A gardening expert has shown how you can use egg shells for a little-known use (stock photo) (Image: Getty)
A gardening expert has shown why you shouldn’t throw away egg shells and how you can use them in a little known way.
Laurelle, a Canadian horticulturalist who goes by The Plant Momma, demonstrated how you can make your own food soluble calcium solution using egg shells. Mark Tripney, agronomist for LKAB Minerals, that calcium is one of three essential nutrients for root growth and it is vital for nodulation/nitrogen use, disease resistance, tolerance to abiotic stress factors (non-living factors like heat and drought), vegetative growth and water usage.
This brings to light how making your own plant food with calcium can come in handy. Laurelle showed how she makes hers in an reel in collaboration with artsnursery.
In the reel she said: “Show me the that you randomly saw one day that is now an unconscious standard practice in your life. I’ll go first.”
The Canadian horticulturalist then started making her plant food. She began by baking the egg shells at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about 176 degrees celsius) before letting them cool and placing them in a large ziploc bag.
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Next, she crushes and rolls the shells by using a rolling pin. Alternatively, use a pestle and mortar to grind them even smaller, adding “the smaller the pieces the better.”
Then she pours the crushed egg shells into a mason jar and adds apple cider vinegar. If you don’t have ACV, you can use white vinegar.
You will see bubbles begin to form as a reaction of the calcium with the vinegar, according to Laurelle. After this she covers the jar loosely with a cheesecloth until the bubbles stop forming.
She advises to let the solution sit for two weeks, loosely covered, and you will be left with a brown liquid fertiliser. The Plant Momma suggests using one tablespoon to four gallons of water to use the solution as a “soil drench.”
Laurelle says this plant food with a soluble calcium solution is “great for container gardening, veggie gardening, indoor gardening” and “anywhere your soil needs calcium”. The reel has amassed almost 10,000 views and plenty of comments at the time of writing.
One user referenced cracking eggs when they said: “Yes I love this idea. Get cracking.” Another added: “Saving this for the spring!”
A third shared that they would try out this hack. Others asked questions about Laurelle’s method, including “why do you have to bake it?” and “do you dilute it after?”
The plant expert replied: “You bake it to kill bacteria and to make it more brittle so it crunches up easier with the rolling pin. You dilute to 1 tsp per watering can, a little goes a long way!”
Another gardening fan asked: “How do you know if your soil needs calcium?” Laurelle responded: “A soil test is the best way to tell.
“If that isn’t feasible you can ask your neighbour gardeners or folks at your local nursery what type of soils are generally found in the area or look for indicator weeds like dandelion, burdock or curly dock. Those weeds flourish in low calcium soils.”