Egged on...

You recall last year I mentioned that I was saving all the empty egg shells from the eggs that I used in cooking / breakfast, etc. as well as all the empty loo roll holders.  I have a limited number of seedling trays and I wanted to compliment that quantity of seeds I could grow without having to purchase more plastic (trays).

Normal seed trays together with empty egg
shells - I kept them in a recycled Styrofoam
boxes I got from RSon. The Styrofoam boxes
act like giant drip trays, and when covered
with bubble wrap which we used when packing 
the delicate items, they became miniature
hot houses :)

With the move from town to farm, a whole bunch of the shells got broken, but I did managed to use over 80 empty egg shells, as well as numerous empty loo roll holders :)

And, even though my planting was late this year, I have a good crop of seedlings peeping through the soil.  I'm not terribly worried as we have a long planting season here - heck, I've still got broad beans being produced on the plants I cut back.  Who would have thought in the heat we are already experiencing...?

Loads of empty egg shells in egg cartons - to hold
them upright.  They, too, became too soggy and
fell apart.

But, I thought I'd give you some feedback on egg shells vs loo roll holders...

The loo roll holders I found got too soggy, and fell apart when it came time to plant them out.  And one has to space them very closely together too - to prevent them from falling over.

But the egg shells - they're a winner!!!!

You can see the roots peeping through
where I broke the shell prior to
planting out the seedlings.  The one
in the foreground is not planted yet -
I just propped it there to show you
the healthy seedling it has managed
to produce.  I planted them in the
ground leaving about 1cm (1/2 an inch)
of the shell above ground.

The benefit, for me, is that while I am reusing the empty egg shells, I am also simultaneously adding calcium to the soil when I plant out the seedlings.

And, hopefully, the extra benefit is that the bit of egg shell peeping above the ground will act as a cut-worm deterrent.

To use your egg shells, make sure that you cut the egg open as close as possible to the pointed end of the shell.  A hassle initially, as one is used to cracking eggs through the middle.  But, you soon get used to it :)

And just think of not having to sterilize those seedling trays ever again...!

A last tip - all those seedling trays you have lying around - keep them and use them to support the egg shells whilst the seeds are germinating.

Using empty egg shells, to grow seedlings, works.  I promise :)