egg shells

[toxcrusadr]

Let's try this again. I meant, no, I don't think boiling is necessary nor is removing the film.

It would help if I knew how to do a forum post right.

[neil17]

Hello all, I learned this from my mother and it seems to work pretty well if you put egg shells in a 5 or 10 gallon bucket of rain water and let them sit about 3-4 days then pour it on your plants it works wonders very good results for me smells pretty bad when your pouring it but works great only raw egg shells though not boiled they lose there potentcy when boiled.

[Alfred]

I just crush them and put them on heap,i turn the heap over occasionally and keep it moist and thats it!

[rosegirl]

I've been adding egg shells to my compost for years. Crush them, (or not) depending on the day and the time I have, and toss them on the pile, when do you find time to boil and all that?

[jakrustle]

Hi, everyone. First post on this site. I am in the Phoenix area of Arizona.

If you get a chance, look up a guy by the name of Gil Carandang. He is very well established and reknowned for organic agricultural practices. His idea is to cook the egg shells well (I cooked mine for 20 minutes or so at about 450 degrees on my grill). After cooking and cooling, he suggests taking the egg shells and breaking them down physically, with a blender, in a paper bag with a rolling pin, etc. I used a coffee grinder. Worked great!

Once crushed, you take about 3 parts organic apple cider vinegar to one part egg shells and cover the shells for about 2 weeks ( i have mine in the fridge, in an old yogurt container and I burp it now and then - especially right after you mix the shells with the vinegar). The cider vinegar will extract out a very good amount of Calcium Carbonate that will be beneficial to your plants just as they go into flowering.

Be best you look Gil up. He has some great practices that can be used in home gardening.

Here's a link on some of his ideas for bacterial and fungal teas:
http://tribes.tribe.net/effectivemicro/thread/d6b8fd03-e2c7-4650-a658-51fdf4f013ad

JaK

[nickolas]

.I have 12 chooks of my own which means lots of egg shells left over. I dry then crush then powder all my egg shells and apply it to my many compost piles as well as to my 2 bathtub worm farms and also apply it to my organic liquid fertilizer system as a good source of calcium.

[garudamon11]

Can I just add the mashed egg shells to the soil without compost?

[john gault]

Can I just add the mashed egg shells to the soil without compost?

Yes, there are tons of micro/macro organisms in the soil that will start the decomposititon process. http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/soil-m ... nisms.html

The only thing they really need is water and shelter from direct sunlight, i.e. mulch, or at least covered with a little soil.

[garudamon11]

Ok thats easy, thanks for that

[DoubleDogFarm]

A rehashed post from a year ago. Fun.

I have a old style propane oven with a pilot light. I just leave a metal bowl in the oven and add duck egg shell as they come along. Crush the previous ones and add the fresh to the top. These dehydrated shells are hand crushed and feed back to the ducks. I still purchase oyster shell, but not as often.

Eric

[jeff57]

Egg shells are one thing that doesn't make it to my compost pile. I clean and crumble them up, or use a mortar and pestle to grind them up. I combine them with used coffee grounds and add this combo directly to the soil where needed.

[yoseph]

[quote="ameliat"]Do most of you just dump them in the compost? I had been collecting shells, [color=red](after removing the inner film from the eggs)[/color], and when I had a good amount, I would boil them so if there was any harmful bacteria I figured it would be killed. Now with the huge egg recall, I don't feel good saving up a bunch of shells in my fridge (I would keep them in a ziplock bag) and it seems wasteful to boil water for just a few shells at a time. So what are your thoughts? Should I just dump them in my tumbler and not worry about bacteria?

TIA![/quote]

My question is why removing the inner film from the egg shell? Is it danger? Thanks.

[tomc]

Boiling shells, roasting shells, removing membrane(s), is a collosal waste of time.

Colliform bacteria isn't that persistant.

Crushing egg shells will probably make them available quicker, and may improve esthetic of sifted finished compost.

[john gault]

Boiling shells, roasting shells, removing membrane(s), is a collosal waste of time.

Colliform bacteria isn't that persistant.

Crushing egg shells will probably make them available quicker, and may improve esthetic of sifted finished compost.

I agree. I've actually never heard of boiling shells or removing the membrane. I can't count how many I've thrown into the compost.