topsoil once every one to two weeks, as the roots would slowly but surely absorb the calcium from the shells.
However, you should also wash, dry, and crush your eggshells before using them on your eggplant, and this would do the trick as well.
4. Pepper
Peppers are relatively easy crops to grow, especially if you’re just starting your vegetable garden. However, it is best to begin growing the plants’ start seeds indoors, as they require a lot of warmth. Adding eggshells to your pepper plants is a great organic way to provide ideal growing conditions for your pepper plant.
– Benefits
Crushed eggshells have a lot to offer to your pepper plants, and their growth and prosperity. They help provide lots of calcium that helps the peppers form thick, round walls, which leads to delicious peppers, which means that when harvesting, you will notice how the crops are not weak in their texture, and they grew in a healthy way.
On another note, they also help prevent blossom end rot, improve soil air, balance out the acidic levels of the soil, and deter unwanted pests. The latter would even be beneficial for the plant as it will set strong roots and thrive by producing healthy peppers.
Note that if you’re growing your peppers in raised beds, you can add eggshells to help mulch the soil. As the eggshells break down, it helps boost the soil’s water retention abilities and nourish and strengthen the roots.
– How To Fertilize
If you are using your eggshells as a fertilizer for your peppers, you would need to wash them to get rid of any salmonella that might be on the shells, then dry them in direct and full sun to get rid of any other microorganisms, as the sun would kill all the unnecessary diseases, the latter is important before grinding them into a fine powder.
If you are using it to prevent unwanted pests in your garden, you must remove the inner skin properly before breaking it into chunky pieces and spreading it around your pepper plant.
It would be best if you had the ends of the eggshells to be sharp and jagged enough to deter pests. However, if rain falls, you need to replace them because the water causes them to soften.
You can also make tea out of your eggshells by boiling them or soaking them in water to produce a liquid calcium tea. As you would use this water that is rich in minerals, you would irrigate your vegetation, and the plant would thrive.
5. Spinach
Spinach is a leafy, edible green, and popular crop for most garden owners. These greens are easy to grow given the correct soil conditions; well-drained, moist, and acidic. However, if the soil conditions aren’t good enough, eggshells are a great way to improve air, make it more porous, and provide it with nutrients.
– Benefits
The roots of the spinach plant easily absorb trace amounts of phosphorus and potassium. However, the benefit of using eggshells on your spinach plants would allow them to gain from the calcium contained in the eggshells, and to look stronger as well.
On the other hand, since spinach plants are prone to blossom-end rot, they could also do with some extra calcium.
– How To Fertilize
You can add dry eggshells to your compost pile and use them to fertilize your spinach plants. To do this, you must first grind it into a fine powder if you want the eggshells to decompose faster and to make the manner easier for the roots to absorb the nutrients from the soil.
In addition, you may also deliver them by making the eggshell powder into a tea first and then using it to water your spinach plant.
6. Chives
Chives are lilac-colored plants that are mostly grown indoors as potted plants, they would grow numerously next to one another. They are easy to grow, require little care, and usually don’t need fertilizers. Chives also grow in most soil types, but they will also enjoy additional organic fertilizer. This is where your discarded eggshells come into play.
– Benefits
A handful of ground eggshells will do a lot for your chives, especially if planted in a pot or container. The calcium from the eggshells helps the chives produce healthy foliage and strengthen the roots, and when they grow, you wouldn’t see them wilting, on the contrary they would be stronger.
Nonetheless, you can also use your eggshells as pots for your chive seeds, providing them with calcium simultaneously.
– How To Fertilize
It is best to crush your eggshells before dropping them around the roots of your chives plant. To do this, you first need to wash some eggshells and to remove any sulfur or salmonella, then dry them in the sun for a day or an oven for 10 minutes, to ensure that it is well dried.
Then you can manually grind the eggshells using a mortar and pestle or use a coffee grinder to blend them into a fine powder.
If you are using your eggshells as egg pots, you need to make sure only the top of the egg is cracked open so you can use the bottom as a holding cup. Then rinse the eggshells in boiling water and dry them to get rid of contaminants.
