Cucumber plants do look beautiful especially if they are healthy and fruit producing. This will not happen unless you give them a good hand in terms of caring and feeding them.

Plenty of people use eggshells on various types of plants which if you are not familiar with this method will make you wonder, do cucumber plants like eggshells?

Cucumber plants do like eggshells, and a lot. This can be beneficial in terms of feeding and also helping your plant to be stronger against multiple diseases that come from some nutrients deficiencies that eggshells can provide.

Additionally, knowing that eggshells are good for cucumber plants is wonderful. But you should also know when and how to use them. This topic will sum up all what you will need to know when you want to use eggshells in the most proper way.

Let’s dive into details:

Table of Contents

1 Why cucumbers plants like eggshells?

As you may know, cucumber plants need a handful of nutrients during the growing and fruit producing phases. Cucumber plants like eggshells because they do provide organic nutrients such as calcium which is the biggest amount, along with phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium in lesser quantities.

Cucumber plants like eggshells due to their nutrients benefits as cucumbers do not mind having additional feeding as it will be healthier, and thus, more fruit production. And on it you’ll experience a great harvest with a big smile.

Additionally, adding eggshells to your cucumber plants will make it stronger and more able to defeat diseases such as blossom-rot end because it can happen due to calcium deficiency, which is what eggshells give and furnish.

also read: Are coffee grounds good for cucumber plants

2 Why should you use eggshells on cucumber plants

Eggshells giveaways do not stop just on nutrients, they do go beyond and give more.

Despite the fact of eggshells richness, they also have other benefits which they are in the following:

Multiple nutrients: like we stated earlier, eggshells do have more than calcium in them. They also contain phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium. As far as I know, cucumbers don’t mind at all if you give them a consistent source of nutrients besides your fertilizers. More nutrients means more growth and big fruits in return.

Besides, eggshells are used on a daily basis in our lives, using them into your garden will be more profitable than just damping them away.

Improve drainage: when adding such elements like eggshells on the soil, the small parts that are crushed when mixing them in soil will make some kind of small routes and holes. This will help to improve soil drainage and prevent it from getting too much, which means to prevent such diseases that come from overwatering like stem-rot.

So, mixing eggshells to soil, you are helping your cucumbers to stay healthy and strong.

Soil Aeration: Another good thing about adding eggshells to cucumbers is to attract earthworms that do like calcium and make them work for you. For both in terms of decomposing eggshells and building the holes around your plants that allow for air to come in.

Eggshells attract worms, worms make holes. Therefore, air circulates and your cucumbers use that air to be used in the plant growth, leading to great fruit production overall, and that brings joy for any of us.

Fix soil bumps: another good benefit for eggshells is when they attract earthworms they will make your soil even softer and allow your cucumber plants to expand in the soil more easily due to the soft texture.

By adding eggshells, you are doing your cucumbers a huge favor by making it easy for them to grow and expand. If your plants find the space and easy planting site along with good nutrients, there is no other way than spreading and thriving.

Regulate soil PH: another good thing for adding eggshells into your soil is to make PH more alkaline. By doing this you are making the planting site for cucumber plants more suitable for best growing conditions, and overall best results for you.

Great addition to fertilizers and compost: eggshells do have nutrients. Eggshells can also be mixed in the compost or fertilizer for an additional dose of nutrients. Another good thing about eggshells is they decompose slowly along with the compost, which means that your cucumbers plants will never be short of nutrients throughout their season.

Assist new seedlings: one more thing about eggshells is that you decide to plant or transplant new cucumber seedlings adding eggshells into the holes will be extremely helpful. Make sure to crush eggshells as a powder and put them just before your seedlings. By doing this, you are giving an additional slow release for calcium.

Fight disease: eggshells do have a handful of calcium in them. By adding eggshells to your cucumbers, you are actually giving them a shield to defend against diseases such as blossom-end rot. This disease will hit your cucumbers if there is a calcium shortage in their system which you are preventing by adding eggshells.

Barrier against slugs: lastly, as a final benefit for eggshells is that you can make circles around your cucumber plants using these crushed eggshells. By doing this you are creating a natural barrier against multiple slugs such as snails. The sharp edges of crushed eggshells will punish those slugs and forbid them from approaching your plants, thus helping it in the end.

3 when you can use eggshells on cucumber plants

Knowing the benefits of eggshells on cucumbers is a good thing. Yet, knowing when to use them is important also. You can use eggshells during all the season of cucumber plants, there is no specific timeline which may give more good effects than the other.

This is due to the fact that eggshells do not compost as fast as many people think. If you place crushed eggshells directly to your soil as they are, it may take up to one year until your eggshells decompose and produce the calcium for soil. Therefore, adding time will not affect your cucumber plants directly which means the time does not matter.

In the meanwhile, if you blend your eggshells and make them a powder, you are reducing the time of decomposition up to 4 months, which results in fast absorption from your cucumbers. Factors such as earthworm’s existence will affect positively and fasten decomposition, leading to fast benefits for your plants.

So, if you want to add eggshells to your cucumbers, you can add them any time in the season, either growing or in the fruit production phase.

Additionally, do not overthink too much about the quantity of eggshells that you add to your cucumbers and soil as this will not affect the PH overnight, just make sure to prepare the eggshells for the best method that helps for easy absorption….

4 how to add and use eggshells on cucumber plants the right way:

There are lots of conflicting opinions regarding using eggshells on cucumber plants. The most important thing to take into consideration is whenever the eggshell pieces get smaller, the faster they decompose, the faster your plant will benefit from them.

Use them like this:

Collect all the eggshells and wash them under running water for 5 minutes.
Sterilize the eggshells to kill and eliminate any possible salmonella existence. By cooking them in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes under 350 F°.
Use your blender to make small pieces of eggshells. Previous step will make them even softer and easy to be crushed.
Dig a small layer from your planting soil around the plant to prepare for adding eggshells.
Grab a tablespoon and start adding eggshells and then mix them with soil.
Cover the soil.
You can add additional circles from eggshells pieces around your cucumber plants to build that barrier against slugs and snails. This should be above the soil and there is no need for the mix.

Conclusion

To summarize all the info, cucumber plants like eggshells and do not mind additional natural nutrient sources. Adding eggshells to cucumber plants will provide the following: multiple nutrients, polish soil texture, improve drainage, fight against diseases, balance overall PH soil, used with fertilizers, aerate soil, barrier versus slugs, and assist new seedlings.

In addition, you can add eggshells to your cucumber plants any time in the year during the season. To add them do this: sterilize your eggshells in the oven or dry them outside for a week to kill the bacteria, then crush them and make eggshells powder, add them directly or mix them with soil as both ways are great.

Moreover, there are many other topics about cucumber plants, make sure to take a look, happy gardening my friends.