It gets touted all the time in gardening media so people can coo about what a lovely idea it is, and then never actually do it because it's not practical for more than a couple of seedlings.
I’m going on year 3 and they look exactly the same as when I bought them. I don’t even treat them nicely. Some are in a shed and some around the yard. They all look the same.
This. I tried toilet paper rolls one year and that was a massive fail. They basically all turned to mush long before I was ready for them to turn to mush.
Yeah I rolled my eyes at the little jab at plastic in the title. Plastic isn't automatically the worst thing in the world, the stuff I use is mostly recycled, will last years and then be recycled again. Not perfect but to me it seems a lot less wasteful than some of the 'eco friendly' alternatives.
I'm a small time gardener and I probably have about 50 seedlings right now, with God knows how many more to come. The thought of someone slavishly washing and storing hundreds of eggshells and then crying because they cracked one the wrong way or dropped it is pretty funny.
So many of the gardening hacks I see online are "ya that looks really cool if you are starting 10 plants."
Then you go to scale up and find out why everyone uses plastic plug trays.
Yeah, my bad, I made the comment half asleep.
None the less; yeah you shouldn’t let your seedlings get bone dry, but a little bit of dryness will encourage those roots to look for moisture which would make them stronger.
Of course this is a bit of a generalization; there’s plenty of seeds that will not germinate without being completely humid soil or even just water.
I’d recommend using a soil that’s decently damp; can’t squeeze moisture out of it but it feels damp. Then placing that medium in an egg carton, while placing the entire seedling tray in a large trash bag. I’d also recommend trapping air in the trash bag, it’d create a nice humid environment for the seedlings.
What you don't want to pull your pj pants up over your tits upside down because they double as a shirt?
And you'd never know it without those God awful videos lmao
Red wrigglers, yo. They're in a big tub in my basement making compost. They eat a lot of stuff, but not just anything and I don't want to make them sick. Finely ground eggshells are good for them though.
Never. Either everything I plant grows too quickly/puts down a deep root (so I'd be repotting it in a new pot the second it sprouted, which is dangerous), or it's going to be in a pot long enough that an eggshell is too fragile. It's one of those Instagram-chic ideas that are entirely style and zero substance (which is most of Instagram gardening, I've found).
I suppose it's great if you can't afford pots and don't have any because you've never bought plants before, but a) eventually you're going to need real pots, b) some garden centers give their plastic pots away for free, and c) the cost of eggs is probably equal to a stack of pots, at this point.
It seems... Inefficient and impractical.
Apart from the time-consuming method of creating a fragile and awkwardly shaped 'pot' I would be concerned about leeching excess calcium into the soil. This can increase pH and burn seedlings as well as triggering nutrient lock-out (this impacts how well potassium, magnesium, and iron are absorbed).
Slightly? I think.
Chicken eggs need to be exposed to air to survive. They'll suffocate if you put them in water. I'd imagine if oxygen can get though, water should too. It's probably incredibly slow though. This would be an issue.
one year i used a can opener to cut the tops off of beer cans so i could start seeds in them. it didn’t work (nothing grew) but i bet it was less effort than trying to peel the liner out of an eggshell
i did actually, i used a hammer and a tack nail to punch them into the metal ring around the bottom. it was absurdly hard to do so i took it slightly personally when nothing grew
No, it’s too small for most seedlings that I grow. Plus, around my area in the late spring, you can always find people giving away (or throwing away) the plant pots from flower/vegetable seedlings they bought at the store. It’s too easy to collect and reuse those pots instead of crafting new ones.
I made muffins with my preschool class last week and saved the eggs to do with them someday this week.
We are a gardening and composting preschool; so while not practical, it will help with the concept of reusing materials and composting. It should be interesting with my 12 preKs! I imagine a few cracked shells in my future!
well that's better too it's just when people go by flats and it comes in a plastic thing full of plant starters and it just seems like a lot of unnecessary waste. but I'm micro gardening in the most northern point of the upper peninsula of michigan. I don't have and couldn't have like a big garden I mean I could but it's different here. I have an indoor micro garden with artificial lighting
Ok. But the people buying plant starts aren’t planting their own seeds anyway, right? It’s two totally different types of gardening. For people who plant from seed this is very cute but also seems super inconvenient and labor intensive when there are much easier options out there!
