Egg shells are an important soil amendment and these can be used to provide nutrients such as calcium whose deficiency causes diseases in crops like tomatoes and eggs plants, and this makes the fruits unmarketable.
Fertilizer making
To make fertilizer from egg shells, wash your egg shells in water and then put them in an oven for a few minutes or microwave them for a few seconds. This helps to kill bacteria such as salmonella in the eggshells.
Fertilizer made from egg shells is a rich source of calcium and contains about 40% of calcium carbonate, with small quantities of nitrogen and magnesium. Egg shells contain a total of 17 elements and this makes it a perfect soil supplement.
The elements in egg shells are not plant available, and you can treat the egg shells to allow the eggshells to break down a little quicker so as the plant to be able to absorb the nutrients easily.
To make the nutrients available, crush the egg shells either in a mortar and pestle, blender, or coffee grinder. The fertilizer helps prevent blossom end rot in crops like tomatoes and zucchini which is caused by a deficiency in calcium.
The eggshells when crushed are also used to deter slugs from affecting the crops.
Putting a teaspoonful of egg shells per plant helps prevent blossom end rot.