By using a small pin, you can pierce tiny holes at the bottom of the eggshells, then fill them up with your preferred soil. Next, sprinkle in your chive seeds, water them appropriately, and place them where they’ll receive enough sunlight, preferably near a sunny window, and watch them grow, in the simplest way possible.
7. Lettuce
If you enjoy salads and sandwiches, you are reaping one of the benefits of lettuce. With wide varieties, this plant is relatively easy and fast to grow. It is no wonder a lot of gardeners make it a staple in their gardens. However, the lettuce plant can only grow in acidic soil, which is why eggshells are good for them, as they would elevate the quality of the soil.
– Benefits
Eggshells are good at balancing the pH levels of the soil, a very important factor for the lettuce plant to thrive. They help to keep the soil rich with calcium, which strengthens the plant’s cell walls and keeps the plant healthy.
The calcium also helps in the formation of strong seedlings. The eggshells also prevent the lettuce plant from tip-burn, irregular growth, or small leaves caused by calcium deficiencies.
– How To Fertilize
For your soil to absorb the calcium properly, you must grind your eggshells into a fine powder before administering it to your lettuces’ soil. On the other hand, it can also be added to your compost pile to make a high-nutrient plant fertilizer.
Note that if you’re trying to deter pests like snails and slugs, you can break your eggshells into chunk pieces and spread them around your lettuce plant. The sharp rim of the eggshells can cause harm to the pests, thereby preventing them from damaging your plants, which is another beneficial method of using them.
8. Cucumber
Cucumbers are edible and ornamental plants, but are fragile and prone to blossom end rot and mildew diseases. If you have cucumber plants in your garden, you can give them an edge by feeding them with organic waste like eggshells.
– Benefits
Calcium contained in eggshells helps cucumbers fight against blossom end rot, which blackens the lower ends of the cucumbers.
When added to the soil, the eggshells help create a healthy soil structure, aerate the soil, and improve the soil’s drainage. They also help to balance out the pH levels of your soil, since cucumber plants grow best in acidic soil.
– How To Fertilize
One of the best ways to use eggshells for your cucumber plant is to combine them with other organic waste in a compost pile, as the applied fertilizer should be rich, fertile or organic . To prevent blossom end rot, mix crushed eggshells with water to spray on the plant.
9. Strawberries
Strawberries are sweet fruits that grow best in spring and summer as they would grow in their little vines. But their fruits won’t turn out as sweet if the soil they are planted in isn’t nutrient-rich, they would remain blanch in the taste.
If you don’t have a fertilizer supply but want to prevent food waste, you can use discarded eggshells to fertilize your strawberries and enrich the soil.
– Benefits
Eggshells contain calcium carbonate, which strawberry plants require growing stronger and produce juicier fruits. The calcium in the eggshells also helps to build the cell walls of the plant and prevents it from being attacked by fungi and bacteria. It also aids in the movement of carbohydrates, which is basically the process of successful photosynthesis.
In addition, the eggshells also contain magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium, which are rich minerals that are all needed by the plants to grow and help to prevent pests from damaging the plants.
– How To Fertilize
Like other plants, you need to create a fine eggshell powder by washing your eggshells with dishwashing liquid and rinsing it very well, you can then dry them before grinding them into a smooth textured powder. Now, you can spread this all over your strawberry plant soil or put it in deeper grounds before planting.
If your plant requires nutrients urgently, it would be best to create a liquid eggshell fertilizer by mixing the powdered eggshells in water and spraying them on the plants. This allows the nutrients to absorb more quickly into the plant.
Final note:
The minerals contained in them make eggshells good fertilizers for your garden plants.
References
- Jessica Roy. (MAY 13, 2020). Supercharge your plants with leftover eggshells by brewing ‘shell tea’. Los Angeles Times.
Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-05-13/how-to-use-leftover-eggshells-plants-garden - How to Use Fresh Aloe Vera. Healthline.
Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-use-aloe-vera-plant#harvesting-the-plant - Bahinda, William. (2019). The efficiency of eggshell-based organic fertilizer on the growth of tomatoes. Makerere University.
Retrieved from http://dissertations.mak.ac.ug/handle/20.500.12281/7028