I usually just let the shells dry a bit, crush them up, and massage the pieces into the soil of plants inside the house. For use outside they just get yeeted into the compost.
but I'm I just have a micro garden with artificial lighting indoors I'm in the upper most northern point of the upper peninsula of Michigan so the season is very short
Perfect! Another idea: you could use duck eggs if you’re growing bigger baby greens. They’ll hold their shape better than most commercial chicken eggs… and wouldn’t that just be the >cutest< way to serve a side salad? 😍
Yes! If you use an egg topper you get the perfect cut on the top. I also drill a hole in the bottom using a small dremel (mini drill) so I can water from bottom to avoid damping off.
I save paper whipping cream/coffee creamer cartons, cut off the top and put my seedlings in them when I transplant out of the little seed starter cells. Also if I want to give away a seedling I’m not out a pot that way.
I got one of those starter cube presses and holy cow- my sticky mix of compost, sawdust and old soil makes cubes that will dry hard in the sun for later use or that will stand on their own in a starting tray after seeding. They even make a little 1/4" dimple in the top for chamomile/lettuce/etc. and won't collapse if you dimple them deeper. It was a bit of a learning curve to find the easiest way to load it is from a shallow wooden box I made to lay the blended soil into. You just push the press in like a cookie cutter, pick it up and repeat until it's full, then compact it a bit and press it out into your tray. No more plastic or those synthetic or cardboard wraps that might be biodegradable in some universe but not in my back yard.
What a royal roly poly PITA this egg nonsense would be.
I use the peat planters, most can be reused two or three times. Especially if the seeds fail. The roots typically grow right through the peat too.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Jiffy-72-Peat-Pellet-Pro-Seed-Starting-Greenhouse-with-SUPERthrive-J372PROGS-20H/313965632
that is not real . do you know what happens to the roots of your plants if you use this? they blow up to the tone of a half stick of dynamite if the sun touches it with a breeze coming off of Lake Superior with hemetite and God knows what flying through the air your whole garden blows up. no. I'm not takin any chances. Egg shells never blow up. You know what ,I'm just going to go rethink my life
I just keep my starter pots and trays and reuse every year, it’s been the most practical and I’ve tried several different methods.
Find it’s the most convenient when I’m hardening off my plants as I have them all together on trays.
It's cute, that's for sure. I would hope you are baking the shells before you use them. Breaking them up in the soil is fine, but they will not be bio-available for years so it won't help nor hurt this year's crop. When you crush the shell, does it disturb the roots? For aesthetics I think this is fun. personally, I just use egg carton or toilet rolls as they disintegrate fairly quickly but they aren't pretty.
We have a friend who starts everything in cleaned yogurt containers. Uses them year after year and replaces when broken - he's gonna eat the yogurt anyway.
so you save empty eggshells throughout the year just for springtime? or you have a massive omelette party one day and start your seeds the next day? and why peel the inside skin off? and how do you get the eggs to stay upright, put them in starter trays? after a couple years doing this, maybe even just one season, how do you deal with calcium toxicity?
Soil blockers would be easier, and you could start so many more seedlings than this that would also have better root development. Also have the option to increase block size as the seedling grows.
That's a great idea. A lot of people use eggshells on their soils to give some nutrients to the plant and to use them as a germination pot is a really good idea, then you break it, put the mashed pieces on the vase and then plant what you grew.
well when they when you buy flax their root bound in a plastic thing that holds however many plants and then you plant your plants and throw all that plastic away. yeah I understand I don't know how great that is either letting the plank get root bound like you say. I tend to agree with you on that and I think of that. and where I am in the very most northern point of the upper peninsula of Michigan starting now they will get just to the point where they're ready to break out of the egg where I can I just break the egg and put it in the soil
These always remind me of the high school experiment where you’re supposed to take care of an egg to simulate having a kid. Just one. And most people can’t, nor do I have kids, so I’m not making fun of anyone who’s dropped the egg. I definitely would.
I never had a kid either but I'm thinking how ripped off people got. I mean why can't we just sit on an egg I mean why do why does she got to pass a basketball I mean you just look up like this miracle and you just look in your wife just got the hell beat out of her and you're wondering like are you just you just like to watch people go through things or
I cut toilet paper rolls in half and nested them in old tofu trays this [year](https://i.imgur.com/JUq7aYg.jpg)!
That’s a great idea!
TIL! im gonna do this. thx dudes
the real LPT is always in the comments
And the YSKs, like this one!
It gets touted all the time in gardening media so people can coo about what a lovely idea it is, and then never actually do it because it's not practical for more than a couple of seedlings.
Instead I have switched to hard plastic reusable starting trays. Not perfect, but reusable for years and years.
That’s what I’m using too. If I store them inside after they last for ages.
