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The crystalline structure of the eggshell helps plants to fully assimilate the beneficial substances that it contains, and these are calcium, magnesium, phosphates, and organic compounds. It can be used not only as a fertilizer for flowers and seedlings of almost all plants, but as a soil deoxidizer for a vegetable garden.
How to use
The egg shell of domestic chickens contains up to 95% calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus. All these substances were synthesized by the bird’s body, they are easily dissolved in the soil and taken up by plant roots. This is what makes them a wonderful fertilizer. If chickens are grown on a poultry farm, their shell may be less useful, but it consists of the same elements, which means that it can also be used in the country.
You need to prepare the eggshell in this way: wash it from protein residues, dry it for several days, chop it, put it in a dark place. You can grind with any device: from a blender to a rolling pin, it is best to make a powder out of it if you intend to use it dry. Qualitatively dried, it can be stored for a long time, it is advisable to put it in a glass jar, cardboard box or paper bag. The shell of one medium-sized chicken egg weighs 10 g – if you collect it in the kitchen all winter, you can make dry and liquid dressings for seedlings and flowers by the beginning of the summer season.
We are talking about raw eggs. Egg shells that have been boiled in water have lost some of their trace elements, so they are of less value as a fertilizer. But after boiling eggs, indoor flowers and greenhouse lemons are very well fertilized with water.
Some plants like acidic soil and don’t need this kind of fertilizer. You can add crushed eggshells to the soil before planting crops such as eggplant, peppers, beets, potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers. It is added to the garden plot to feed currants and fruit trees.
Liquid fertilizer can be made by placing the shells of 5 eggs in a jar and pouring 1 liter of water. Some hosts add lemon or orange peels. After a week of standing under the lid, the liquid will take on a cloudy appearance and an unpleasant odor – it is ready for use. Immediately before watering, it should be diluted with water (1: 3), such top dressing can be used in the garden, in the greenhouse, it is well absorbed by all houseplants, even lemon.
Drainage system in the garden
Eggshells will help improve soil structure. If you scatter it around the site, and then dig up the ground, it will make the soil more loose, breathable. Moisture after watering or rains will be more evenly absorbed, not form micro-streams inside and crusts on the surface of the soil. This kind of drainage system can work for several years, simultaneously nourishing and deoxidizing heavy soil – after all, such a fertilizer will slowly decompose, constantly providing plants with top dressing.
Video “Eco-fertilizer from eggshell”
Technology for the preparation of organic fertilizer for plants from eggshells.
Shell against garden pests
Egg waste can be an excellent means of protecting plants from diseases and pests. For example, by scattering them around tomato seedlings, you can avoid the “black leg”. Medvedki really do not like the shell. Butterflies that strive to lay offspring in the ground, so that it then feeds on delicate plants and flowers, will bypass the site if there are small fragments of it. Even moles are afraid of its sharp edges, they will leave this place forever.
Inventive gardeners have figured out how to use eggshells as protection and fertilizer at the same time. You can just plant the seedlings in the shell. To do this, the egg is poured, making a hole in the narrow part and a small drainage hole in the wide part.
The resulting dishes are filled with nutrient soil and a 2-3 week old plant is placed in it. So, the seedlings are transferred to the garden, and it grows, protected from pests, over time, the roots break a kind of pot, and the plant constantly receives top dressing. Here is such protection against pests at the same time as nutrition can be done for seedlings or flowers.
Quail egg shell
The shell of quail eggs contains less calcium, but it is also worth making top dressing for flowers and seedlings from it. Since it is difficult to collect so many raw materials to add to the soil of the garden, liquid dressings are made from it. To do this, put crushed shells in a jar and pour water, add a little lemon juice. Lemon will help dissolve and release calcium. After a few days, this suspension can be watered plants. Due to its small amount, it is usually used as a top dressing for indoor flowers.
The benefits of this fertilizer
Powder from eggshells is usually scattered in the garden at the rate of 300 g per 1 square meter. It must be covered with earth, otherwise it will attract birds. It will slowly decompose, providing plants with a constant supply of micronutrients and at the same time improve the structure of the soil, acting as a drainage and deoxidizer. It is gradually added to each well when planting plants in the garden, introduced into the nutrient mixture for greenhouses.
Fertilizers can be liquid. To do this, the shell is infused in water, sometimes lemon or orange skins are added. The infusion is cloudy, ugly, with an unpleasant odor, it is diluted three times before watering. They carry out not only root dressing, sometimes they spray plants, it does not bring any trouble to the green part of the plants.
Mineral fertilizers are necessary for our cultivated lands, the elements synthesized by the bird’s body are easier to digest and do no harm, so it’s only worth using eggshells in the country. Even adherents of organic farming do not have any prejudice against them. And this fertilizer improves soil structure and protects against pests.
Video “How to make fertilizer from egg waste»
Preparation of a solution from eggshells for feeding plants at home.
