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Crushed eggshells question

sreinhard88

sreinhard88

A few days ago I decided to work on the raised bed I will be using for two of my plants this year that I OW'd from last year (Cayenne and Habanero).  Basically I removed some of the top soil and replaced it with a mix of compost and manure and a little bit of fertilizer. After I finished filling in the bed with the new soil I took a few dozen eggs worth of eggshells (I've been saving up for awhile) and crushed them up and sprinkled them on top of the soil.  Should I have mixed the shells into the soil or are they fine laying on top?
 
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egg shells take forever to decompose so you won't see much benefit now, i think you would want to mix them in (into the root zone) not on top also they will decompose faster in the dark warm wet soil. There are also concerns about salmonella and other bad bacteria but i'm sure you've read about that.
 
If you need calcium available this season(you do) i recommend gypsum or dolomite lime.
 
OKGrowin said:
egg shells take forever to decompose so you won't see much benefit now, i think you would want to mix them in (into the root zone) not on top also they will decompose faster in the dark warm wet soil. There are also concerns about salmonella and other bad bacteria but i'm sure you've read about that.
 
If you need calcium available this season(you do) i recommend gypsum or dolomite lime.
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Actually I had no idea about the salmonella and bacteria, I just heard egg shells were a good source of calcium (of course not right away) so I saved them until I could put them to use.  I think the vast majority of the shells were washed so I hope I don't have anything to worry about?  Now I'm worried dammit lol!
 
work them into the soil, after a couple of rains the layer on top of the soil will cake.
i am always grinding egg shells and conditioning my soil and have done so for years even in winter. like OK says they will take forever to break down.
i have never experience any form of sickness from the shells but i do make sure the shells are absolutely dry before grinding, if i see any kind of moisture i put them into the oven.
 
good luck
 
Notice that Mark states that he grinds them. Your plants need the calcium to be soluble in order to uptake it. Simply cracking them into pieces takes longer.
 
Kelp will do the same thing and doesn't take 900 years to break down.  I've even heard of people using Tums or Rolaids, never tried that myself.
 
I use ground deer antlers for P and Ca.  First time using it this year so I'm experimenting so far.  I have a feeling it will break down much faster than bone or eggshell because it's more like cuticle than bone. EDIT: just looked it up, deer antlers are true bone XD they contain no keratin like a horn does.  Might as well grind up the ribs too :D
 
Nothing wrong with using eggshells IMO, just not entirely necessary for seedlings.  Usually it goes well with blooming and fruiting (see blossom end rot).  I've been composting them in family compost piles for my entire life and never had any kind of salmonella problem.
 
          If you want to find out if you have the shells small enough,have your dumb dog drag them through your carpeted living room.I found out they are hard to clean up. :cry:
 
Ive heard baking the eggshells first at a low temp for a while, then crushing them up and distributing them works a lot better but i haven't tried it. Maybe someone here has though
 
Wow thanks everyone for all of your input!  I think what I'll end up doing is mixing some of the shells in with the dirt and leave just a few on top (for slug defense and such).  I didn't grind my shells but I did put them in a plastic bag and then went to town on them with a meat tenderizer so they are crushed into very tiny pieces but not as fine as it would be if I had ground them into powder.  Thanks again for all the advice!
 
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