How to Add Eggs to Soil

Eggshells provide calcium and other nutrients.

Eggshells contain nitrogen, calcium, phosphoric acid and other elements that plants need to grow. The calcium in the shells is especially beneficial to tender and/or fast growing vegetable plants including tomatoes, broccoli and cabbage, while the acid content is especially beneficial to blueberries, fruit trees, roses and evergreens. When used as mulch, eggshells can deter garden pests such as slugs, and when combined with coffee grounds, eggshells can optimize the health of your plants and soil.

Things You'll Need

• Coffee grounds

Instructions

1. Rinse out your egg shells to remove residual whites and yolks. While whites and yolks won't harm your soil and in fact can add some extra nitrogen to your soil, they will rot and emit an unpleasant odor that attracts insects. For this reason, most gardeners and composters only use the clean shells.

2. Air dry your coffee grounds or dry them in an oven. Coffee grounds complement eggshells well, since they add additional nitrogen and phosphoric acid to your soil, as well as additional slug and snail control.

3. Crush your egg shells and mix them with your coffee grounds. Grind them up as finely as possible, as this will allow plants to absorb their nutrients at a faster rate.

4. Sprinkle the eggshell/coffee ground fertilizer in a circle around your plants' stems.

5. Push eggshells into the soil next to tomatoes and other fast-growing vegetable plants to provide extra calcium.

Tips & Warnings

• You can add rinsed out eggshells to your compost pile, too. Make sure they are rinsed out so as not to rot in your compost and attract flies and other insects.

References

• Mama's Health: Egg Shells in Your Garden
• Backwoods Home Magazine: You Can Make Your Own Fertilizers
• University of Vermont Extension: Summer Tips for the Vegetable Garden
• Red Worm Composting: Adding Egg Shells to Your Worm Bin