Well I use banana peels (dried). bone meal, blood meal, green sand, Epsom Salt, and calcium pills (ground up).

I use to use egg shells but found they do not break down fast enough, so I switched to calcium tablets.

I put tea or coffee grounds on my garden pretty much every day, after I've finished my morning cup. No idea if it actually helps anything, but it can't hurt, and it saves me from having to throw it down the disposal or in the trash, so why not? I've also gotten bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks, they're usually pretty happy to give that stuff away.

I don't know about the banana peels or egg shells, I would think you'd want to actually compost those, but I don't compost yet, so I don't really know.

Is there anything to them?

If composted first, sure. Otherwise no.

Nothing in them is available to the plants to use until AFTER they are fully decomposed and the soil bacteria can go to work on them to release the nutrients. Decomposition requires time.

Dave

used coffee grounds are a source of nitrogen after they are composted. used coffee has neutral ph of 6.8, fresh coffee/ unbrewed will raise the acidity of your soil.

Over the years I have probably put a thousand eggshells in my garden. I just throw them as is in the garden and they get ground up when I rototill.

The main ingredient in eggshells is calcium carbonate (the same brittle white stuff that chalk, limestone, cave stalactites, sea shells, coral, and pearls are made of). The shell itself is about 95% CaCO3 (which is also the main ingredient in sea shells). The remaining 5% includes calcium phosphate and magnesium carbonate and soluble and insoluble proteins.

Has anyone tried using chalk? Like childrens street chalk? I have a ton of that in my garage. hmmmm????

Coffee grounds may not specifically feed your plants but they will feed the worms, which WILL feed your plants. Great, great stuff.
Edie

What about if you ground up all these items in a food processer or blender then poured into the hole at planting time and mix well. Would this make the nutrients and minerals more readily avalible? Just a thought.

Tea, coffee grounds, banana and peels, leftover fatfree yogurt, etc for my raised beds too. I usually collect a large bowl of these, dig a hole between plants and burry them. After rotating the spots, a few months later when I dig into the old holes, they're like earthworm heaven. Like gardenman said, I do chop up the peels into smaller pieces.

I think I'll try this, this year. I have been trying to keep a compost pile going, but not very successfully and I feel like I am only feeding the trees that are near it. I dont have a sunny space to waste on a compost pile. As I see it, even if the kitchen waste doesnt break down fast enough to feed the plants this year, it will be feeding next years plants. I'll just use my fenced in compost pile for leaves (which I have huge amounts of) and lawn trimmings.

I am buildinga worm box (cheap worm bin on google) it will not help this year but next year I will be ready. I grind banan peels and too over ripe bananas in blender and water roses with mixture. I have great plants. Also use starbuck free coffee grounds on clemantis and other plants gorgous flowers.

Just start a compost bin. The options are practically limitless and you'll be able to incorporate a lot more "freebies" than the above list. While it may seem like too much trouble or mess at first, if you have the skills, time, and interest for gardening, you'll also succeed at composting. The results will be worth it.

Here is a link that might be useful: composting forum

Everything needs to be broken down, as mentioned by others. Depending on the heat and humidity of your area, they may start to offer nutrients to your plants. Eggshells in the hole probably will not give calcium or pH buffering until the following year, they are fairly resistant. Banana peels are not particularly "rich" in anything, but they will offer organic content just as any other plant waste would.
I would start a compost pile with all your scraps and as it decomposes you can top dress the soil with it

What about if you ground up all these items in a food processer or blender then poured into the hole at planting time and mix well.

Then it's no longer FREE.
Personally I wouldn't stick anything in the food processor or blender I wasn't going to consume.

All my garbage, other than meat, goes into the garden. I just put it under my permanent mulch of leaves, sawdust, whatever I can find, or bury it if I am feeling energetic(not often lately). :-)
JMO,
Tom

I use all of the above items in my worm bin. Then I get lovely worm compost to add to my garden.

It does take some time to get it started but the compost is amazing!!
Karen

eplina (and others)

Adding eggshells whole or ground, to the planting hole, or even to the soil will not help with BER (Blossom End Rot). The cause of BER is calcium distribution within the plant and is rarely related to lack of calcium in the soil. Never mind the fact that it takes more than a single growing season to break down eggshells.

BER Articles from reputable sources:

Cornell Fact Sheet

Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet

North Carolina State University

Virginia Cooperative Extension

If you are interetested in reading more technical articles on the subject of blossom end rot, you can check out the articles at this link: Google Scholar Search results for blossom end rot

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ page on Blossom End Rot

Tip... I dry them out completely in the full sun and put them in a blender when they are completely dry, and it easily goes to a very fine powder that mixes in and can be better absorbed by the plants and does not have that untidy white specs over the whole compost or garden.

In fact just yesterday I did about 3 months or egg shells and you will be amazed how well it works.

