Dried leaves and eggshells together?

[aashish2137]

Hi guys

I've a really small gardening setup (8-10 pots) and no compost bin. My question is - is there any real tangible benefit if I crush dried leaves and dried eggshells together and mix them in the soil once in 3 months? I don't necessarily need to do it since I buy compost from my local nursery and add it anyway but the leaves and eggshells are a waste that I wish to put to use, if it wont impact my plants adversly.

Thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance for your time to respond.

 

[Logan]

Hi @aashish2137 welcome to the forums
Yes you can use egg shells to the compost add them in spring and fall, don't know about the dried leaves,

 

[Chuck]

Yes, you can use egg shells but, it takes a long time for them to break down into nutrients that plants can uptake. Incorporating dried leaves INTO the soil reduces nitrogen. It is best to use dried crushed leaves on the surface of the soil. Composted dried leaves incorporated into the soil is OK.

 

[UrbanWild]

Good stuff. I use both.

Like most composting and soil amendments, the bigger the particles, the longer they take to break down and be utilized. You'll see a lot of articles saying an eggshell will still be an eggshell a year in the compost pile. They may appear so, but there has been utilization at the surface. It just takes years to break down large chinks of eggshell.

I get the eggshells from an average of about 6 cases of 15 dozen eggs about once a week...all year long. I dump them on stainless window screens I got free. After a few days they are bone dry. I dump all the eggshells in my garden cart or wheelbarrow and then use a garden rake with the cart like a giant mortar and pestle. Once I get them busted up into about dime-sized pieces, I use a nutribullet to whizz them up into a grainy powder. It takes some finagling. Then I add the powder directly to beds, containers, soil mixes, etc. I also leave the powder to continue drying for several more days, then seal the container and store it for later.

BTW, it's not just for the 39% or so calcium content. There are other minerals (https://www.researchgate.net/public...OF_CHICKEN_EGGSHELL_FOR_USE_AS_A_BIO-RESOURCE) as well as the fact that since these eggshells are not washed, they still have a bit of egg white covering the shells. That all gets into the powder.

Also, sometimes when it will be wet or damp, I'll just mechanically beat the shells until they are about those same dime-sized pieces and work them into the compost layers. The bits will take several years to break down but act like slow release.

The powder also seems to be relished by my worms. Since they don't have teeth, they usually have to wait for bigger items to be broken down by fungi & bacteria before they can process substrates. Powdered eggshell is no problem for them.

Also, the bulk of my composting efforts uses fall leaves as the "browns". I pick up hundreds of large paper leaf bags from my neighborhood each fall.