[habanerohead]

Hey,

I repeat, can eggshells be used instead of lime? They both add calcium, and they both neutralize acid, although it'll take less lime to do it.

Whenever my worms tried to make a mass exodus from their bin , a good dose of powdered eggshells soon calmed them down and I always assumed that that was an acid balance thing.

In case you're wondering, we use a lot of eggs and I'm into recycling what I can. Also my mate with the chickens (see hen muck post) gets through a load of eggs, so potentially I've got quite a lot of Calcium Carbonate at my disposal.

Cheers.

[mumofstig]

They take such a long while to rot down, they'd be very slow to correct soil acidity.

I don't think they'd be quick enough to put in the cabbage planting holes either
Best bet is to crush'em and put them in the compost - but they're often still there after 2 years or more  :blink:

[devonbarmygardener]

They are definitely there 2 years later!
I moved both my darleks and in the bottom were whole-ish egg shells.

We're crushing them now.

[JayG]

Eggshells are almost 100% calcium carbonate - they can't be composted in the conventional sense because they have almost no organic content so don't "rot down", and are also very slow to dissolve other than in acid conditons - uncrushed they're a very slow-release form of lime (not necessarily such a bad thing) - the finer they're crushed the faster it will "work" but it's still essentially lime and is therefore unnecessary if your soil doesn't actually need it, and should be avoided altogether for use on (or under) ericaceous plants.

[habanerohead]

Hi,

Yes, I always wash them, dry them in the oven, and put them through the coffee grinder, so there's plenty of reactive surface area.

The allotment is in E Sussex, so in theory we shouldn't need any lime anyway, but the brassicas have been a bit dodo, so I was thinking that it wouldn't hurt to put some eggshells down. If the soil's acid, they'll neutralize it - if it's not, they'll just be there in case it ever does get acid!

Cheers.

[Tom Hill]

Crushed and sprinkled around your plants they deter slugs. Slugs do not like crossing sharp stuff like egg shells.

[A Reyt Tayty]

Last year, I crushed them down to a powder and added them to my tomato compost. The idea is to give a bit of extra calcium to help prevent blossom end rot. Last year, I only had a very few with BER, so I shall be repeating the process this year.

[devonbarmygardener]

Last year, I crushed them down to a powder and added them to my tomato compost. The idea is to give a bit of extra calcium to help prevent blossom end rot. Last year, I only had a very few with BER, so I shall be repeating the process this year.

That sounds like a good idea