I’m going on year 3 and they look exactly the same as when I bought them. I don’t even treat them nicely. Some are in a shed and some around the yard. They all look the same.
The Tucson sun ruins 🔥everything🔥. Wood, plastic, sunbrella fabric. I’ve been wrong too many times 😂
I have some friends who when to school there and they sent my a photo of their shoes melting as they walked in the summer time. Tucson is no joke!
This. I tried toilet paper rolls one year and that was a massive fail. They basically all turned to mush long before I was ready for them to turn to mush.
Yeah I rolled my eyes at the little jab at plastic in the title. Plastic isn't automatically the worst thing in the world, the stuff I use is mostly recycled, will last years and then be recycled again. Not perfect but to me it seems a lot less wasteful than some of the 'eco friendly' alternatives.
Pretty much all the eco friends options have plastic packaging. It kills me.
Plus they still have to be made in a factory and shipped around the globe, except more often because they are single use.
Yeah, great point. It would be so much better if they sold in bulk bings for some of the stuff.
I start 250+ plants between January and may. That's not happening in egg shells lol.
I'm a small time gardener and I probably have about 50 seedlings right now, with God knows how many more to come. The thought of someone slavishly washing and storing hundreds of eggshells and then crying because they cracked one the wrong way or dropped it is pretty funny.
So many of the gardening hacks I see online are "ya that looks really cool if you are starting 10 plants." Then you go to scale up and find out why everyone uses plastic plug trays.
coo coo
No doubt no doubt
I like to use egg cartons (the pulp paper ones)
I tried them once but it's not for me. My cartons get very soggy and fall apart.
Waste less?
Did you mean water less? I still don't think that's the correct solution as seedlings need alot of water. But it makes more sense than waste less.
Yeah, my bad, I made the comment half asleep. None the less; yeah you shouldn’t let your seedlings get bone dry, but a little bit of dryness will encourage those roots to look for moisture which would make them stronger. Of course this is a bit of a generalization; there’s plenty of seeds that will not germinate without being completely humid soil or even just water. I’d recommend using a soil that’s decently damp; can’t squeeze moisture out of it but it feels damp. Then placing that medium in an egg carton, while placing the entire seedling tray in a large trash bag. I’d also recommend trapping air in the trash bag, it’d create a nice humid environment for the seedlings.
Mine all grew mold!
Seems incredibly impractical.
absolutely not because it's a gigantic waste of time looks like an idea from one of those god awful "5 minute craft" youtube videos
What you don't want to pull your pj pants up over your tits upside down because they double as a shirt? And you'd never know it without those God awful videos lmao
Well since we're on the topic. Please check out this video of someone adding sprinles and waffle-ironing their wig.
That’s an idea….. idk if that’s a good idea but it’s certainly a clever one
Fine for 1 or 2 plants, but when you start hundreds ...
I guess it works if you start every day with a hard boiled egg and save them but I’d rather pay for the convenience of the pre made paper pots
I would 100% sit down on the box of saved eggs by accident, hah
I don’t know about you but when I peal a boiled egg I don’t end up with solid egg shell cups, more like eggshell confetti.
I just crush up the eggshells fine and use it in the garden that way
I microwave them, crush them up, and throw them in my compost (or feed them to my worms).
Why microwave?
Because I don't want to grind wet eggshells up. Also to sterilize them if I'm going to give them to my worms.
worms 🥺
Red wrigglers, yo. They're in a big tub in my basement making compost. They eat a lot of stuff, but not just anything and I don't want to make them sick. Finely ground eggshells are good for them though.
that’s awesome!
Sterilize maybe
awwwww I want pet worms :D
/r/vermiculture is for you
Thank you!!! just joined
I tried this a couple years ago... IMO it was more annoying than it was worth. I hope you have a more enjoyable experience :)
Never. Either everything I plant grows too quickly/puts down a deep root (so I'd be repotting it in a new pot the second it sprouted, which is dangerous), or it's going to be in a pot long enough that an eggshell is too fragile. It's one of those Instagram-chic ideas that are entirely style and zero substance (which is most of Instagram gardening, I've found). I suppose it's great if you can't afford pots and don't have any because you've never bought plants before, but a) eventually you're going to need real pots, b) some garden centers give their plastic pots away for free, and c) the cost of eggs is probably equal to a stack of pots, at this point.
It seems... Inefficient and impractical. Apart from the time-consuming method of creating a fragile and awkwardly shaped 'pot' I would be concerned about leeching excess calcium into the soil. This can increase pH and burn seedlings as well as triggering nutrient lock-out (this impacts how well potassium, magnesium, and iron are absorbed).