BE WARNED this can change the PH values in the soil so a little goes a long way when you crush it this way.

Also gravity and rain only bring it down so don't bother digging in too deep just spread a bit on the top around the plant stem and ruffle the soil and water it in...

Over time and each rain it gets brought down deeper. Many people use this and dig the soil over often deeper then the plants roots will ever grow.

Hope this helps some

Other than egg shells, sea shells, most kitchen scraps will be composted easily. When I was running fireplace, I would throw egg shells in it. I thought temperatures might break them down faster. Things like oyster shell would not budge. But , regardless, how long it takes for coffee grounds to break down, it is a good soil amender anyway.

I've heard that putting egg shells in water for a while to make a tea was good. ?? As an experiment I put egg shells in a 5 gal. bucket, added water and I'm useing an aerator for a few days. Will this be good or am I wasting my time??

Wasting your time. The calcium in eggshells is not useable by plants.

I agree. There are cheap and easy sources of calcium. Why bother with eggshell ?! Gypsum is cheap, lime is cheap and both are proven to works.

Worms use egg shells for their gizzards so I save all my egg shells, smash them up using a mortar and pestle and sprinkle some around my tomato plants when I plant. I hope that I have lots of happy worms in my veggie garden!

Linda

i think its good gardening/composting practice to add all our vegy leftovers to our gardens..:)
i drink alot of coffee..and i have a local source i get around 5 gal coffee grounds a week.. it all goes in the gardens..vegy..and flower/tropical plants..
i have friends give me there egg shells..but i now use oyster shell flour as a calcium additive to my gardens..
as posted here.. sea shells will take longer than we live to break down..there are some good sources online for oyster shell flour..and i like it..
i also get about 15 gal of banana peels a month from a friend.. in the fall i just spade them into the vegy garden. during growing season..they go in the compost.
i think i read somewhere..it takes 17# of banana peels to equal 1 # of gardening value potash..what that level was ..i cant remember.. but..that would be ALOT of peels to put any kind of potash in the soil..
of course..always good idea to have your local extention service do a test on your soil..see how it is every 5 yrs..

not on thread topic necessarily.but..i was going to say..
i have been using fish bone meal last couple yrs.. and my tomatoes respond well to it..
so do the racoons too..:( so..i fence around the tomatoes at start of growing season.keep them from digging around my plants..
fish bone meal has good levels of phosphate,and calcium
plus helpful for good soil bacterial levels..
seem the more diverse soil is in humus levels,good bacteria,worms..helps fend off problems..

The word is "Hugelkultur".

That's what my mom used to practice, on a small scale.

When preparing a vegetable bed, she would strip the area of all the top vegetation - weeds, ferns, shrubs, saplings. She then strips the layer of top soil and put this aside. Next she would dig a trench in the ground - orientated north-south lengthwise. How deep this trench is depends on how difficult the soil is to work on. In this trench, she would throw in all the woody twigs, small trunks, and rotten debris. Next, she would cover this with the weeds/ferns/saplings that she collected from clearing the area. She compacts this down with a "hoe". She uses the top soil she had previously set aside to complete the final layer.

The final result is a long mound on which she would grow her spring onions, pak choi, chilli, etc. The mound usually ends up about 20 feet long, about 3-4 feet wide, and approximately 2 feet high. It often ends up not looking all that pretty - it would be crooked, and the height and width would vary. But, boy didn't it produce good crops!! (She would grow sun/heat loving crops n the west side of the mound, and the less sun tolerant types on the east side.). She uses fern leaves to mulch the soil. A heavy tropical down pour would easily wash away the top layer of good soil if left unmulched.

I did not know, until recently, that this technique of vegetable growing that my mom used to practise more than 40 years ago actually has a more fancy name "Hugelkultur", done on a much larger scale.

Now-a-days, in addition to maintaining a compose bin, I collect the larger chunks of organic waste by setting them aside in a pile through the growing season. In the winter, I trench the beds, throw in all the organic materials, together with any kitchen wastes that may be sitting around, and build up my "Hugelkultur" bed - albeit on a small scale.

So we have an above ground garden, about three years old. I bury plastic bottles w/holes poked in bottom 3rd. Water those & those alone. Banana peals, eggs shells crushed (by hand) I also cut the entire peel into pieces while fresh (dry in garage). I place it in the bottom of the hole. I put 1 bottle between 2 tomatoes or the center of 3-5 peppers. Epsom salt around the base of plant (so when it rains or h2o accidentally hits it, it goes through the dirt ). Coffee grounds go everywhere

What my worm bin can't eat gets buried in the garden in small pockets unless there isn't room to do so without damaging plant roots. It eventually breaks down. Don't overdo it (not more than can be decomposed in a reasonable amount of time, not so much that its decomp process will steal nutrients from nearby plants), be careful if you have critters that will dig it up (no sense in trying to feed your plants and ending up having a skunk dig up the whole place and kill plants as collateral damage), etc. It will enrich your soil long-term. Just don't look to it to feed your plants in the short-term or act as a fix if your plants need food now.

