"Noydb" wrote in message
...
Frogleg wrote:

On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 11:11:05 GMT, "Compostman"
wrote:

"Pam Rudd" wrote

In the spring I crush and spread my egg shells like bread crumbs
for the birds. Everything from the robins to the wrens get some.

That's better than putting them in compost. Egg shells are not organic

?? What are they? Polystyrene? Aluminum foil?
I meant that in the organic chemistry sense, not biological sense.


don't breakdown very well.

I hate to argue with someone named Compostman, but I've been rinsing,
crushing, and adding the few eggshells I have to compost for years and
they seem to be absorbed into the mass. Or maybe the birds got them.
While I tend to lean away from folkloric recipes, crushed eggshells
are often recommended as a calcium source for both roses, where a long
decomposition time wouldn't be crucial, and tomatoes -- an annual for
which they'd be no use at all if their calcium didn't become rather
quickly available to the plant.


If I add a few eggshells every year, eventually the darned things will
become available ... and there will be a steady stream of them coming
available every year thereafter for many years beyond the day I stop
adding
them.

Speed of decomposition isn't the only factor to consider ... unless you
only
intend to use soil once.

I think it depends upon how one composts. I live in the city with very
limited space. So I compost in bins and turn very frequently. And tear
things apart with my hands or a grinder. Egg shells look like eye balls,
even 6 months later. So I dry them in the oven, grind them in a blender,
and put them around plants such as hostas. I certainly don't recommend
throwing them away. And the birds could get them, which is another
beneficial use of egg shells.
-Compostman

Bill
--
Zone 8b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.