Re: [gardeners] Saturday gardening
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 27 May 1998 16:29:54
At 06:31 AM 5/27/98 -0600, you wrote:
>At 12:32 AM 5/27/98 -0400, you wrote:
>>Margaret, would you please explain to the uninitiated how one
>>uses eggshells in the chili holes...?
>>
>>Penny, NY zone 6
>>
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>I use one teaspoon of crushed eggshells in each planting hole for tomatoes
>and each for chile peppers to provide extra calcium. Last year I ran
>short, and mentioned it to my dentist, who arranged for a small restaurant
>to save eggshells for me. I had to pick them up every other day because
>the restaurant was refrigerating them (there's a little residue of the
>white part of the egg in several of the shells, and they didn't want to
>smell rotten eggs). I crushed them, and got a large jar full, about 1/2
>gallon. Thought that was enough, but either I was overly generous with the
>shell bits or it's due to my planting more tomatoes and more chiles, but I
>did run out of crushed eggs before I had finished planting either the
>chiles or the tomatoes.
>
>Some people I know put spent matches (for phosphorus) in the planting
>holes, as well as banana skins (potassium), either fresh or dried and
>pulverized. It may all be a bit of magic, but that's the way I plant
>chiles and tomatoes. Margaret
>
I use about 2 tablespoons of dolomitic limestone and another 1 tablespoon
of epsom salts when I plant them. A little later, when I remember it, I
give them some more epson salts. Seems to make sturdier plants and they get
pretty prolific. I harvested right at 1 bushel of mild Longhorn chiles last
year off one bush and it's still growing. I know I've taken at least a peck
of chiles already this year off the same plant.
George