If budget is a concern, it's perfectly fine to use a cheap "synthetic" fertilizer to get your plants fed. They can thrive on that just fine, and the claim that "synthetic" fertilizers will destroy your soil is bunk. Just don't overfertilize (which is the real problem, as conventional ferts are often pretty concentrated and very easy to overapply by mistake) and whenever you can, add organic matter to keep the soil microorganisms happy.

RE: coffee grounds

Yes, put them in your garden. Just don't expect miracle lush growth like the claims you see all over the web. But they do benefit the soil long-term, and they may provide a growth medium for a lot of bacteria and fungi that suppress disease.

Some plants are harmed by coffee, though, and you might not want to put it where seeds are germinating and reserve it for use in places with established plants or where you're going to put out transplants.

Here's a level-headed summary: https://puyallup.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/coffee-grounds.pdf

As a follow-up to gorbelly's link, here's a doc WSU extension puts out about coffee grounds in garden beds. Lots of good info here.

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/FS207E/FS207E.pdf

Just adding my 2 cents. As many others have noted, the answer is Yes, but probably not until it breaks down a bit. Coffee grounds have a lot of nitrogen, but not in a form that's available to plants until the worms and beneficial microbes in the soil can break it down. I find that the kitchen scraps I add to the garden is wonderful food for the earthworms, who in turn help out my plants. And why not use something that you're going to throw away anyway? Might as well use if for some good instead of filling up the landfills.

Here's what I do. I have a large bin outside into which I chuck any compost-able scraps from the kitchen (mostly plant material and eggs). It cooks down pretty well on it's own, but twice a year (spring, fall) I dump the bin into the garden and bury under a foot or so of soil. After a few months anything recognizable is gone and I have a nice layer of new compost. Except for the egg shells, as others have mentions, but those I just smash when I see them.

It's called "in situ composting", which is a flavor of cold composting. The problem with it for an active garden is that *chemical* degradation of material starts immediately, which uses resident nitrates to drive the decomposition. Those nitrates would otherwise be used as nutrients by plants. What takes some time is *biological* degradation of material, which slowly breaks down that material, releasing nitrates that the plants can use. So it isn't advisable to dig raw organic materials into garden beds where plants are growing. As in, don't dig coffee grounds or banana peels under a tomato plant. But burying this stuff a few months before plants are put in works well.

Definitely satisfies the N-P-Ks

Plus other micro nutrients.

I would put all of the ingredients plus some water in a blender and chop it all up and then let it steep for 24 hrs. and dilute

As the Contained Garden Blog says:

COFFEE GROUNDS:

The mineral content of Coffee Ground (prepared w/ tap water) concentration in mg/g:

Calcium-----------4.7

Magnesium-------7.1

Phosphorus-------7.1

Potassium------116.0

Sodium------------4.7

Manganese-------0.1

EGG SHELLS:

The mineral content of an Egg Shell concentration in mg/g:

Calcium--------900.0

Magnesium-----24.0

Phosphorus------8.4

Potassium--------8.0

Sodium-----------9.0

BANANA PEELS:

The mineral content of a banana peel concentrations in mg/g:

Potassium-----78.10

Calcium-------19.20

Sodium--------24.30

Iron--------------0.61

Manganese---76.20

Bromine--------0.04

Rubidium-------0.21

Strontium-------0.03

Zirconium------0.02

Niobium--------0.02

Old thread. But it is well understood that compost provides only a small amount of nutrients compared to real fertilizers. Egg shells offer nothing until they are completely dissolved, which could take a decade, depending on soil pH.

I think if its ground down very fine it can actually be beneficial.

"Charles C. Mitchell, Extension Agronomist-Soils at Auburn University , tested crushed eggshells in soil (ref 3). He wanted to see if eggshells add calcium to the soil, and if they change the pH of soil. If they decomposed while in the soil, you should see both changes to the soil.

The testing found that hand crushed eggshells did NOT change the soil pH, and they did NOT increase the level of calcium in the soil. This is after being in the soil for three weeks.

When the eggshells were ground very fine, they changed the soil pH and they added calcium to the soil.

The soil used for this test had a pH of 4.9, which is quite acidic. This is a very important point. Eggshells are essentially calcium carbonate which dissolves in acids, but not in alkaline solutions. Even finely ground eggshells will have a small effect on less acidic soil.

The study in (ref 4) found that eggshells stop affecting pH once the pH of the soil is around 6.8. They stop changing the pH because they stop breaking down at a pH of 6.8."

Just thought that was interesting.