Grow The Crispiest Cucumbers With A Secret Weapon From Your Kitchen

Cucumbers are a great addition to any home garden. Not only are they an excellent vegetable to have on hand to add to summer salads and cold soups, but they're also relatively easy to grow. That makes them beginner-friendly, making the newest of gardeners feel proud of their green thumb thanks to the cucumber's prolific nature. But that doesn't mean they're foolproof. If you get the conditions wrong, your harvest can come out smaller than expected or less crispy than wanted. However, there is one kitchen item that will help ensure that won't happen: eggshells. 

Crushed eggshells are one of the best fertilizers for your cucumber garden, ensuring they get all the nutrients they need to grow big and crispy. They're packed with plant-loving compounds like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium, which are typically found in most fertilizers. This will help amend the soil, sending more vitamins to your crop and helping it flourish. Here's how to do it.

The best way to add eggshells to your soil isn't by throwing cracked eggs into the dirt. Instead, you want to crumble them into a fine powder and add them to water. That's because eggshells take a long time to decompose, so making them smaller helps speed up the process. If you want to amend the soil before planting your cucumbers, wash out at least 12 eggshells in water to avoid leaving any membrane behind. Crush them into a powder, then add them to the holes you made to plant your seeds or seedlings. Then put the seed or plant inside after that.

If your cucumber is already planted and flourishing, you can use eggshells like a traditional watering fertilizer. Pour 1 gallon of water into a pot, and throw anywhere between 12 to 20 eggshells inside. Boil the shells, turn off the water, and allow it to steep overnight. This will infuse the water with calcium, which you can use weekly to water your vegetable patch.