Adding eggshells to tomatoes

[Toxic1979]

I've read that adding eggshells to your grow mix for tomatoes will add calcium to the soil, that is available for the tomatoes.

We bake a lot, so decided to keep all of our eggshells this past winter. We produced a lot of them. Then I asked family to keep them for me... now I have even more...lol.

They have all been washed of the slimy residue, and stored in a container on our patio through the -30 celsius winter.

Now what? I'm thinking I should grind them to a powder, and add them to my tomato soil. Once they are ground I may only have a few tablespoons.

Do I just sprinkle it on top and hopefully the water will drag it through the soil? Or should I add it to my mix prior to up potting my tomatoes? Or maybe both?

I'm just looking for a way to use them.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, eggshells break down slowly. The only way for the calcium to be available in the soil in the next few years is to grind them to powder. Then either mix it in or just scratch it in and lightly cover.

[applestar]

My approach --

(1) put whole cracked raw egg shell halves directly in the compost,
(2) leave the shells on top of the toaster oven to dry, then either grind into powder with an old coffee grinder ( sift and feed fine powder to the worms in the vermicomposter, save larger ground bits to put in seedling uppotting mix) or pound into sharp bits in a quart size deli container with end of a rolling pin to sprinkle around plants to deter slugs.

Shells peeled from boiled eggs are either wrapped in a napkin and tossed in the compost by the family, or treated like (2) if I can intercept.