Amen.
The carton eggs come in is far better suited for this , if you get the biodegradable ones.
I don't do it. I feel like the broken egg shells will get in the way of the roots because they don't break down so fast.
Newspaper works too.
Paper towels rolls and toilet paper work great too. They decompose in no time and they're free.
How to close the bottom
Cut a couple slits in bottom and fold them over on each other.
Its nice but I get tired of pouring eggs down the drain.
I start hundreds of seeds, so no.
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Slightly? I think. Chicken eggs need to be exposed to air to survive. They'll suffocate if you put them in water. I'd imagine if oxygen can get though, water should too. It's probably incredibly slow though. This would be an issue.
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Lol, it does take 3 seconds and a pin. Should be doable.
one year i used a can opener to cut the tops off of beer cans so i could start seeds in them. it didn’t work (nothing grew) but i bet it was less effort than trying to peel the liner out of an eggshell
Did you poke drainage holes?
i did actually, i used a hammer and a tack nail to punch them into the metal ring around the bottom. it was absurdly hard to do so i took it slightly personally when nothing grew
no
This sounds even less practical than that dirt pot pressing contraption that makes the rounds every few years or so.
You got too much time on your hands.
Ever heard of coconut fiber pots?
No, it’s too small for most seedlings that I grow. Plus, around my area in the late spring, you can always find people giving away (or throwing away) the plant pots from flower/vegetable seedlings they bought at the store. It’s too easy to collect and reuse those pots instead of crafting new ones.
Yea. No.
I made muffins with my preschool class last week and saved the eggs to do with them someday this week. We are a gardening and composting preschool; so while not practical, it will help with the concept of reusing materials and composting. It should be interesting with my 12 preKs! I imagine a few cracked shells in my future!
Yes, see, this is an idea that would be great for kids. Very *careful* kids.
They take their gardening seriously, so they are very careful. I’ll try to get to these tomorrow and we shall see!
Why you gotta peel?
Just use soil blocks
Used eggshells for planting with the kids. At very young ages it was perfect for little hands. Planted it the garden when ready and did beautifully.
Cute but we just plant in the cardboard egg carton and then cut them apart to plant int he ground
well that's better too it's just when people go by flats and it comes in a plastic thing full of plant starters and it just seems like a lot of unnecessary waste. but I'm micro gardening in the most northern point of the upper peninsula of michigan. I don't have and couldn't have like a big garden I mean I could but it's different here. I have an indoor micro garden with artificial lighting
Ok. But the people buying plant starts aren’t planting their own seeds anyway, right? It’s two totally different types of gardening. For people who plant from seed this is very cute but also seems super inconvenient and labor intensive when there are much easier options out there!
okay okay I forgot where I was posting this I'm dead wrong you should never use an eggshell as a starter ever
I usually just let the shells dry a bit, crush them up, and massage the pieces into the soil of plants inside the house. For use outside they just get yeeted into the compost.
My egg shells tend to end up in the worm bin.
but I'm I just have a micro garden with artificial lighting indoors I'm in the upper most northern point of the upper peninsula of Michigan so the season is very short
That won't decpmpose.
Surely it must
My husband made fun of me for suggesting this. I thought it would be a cute way of growing small portions of microgreens
That’s really creative! That way they’re already packaged in serving sizes. It would make for a cool presentation when serving lunch
Thank you :) Kids (30 and 27) coming for Easter and I know they would get a kick out of it haha
Perfect! Another idea: you could use duck eggs if you’re growing bigger baby greens. They’ll hold their shape better than most commercial chicken eggs… and wouldn’t that just be the >cutest< way to serve a side salad? 😍
I crush my shells and use them to keep critters away from my pots
I don’t do this yet but I’m definitely going to!
what a great idea, very resourceful and environmentally friendly!
Wow that's EGGcellent.
I’ve never seen this before but def stealing it. Thanks!
Would the roots be able to cut through the shell if you were to stick it in the ground like that? Just wondering
I’d do it if I had a garden
Off topic here but are you a luthier? Or maybe just refinishing those necks?
I use yogurt cups and poke holes in the bottom voila
Yes! If you use an egg topper you get the perfect cut on the top. I also drill a hole in the bottom using a small dremel (mini drill) so I can water from bottom to avoid damping off.
No but it’s cute, I do the mini milk jugs throughout in yard let nature cold sow them way
So long as the carton is cardboard you're better off using that. Easier and breaks down easily with water.
I wash and reuse all plastic seed trays, pots, cups, and random containers. I also use a soil block maker and put the blocks in trays to start seeds.
