Eggs for Tomatoes

This year I'm feeding eggs to my tomatoes.

Eggshells, I mean. Tomatoes love calcium, which eggshells are full of. Calcium helps prevent blossom end rot, and contributes to general health. Since I did so damned badly with my tomatoes last year, I'm hoping that this helps.

Grind the shells into a very fine powder, using a coffee grinder, spice grinder, or a mortar and pestle. Then MIX 'EM INTO THE DIRT.

I've been washing my used eggshells, and then baking them on low heat (about 300 degrees F) for a while, until they're hot and brittle (and, importantly, sterile). I have a granite mortar that I pour them into, and every time I go into the kitchen, I give it a few good grinds with the pestle. Eventually I get them ground into a fine powder.

Today I planted some tomato seeds (Principe Borghese plum tomatoes, if you're wondering). I washed out an empty plastic cat litter container, which I'll be using to mix soil from now on. I put in some of the soil I'm using in my containers this year, and thoroughly, by hand, mixed the eggshells in. If you're doing this, you'll be able to see the fine white specks of it throughout the soil when you're done. I then mixed the eggshell-enriched soil in with the regular, by layers, as I filled the pot up. I used about four eggs' worth of powder in this. Peppers like calcium, too, so I'll be sprinkling ground shells around the plants as they grow, since it's too late to mix them into the soil now.

I've also read suggestions of soaking clean eggshells in water. Apparently the calcium easily leaches into the water, which can then be used to water plants. It sounds very convenient, but I still prefer the powder. There's just something I love about getting my hands right into the dirt.