Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Using Egg Shells for Plant Food

 Hello Readers. It is spring and that means gardening and plants. I love plants and I try really hard to care for them. I have killed off quite a few because they needed more nutrients. I found a way to get them what they need using the eggs I already ate.

Eggs are so expensive right now. Make more use of them. 

I saved the shells from the eggs we ate. We were going to eat them anyway so this didn't cost me anything extra. 

I washed my egg shells with some simple dish soap. 
 
I let the egg shells soak for a few minutes in the soapy water.
 
 I used the spray nozzle on my sink faucet and gave the shells a good rinse after soaking.

When the egg shells were cleaned off I was ready for the next step. I could crush them by hand into very small pieces.

I decided to use my blender to make it easier to crush the shells.

I added enough vinegar to cover the shells and let them soak for 24-48 hours. The vinegar breaks down the egg shells and that is what you want to happen. The shells have calcium that the plants need to thrive.

Mine looked a little "frothy" and it smelled like vinegar. I kept the lid on while it was soaking for 2 days on my counter.

I strained my egg shells so that I would just have the liquid. (The egg shell bits won't hurt plants but I didn't want the white specks in my house plants soil.) I added that vinegar to a big pitcher of water. The pitcher I used was about 3/4 of a gallon but I didn't do any measuring.

I gave each of my plants a little drink. I have done this every 3-4 weeks for about 6 months and the plants seem to love it. They have all grown/bloomed in noticeable ways since I started doing this. Thanks for reading along, wishing you a green thumb. 

***Year End Update- I still do this, and my plants are growing well. My snake plant has doubled in size.












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