Smiles Jr.
Garden Addicted
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2010
- Messages
- 1,330
- Reaction score
- 575
- Points
- 267
- Location
- PlayStation Farm, Rural Indiana
I hope I'm not stealing Marshal's fire here but this is how I ash my egg shells.
1. I always hand crush the shells as soon as they are cracked for cooking.
2. We have an egg shell can in the kitchen just for the crushed shells.
3. I rinse the crushed shells often as they will smell bad within a week.
4. I dump the small container from the kitchen into a 5 gal bucket in the barn.
5. When the bucket is near full I use a homemade "stick blender" to pulverize the shells.
6. My blender will make the shells into a coarse powder.
7. I have a very old cracked 10 gal. castiron cauldron that I put on top of an outdoor turkey fryer burner.
8. I dump the shell dust into the kettle and allow them to "cook" until to smell is unbearable. :/
9. I use a branch to stir the shells about once every 5 minutes. The stench will remind you.
10. When the shell dust is totally black and the smoke has all but disappeared I know it's done.
11. When cool I pour the black dust into another 5 gal. pail and cover until spring planting time.
12. Usually in early March I start my seeds indoors. I put one teaspoon of the egg ash into each of my saved Yogurt starter cups. I mix this with my homemade sawdust/compost starter soil.
13. When I have hardened off the plants and I'm ready to put them out in the garden, I mix two tablespoons of my secret tomato concoction (see recipe below) in the hole where the plant will go. Blend into soil well to minimize the possibility of root burn. Plant the sets deeper than you think you should - they'll be hardy plants by the end of July.
14. I like to water my young tomato plants sparingly every day for the first two weeks. Just enough water to moisten the soil but not wet.
15. 4 to 5 weeks (depending on amount of rain) after setting my plants out I side dress each plant with one cup of my secret concoction.
16. Since my garden(s) are a good way from any water spigot they are pretty much on their own from 5 weeks on.
Secret concoction recipe: (I'm typing quietly so nobody will hear the secrets)
2 gal. bucketfull of eggshell ash
3 C. bonemeal
1 C. Epson salts
6 packets of Goody's headache powder (I like to support the little guy)
1/4 C. 10-10-10 fertilizer
Mix all together well in a 5 gal. pail. Blend 2 T. into the soil at planting time. Side dress tomato plants w/ 1/2 C. at approx. 5 weeks.
Please understand that I have BER occasionally but since I have started my little routine outlined above the BER has reduced to almost none.
Awwwww man! Now my secret is out. I'm doomed.
1. I always hand crush the shells as soon as they are cracked for cooking.
2. We have an egg shell can in the kitchen just for the crushed shells.
3. I rinse the crushed shells often as they will smell bad within a week.
4. I dump the small container from the kitchen into a 5 gal bucket in the barn.
5. When the bucket is near full I use a homemade "stick blender" to pulverize the shells.
6. My blender will make the shells into a coarse powder.
7. I have a very old cracked 10 gal. castiron cauldron that I put on top of an outdoor turkey fryer burner.
8. I dump the shell dust into the kettle and allow them to "cook" until to smell is unbearable. :/
9. I use a branch to stir the shells about once every 5 minutes. The stench will remind you.
10. When the shell dust is totally black and the smoke has all but disappeared I know it's done.
11. When cool I pour the black dust into another 5 gal. pail and cover until spring planting time.
12. Usually in early March I start my seeds indoors. I put one teaspoon of the egg ash into each of my saved Yogurt starter cups. I mix this with my homemade sawdust/compost starter soil.
13. When I have hardened off the plants and I'm ready to put them out in the garden, I mix two tablespoons of my secret tomato concoction (see recipe below) in the hole where the plant will go. Blend into soil well to minimize the possibility of root burn. Plant the sets deeper than you think you should - they'll be hardy plants by the end of July.
14. I like to water my young tomato plants sparingly every day for the first two weeks. Just enough water to moisten the soil but not wet.
15. 4 to 5 weeks (depending on amount of rain) after setting my plants out I side dress each plant with one cup of my secret concoction.
16. Since my garden(s) are a good way from any water spigot they are pretty much on their own from 5 weeks on.
Secret concoction recipe: (I'm typing quietly so nobody will hear the secrets)
2 gal. bucketfull of eggshell ash
3 C. bonemeal
1 C. Epson salts
6 packets of Goody's headache powder (I like to support the little guy)
1/4 C. 10-10-10 fertilizer
Mix all together well in a 5 gal. pail. Blend 2 T. into the soil at planting time. Side dress tomato plants w/ 1/2 C. at approx. 5 weeks.
Please understand that I have BER occasionally but since I have started my little routine outlined above the BER has reduced to almost none.
Awwwww man! Now my secret is out. I'm doomed.