Brooklyn1 wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:28:22 -0800, "David E. Ross"
wrote:

On 1/28/12 4:02 PM, Higgs Boson wrote:
Amigas & amigos, years ago I read that eggshell water is good for
plants. I don't remember more. I kept the container on the side
steps. NEVER smelled anything like the odor emanating from the
water- immersed egg shells.

Now I started saving them again, but before I concoct yet another
witches brew, could I sample the NG as to the usefulness/efficacy of
this project? If yes, then on which plants and how often.

TIA

HB

Egg shells tend to make soil more alkaline. Where I live, this is
definitely not a good thing since both our soils and our water
already are quite alkaline.

For calcium, I use gypsum (calcium sulfate), which tends to be
neutral.

Gypsum and calcium don't "tend" to be neutral, they *are* neutral.

Gypsum is roughly neutral yes. I don't know what you mean by 'calcium' in
this case as you surely would not have metallic calcium and the degree of
alkalinity would depend on the salt of calcium. For example calcium
hydroxide (builder's lime) is more alkaline that calcium carbonate (garden
lime).

Egg shells are neutral too. Eggshells are NOT alkaline nor do they
make soil alkaline.

No. Once the adhering protein is gone egg shells are mainly calcium
carbonate the same as garden lime, they have some protein bound into the
structure of the shell but not much. The difference is the speed that they
dissolve. Lime is usually ground quite finely and it will dissolve much
quicker (and therefore raise the pH quicker ) than eggshells which are in
big chunks.

However one would need to add an awful lot of
eggshells to derive a benefit. It's far better to apply gardening
lime, granular lime works best and is much easier to apply evenly.

True, this is the key point. Unless you have a lot of chooks and grind up
the shells finely it will take an eon to do very much if anything at all.

If
one desires add your eggshells to your composter, but be aware that
eggshells take a very long time to break down. And unless eggshells
are scrupulously cleaned the proteins clinging to the interior will
attract vermin. Putting eggshells in the garden does more harm than
good.

I doubt it. A few ants in the compost don't matter. I put eggshells in the
compost not because I want to lime my garden but to get rid of them
conveniently and because they do no harm.

D