eggshells as seed starters

[Kirsten]

I've never seen this before and thought it was pretty cool! I don't want to directly steal this person's image, but here's a picture: http://www.naturemoms.com/blog/2008/02/06/recycling-stuff-for-your-garden/
http://www.greenissexy.org/images/april08/eggshell_2.jpg

I thought it looked really cute and I've started saving my eggshells... have to break them really carefully :) I'm washing them and letting them dry. I'm thinking I'll try out some of my smaller seeds in those, come spring. (And hey, they're free, and now they're not going in the trash!! You can compost them when they're done...)

Instructions:

# Fill each eggshell cup with soil and plant your seeds in them. The seeds will need to be kept warm and moist to germinate. Read the seed package to find out whether or not you should cover the seeds or leave them on top of soil.

# After the seeds sprout, move them to a sunny window and continue to keep the soil moist.

# Add a light fertilizer approximately once a week if you are starting your seeds in peat pots. (You will not require as much fertilizer if you are using the eggshell method.) Then move them out to your garden when it is ready. (Usually mid-May here)

# The eggshells act as food for the plant and when you place them into the soil the roots of your plant will grow right through the eggshell as it begins to soften and decompose.

# Save your eggshells all year round along with other organic materials and add them to your compost.

Taken from http://gardeningtips.org/February/feature.shtml

This looks like loads of fun... I'm actually really, really excited!!

[~Obsidian~]

Kirsten that's you all over! :p

Cool tips though!

[Riz]

I thought it looked really cute and I've started saving my eggshells... have to break them really carefully :) I'm washing them and letting them dry. I'm thinking I'll try out some of my smaller seeds in those, come spring. (And hey, they're free, and now they're not going in the trash!! You can compost them when they're done...) brilliant idea..

thanks for the link, I love it when i hear great ideas like that :) and the best thing about eggshells is that the shell is full of calcium 93% also the eggshell contains about 1% nitrogen an 1/2 % phosphoric acid... roots take a lot of calcium from the soil, and the best and free way to get the calcium levels up again is to leave eggshells in warm water overnight and then drain the water out and use it to water the soil :) its organic and FREE.

you can also use used eggshells as a barrier for your plants, if you scatter them around the base of your plants, its like sharp edges to the snails and they don't like to slither on top of them....

[Kirsten]

Kirsten that's you all over! :p

Cool tips though!

:D

The boyfriend has been talking about wanting scrambled eggs for awhile, so yesterday I got up and made him breakfast. The thing with scrambled eggs, though, is that you have to make a lot for it to really look like much of anything... so I scrambled FIVE. (Ok, I kind of wanted the eggshells too.) But he was horrified when I told him five eggs went into his breakfast...later I read that you're only supposed to eat about 2 a day... oops...

[Riz]

^ lol..

Well don't tell him how the egg gets layed or it might put him off eggs altogether..:D

But the eggshell idea is great, i will make my nieces and nephews grow some cress from it, they will love it, and the making small containers out of newspapers is another great idea, but you did that last season didn't you kirsten !!? :)

[~Obsidian~]

:D

The boyfriend has been talking about wanting scrambled eggs for awhile, so yesterday I got up and made him breakfast. The thing with scrambled eggs, though, is that you have to make a lot for it to really look like much of anything... so I scrambled FIVE. (Ok, I kind of wanted the eggshells too.) But he was horrified when I told him five eggs went into his breakfast...later I read that you're only supposed to eat about 2 a day... oops...

LOL

Erm, if you wanna bulk up a scrambled egg mix in some milk...it makes it lighter and fluffier too (not too much though or you'll inadvertently end up with a body-building shake :p)

[Kirsten]

^ lol..

Well don't tell him how the egg gets layed or it might put him off eggs altogether..:D

But the eggshell idea is great, i will make my nieces and nephews grow some cress from it, they will love it, and the making small containers out of newspapers is another great idea, but you did that last season didn't you kirsten !!? :)

I did... it didn't work so well so I gave up. The method I came up with involved turning a cup (or something cylindrical) upside down and wrapping strips of wet newspaper around it, kind of like paper mache. When the whole thing dries you can just pull it off and voila, newspaper pot. Unfortunately this takes a LONG time to make and is kind of messy, and they have a tendency to fall apart... once you make them thick enough that they will remain solid, the roots can't get through them. (I came up with this idea from a website where some crazy parent suggested making a paper mache hat for their kid...and I thought, well, if I shrink it down, it can fit some seeds just as well as it can fit a head...)

I tried this one http://www.ehow.com/video_1745_create-seed-starting.html without luck - I couldn't get my pots to stay together.

This one http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/ looks fun, but it looks a little too thick for roots to poke through.

I think this year I will be sticking with eggshells and then transferring them into (used) plastic cups before I move them into the ground, I save and rinse all the plastic disposable cups from my friends whenever we have a party :)

[Kirsten]

I planted some basil, 2 tomatoes, and 2 hot peppers in my eggshells today - I'll post pictures tomorrow. I love that you can just scribble on the shell with pencil - so much easier than finding sticky labels!

[Riz]

^ you really are a cool chick huh !!

:GreenThumbs:

cool chick, eggshells,, do ya get it !!! :)

[Kirsten]

http://i44.tinypic.com/w0melf.png

The first two (vertical) are tomatoes, next two (vertical) are hot pepper, and the rest of them are basil. I planted them four days ago - so far no sign of any growth, but I'm a really impatient gardener :)

[Riz]

^ oh yeah kirsten,,

i am really liking your idea of using eggshells.. they look so cute :)

they will pop up for sure :) the egg shells are perfect to grow cress as well

[Kirsten]

http://i41.tinypic.com/xlkz2a.png

Basil sprouts - what do you all think, time to separate them or not? I'd plant them into my plastic cups (like regular drinking cup size). I was thinking about letting them get a little bigger...

[Riz]

yeah let them get a tiny bit bigger... i am sure i read somewhere that the eggshell can be planted into a bigger pot or the ground as the eggshell will degrade in the soil !!!!?

as in you don't have to take out the basil seedling to plant on, you can just plant the whole egg.. what kind of basil is it, does it have a name !!!!?

[Kirsten]

I was planning on planting the whole egg until I got so many sprouts :( I'd like to save as many of them as possible, so I think I might take them out of the egg.

I've read from a lot of places that eggshells will compost but will take forever, so it's advised that you crack the eggshell sufficiently before planting it, so the little roots can find their way out through the cracks.

I bought the basil from our local Home Depot (I was so surprised to see that they had seeds up already!) and it is, most appropriately, labeled:

Basil.

Nothing else :( so I have no idea what kind it is, unfortunately...

[Kirsten]

I had a BAD scare today when I was cleaning off the surface of the dresser and accidentally flipped the entire container of eggs over. None of them cracked fortunately and all the little seedlings look ok (I have a baby tomato seedling in there too), but it still scared me to death!!

I think I'll be transplanting in about 2 weeks or so, maybe sooner for the tomato. The basil seedlings are growing slooooooooooowly...