Make an Egg Plant

Intro: Make an Egg Plant

Do you like gardening and love to eat eggs? Well, heres a instructable you might like, make an egg plant!
(No, I am not talking about that vegetable.)

When you do gardening, why buy a lot of plastic pots to germinate and grow young plants and throw them out when unwanted? That is not very green, plastic pots take ever so long time to decompose. Instead, you can use egg shells, they will decompose, you can easily get them right from your kitchen (If you have any eggs), and the egg shells are full of nutrition, it will make young plants grow healthy and strong.

So, why not use egg shells?

STEP 1: Things You Will Need...

Making egg plants are easy, and not much things is needed!

• Eggs
• Seeds
• Soil or even better, compost (I used compost that is just sitting in my garden.)

If you like, you can decorate your egg plants...

• Beads
• Waterproof markers
• Paint
• Or any thing you think it will suit your egg plants!

STEP 2: Eat the Eggs!

This is a tasty step, eat the eggs!

You will need the egg shells for the egg plants, and be careful not to break the egg shells too much!

STEP 3: Clean the Egg Shells...

Okay, after you had eaten the eggs for breakfast and have the egg shells remaining, clean the egg shells gently with water. Then let the egg shells air dry, if you hand dry it, you might break it...
If you don't clean the eggs, it might go moldy and kill the young plant.

STEP 4: Make Drain Holes

Make drain holes on the end of the egg shell to prevent the egg plant from being waterlogged.

Making drain holes can be very trick to do without breaking the egg shells, I used a drill to make the holes. You will have to be very gentle when drilling the egg shells...

You don't have to bother drilling the holes in the egg shells if you cannot do it successfully, you can just leave it undrilled, but make sure you don't waterlog the egg plants...

STEP 5: Decorate the Egg Shells!

This step is optional.

Decorate the egg shells!
Be artistic! You can glue beads on the egg shell, paint it, dye it with some stains, maybe color it with some markers, or perhaps carve it? Do what ever you think it is good!

Or you can just leave the egg shell as it is...

I decorated two egg shells, one with red beads, purple beads, and the other one is painted with flowers on it.

STEP 6: Another Idea

Instead of reusing the egg shells which may very likely break the next time you use it, you can just simply plant the whole thing into the ground when the plant gets large enough. The egg shells will give all of its nutrients to the plants and protect the young plants with the spiky ridges on the egg shell to keep the snails and slugs out. Snails and slugs don't like crawling over spiky things, they hate it!

STEP 7: Stuff the Egg Shell With...

Stuff the egg shell with fine soil or compost! I used compost.

STEP 8: Plant in the Seeds.

Okay, you are almost done, plant in the seed or maybe seeds in the egg pot.
Put small seeds in the egg pot like tomato seeds, large seeds like beans may be unsuitable, because they tend to make large roots which may damage both the plant and the egg shell.

STEP 9: Let It Grow!

And let your plant in the egg pot grow!
When the plant grows large enough to transplant, transplant your plant form the egg pot and plant it in your garden.

Also, to stop the egg plants from wobbling around, use the egg's packaging to support it. (I used a small black rubber thing to support the egg plants while taking pictures.)

Enjoy!


If you need help, question, found an error, or anything, make a comment! I like comments!

Oh, sorry for some blurry pictures, my camera is having a bad blurry day... I am going to try get nice photos soon!

Comments

[Clanky]

Will hot glue decompose along with the egg shell?

[ReCreate]

well,its sort of a plastic,Probably Eventually it will.

[HEY YOU]

Hot Glue will not decompose, I believe that it goes through photodegradation, (breaking down into smaller & smaller particles that contaminate the soil and water), the same way plastic bags break down.   I

would also worry about animals accidentally thinking they are food and eating the "glue worms"

If you plan to move these nice little "egg plants" into the garden, I would suggest a wheat paste or flour and water mix to stick the beads on. They would be easier to remove and reuse.

If you make your own beads of coloured paper then the whole thing can go right into the ground....

Nice project in any case......

Cheers

[WhyHello]

thanks for the eco- friendly ideas!
would a gluestick be unsafe?

[HEY YOU]

A Kid safe, non-toxic one would be fine I suppose.

Cheers

[Plasmana]

I don't know, I guess I will find out soon!

[boogyheadabc]

couldn't you of used a needle? or are those too small

[WhyHello]

yes you can use a needle....*2 years after you posted your question*

[xnoctournal]

me and my little sister just made one each :] mines eggfurd and hers is helga. we put them outside by the front door they are so cute.

[WhyHello]

Awww, thats an awesome idea =)

[mrs_gberg]

We have an "egg punch" I bought at Cost Plus, and we use it to punch an air hole into eggs before hard-boiling them. I would imagine that such a gizmo could be used to punch a few holes into the end of each egg BEFORE breaking them open, and could make this step a little less nerve-racking...

[Sunny124613]

Wow! This is great! I can't wait until my next omelet.... Also, if the egg cracks (because fast growing plants...) Would we be able to use a stronger bigger shell, like an ostrich egg?

[Plasmana]

I never used an ostrich egg, I don't see why not use it.. :)

[Sunny124613]

OK! I wonder where I will get that...

[cogni]

I found I could make little holes easily without a drill. I straightened a paperclip and punched the holes from the inside of each shell, gently poking the wire through the shell on an old cloth placemat. The mat under the shells helped keep the shell steady and absorbed the force of the paperclip so the shell didn't break. Experiment a little to get the right amount of force. I found it better to remove the inner membrane of the shell to make a cleaner punch. I suppose that membrane is food for the seedling; if so you can mix it into your compost.

[ANTQNUT]

This is a Great idea! my only worry is that the plants roots will soon out grow the shell and then you would end up buying plastic pots anyways! but still a really great project!!! :P

[jackilyn157]

this is going to save me money on peat pots this year. Also a great Easter project. Thanks!

[seaseal]

This is a great idea for several reasons. Planting small plants instead of seeds speeds up the whole process and is helpful for people with short growing seasons or for those who wish two crops per season. Also, it's something kids can do for a project. I love that. I'm going to make some to sell at our Farmers Market!

[benin]

great idea... very scientific and beautiful....

[Plasmana]

Haha!, Thanks!