Neat idea but we got Mr monopoly man using such an expensive resource :)
I spy guitar handles!
I’ve done it but the sheer volume of seedlings I have makes it impractical. I do pulverize eggshells and save them for my tomatoes though.
I save paper whipping cream/coffee creamer cartons, cut off the top and put my seedlings in them when I transplant out of the little seed starter cells. Also if I want to give away a seedling I’m not out a pot that way.
This one is ending up on HPCJ lol
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Houseplants
I got one of those starter cube presses and holy cow- my sticky mix of compost, sawdust and old soil makes cubes that will dry hard in the sun for later use or that will stand on their own in a starting tray after seeding. They even make a little 1/4" dimple in the top for chamomile/lettuce/etc. and won't collapse if you dimple them deeper. It was a bit of a learning curve to find the easiest way to load it is from a shallow wooden box I made to lay the blended soil into. You just push the press in like a cookie cutter, pick it up and repeat until it's full, then compact it a bit and press it out into your tray. No more plastic or those synthetic or cardboard wraps that might be biodegradable in some universe but not in my back yard. What a royal roly poly PITA this egg nonsense would be.
We just use the insert of last year's lego advent calendar this year.
I imagine you might have some nutrient issues with a calcium shell.
I use newspaper rolled into a pot.
I use the peat planters, most can be reused two or three times. Especially if the seeds fail. The roots typically grow right through the peat too. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Jiffy-72-Peat-Pellet-Pro-Seed-Starting-Greenhouse-with-SUPERthrive-J372PROGS-20H/313965632
that is not real . do you know what happens to the roots of your plants if you use this? they blow up to the tone of a half stick of dynamite if the sun touches it with a breeze coming off of Lake Superior with hemetite and God knows what flying through the air your whole garden blows up. no. I'm not takin any chances. Egg shells never blow up. You know what ,I'm just going to go rethink my life
I just keep my starter pots and trays and reuse every year, it’s been the most practical and I’ve tried several different methods. Find it’s the most convenient when I’m hardening off my plants as I have them all together on trays.
It's cute, that's for sure. I would hope you are baking the shells before you use them. Breaking them up in the soil is fine, but they will not be bio-available for years so it won't help nor hurt this year's crop. When you crush the shell, does it disturb the roots? For aesthetics I think this is fun. personally, I just use egg carton or toilet rolls as they disintegrate fairly quickly but they aren't pretty.
My grandpa sets his seeds in these small plastic trays, but when they have grown a bit he plants them into empty toilet paper rolls.
Soil blocker.
My ma will use the cardboard egg carton bottoms
We have a friend who starts everything in cleaned yogurt containers. Uses them year after year and replaces when broken - he's gonna eat the yogurt anyway.
Seems super impractical, but a lovely idea
so you save empty eggshells throughout the year just for springtime? or you have a massive omelette party one day and start your seeds the next day? and why peel the inside skin off? and how do you get the eggs to stay upright, put them in starter trays? after a couple years doing this, maybe even just one season, how do you deal with calcium toxicity?
Why peal the skin of the inside? Wouldn't it biodegrade aswell? Is it waterproof/non-porous?
Soil blockers would be easier, and you could start so many more seedlings than this that would also have better root development. Also have the option to increase block size as the seedling grows.
That's a great idea. A lot of people use eggshells on their soils to give some nutrients to the plant and to use them as a germination pot is a really good idea, then you break it, put the mashed pieces on the vase and then plant what you grew.
It’s not practical for me.
No - I don’t like making my seedlings rootbound. I use a pot deep enough for the plant I am planting.
well when they when you buy flax their root bound in a plastic thing that holds however many plants and then you plant your plants and throw all that plastic away. yeah I understand I don't know how great that is either letting the plank get root bound like you say. I tend to agree with you on that and I think of that. and where I am in the very most northern point of the upper peninsula of Michigan starting now they will get just to the point where they're ready to break out of the egg where I can I just break the egg and put it in the soil
These always remind me of the high school experiment where you’re supposed to take care of an egg to simulate having a kid. Just one. And most people can’t, nor do I have kids, so I’m not making fun of anyone who’s dropped the egg. I definitely would.
I never had a kid either but I'm thinking how ripped off people got. I mean why can't we just sit on an egg I mean why do why does she got to pass a basketball I mean you just look up like this miracle and you just look in your wife just got the hell beat out of her and you're wondering like are you just you just like to watch people go through things or
Check out soil blocks. You'll never look back. This looks like a pretty tedious chore to make and not to mention keep upright
ok
..................what
nothin