- 57 minutes ago
Before planting cucumbers, try this simple eggshell trick that turns kitchen scraps into free seed-starting cups and helps give young plants a stronger start. The method uses washed, dried eggshell halves placed in a cardboard egg carton, filled with good soil, and planted with one cucumber seed in each shell.
The video explains why this works best for fast-growing crops like cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and watermelon: you can spot which seeds germinate, avoid wasting garden space, and later plant the whole shell directly in the ground without disturbing the roots. It also covers the practical side of cucumber growing, including warm weather, loose fertile soil, spacing, support for climbing vines, and steady watering.
You’ll also hear a careful breakdown of what actually helps and what doesn’t, from chamomile water and milk-and-yeast mixes to the real value of compost, manure, and a milk spray for powdery mildew. This is old-fashioned vegetable gardening, garden hacks, and cucumber seed starting with a focus on simple, low-cost methods that make sense in a home garden.
For viewers searching for cucumber gardening tips, eggshell seed starters, vegetable garden hacks, seed starting in eggshells, and practical growing advice, this is a useful guide to starting cucumbers indoors and transplanting them with less root stress. It’s also a strong fit for organic gardening, compost-based feeding, and easy DIY garden ideas.
The video explains why this works best for fast-growing crops like cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and watermelon: you can spot which seeds germinate, avoid wasting garden space, and later plant the whole shell directly in the ground without disturbing the roots. It also covers the practical side of cucumber growing, including warm weather, loose fertile soil, spacing, support for climbing vines, and steady watering.
You’ll also hear a careful breakdown of what actually helps and what doesn’t, from chamomile water and milk-and-yeast mixes to the real value of compost, manure, and a milk spray for powdery mildew. This is old-fashioned vegetable gardening, garden hacks, and cucumber seed starting with a focus on simple, low-cost methods that make sense in a home garden.
For viewers searching for cucumber gardening tips, eggshell seed starters, vegetable garden hacks, seed starting in eggshells, and practical growing advice, this is a useful guide to starting cucumbers indoors and transplanting them with less root stress. It’s also a strong fit for organic gardening, compost-based feeding, and easy DIY garden ideas.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Do not throw away your eggshells, for in that shell you crack for your breakfast and toss
00:05in the bin is one of the finest free helps there is for starting a strong garden.
00:11And today, I am going to show you an old trick that uses it, starting your cucumbers right
00:17in the eggshell itself, so that each little plant begins its life fed and protected and
00:24goes into the garden stronger than any you ever grew.
00:27It costs you nothing but the shells you were throwing out, and it does three good things
00:33at once that most folk pay for separately.
00:36So keep up, for by the end you will never crack an egg the same way again, and your cucumbers
00:42will be the better for it.
00:44I am Elias, and using what most folk throw away to grow better food is the very heart of the
00:51old thrifty gardening, and this eggshell trick is a fine one, so let me hand you the whole
00:57of it and be honest with you about what it truly does and does not do besides.
01:02Quick word before I go further.
01:04The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:10I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:15The book is the long version.
01:17If you want it, it is there.
01:19I will not mention it again.
01:20My grandmother kept a crock by the stove for her eggshells, and never let a one go in the
01:26bin, for she found a use for every last one, in the garden, in the compost, crushed round
01:32her plants, and started half her seedlings in them of a spring on the kitchen windowsill.
01:37A thing the good lord made as fine as an eggshell is not for the rubbish heap, Elias, she would
01:43say.
01:43She taught me to see the use in what others throw away, and this cucumber trick is one
01:48of hers.
01:49So let me hand it to you.
01:51First, the saving of the shells, for you must gather them ahead.
01:55When you crack an egg, do it neat so you keep the shell in a good half, the larger the
02:00better,
02:01and do not toss it, rinse it clean of the white, and set it to dry.
02:05Save up a good tray of these dried half shells over a week or two of breakfasts, and there
02:11is your free seed starting pots, a dozen little cups that cost you nothing and were bound for
02:17the bin.
02:18Rinse them, dry them, and save them up.
02:20Now to start your cucumbers in them, and here is where you set them, in an egg carton, the
02:26plain pulp cardboard kind.
02:28For the egg carton holds each shell upright and steady in its own cup, so they do not tip
02:34and spill, and it makes a neat little tray of them you can carry and set on a window sill.
02:39So you set your dried half shells each into a cup of the carton, and they sit there held
02:44firm, a dozen tiny pots in a row.
02:48Now you fill each little shell about halfway with good soil, a fine, rich, crumbly compost
02:54soil, and into each you set one cucumber seed, and cover it over with a thin layer more of
03:00the soil, no more, for a cucumber seed wants only shallow covering.
03:05One seed to a shell, barely covered.
03:08Now an honest word on the size of it, that an egg shell holds but a little soil, so it
03:13suits a seed you plant out young and soon, the cucumber and the squash and such that
03:18go from seed to garden in but a couple weeks, before the little plant outgrows the shell.
03:24For a plant you must hold indoors a long while, that would fill and burst the little shell
03:30before its time, a bigger pot is better.
03:33So the shell way is grand for the quick-out cucumber, but not for everything.
03:38And this same shell trick serves your squash and melons and pumpkins too, all the cucumber's
03:44kin, which hate their roots disturbed the same, and love the calcium the same.
03:49And here is a fine thing this gives you that folk overlook, that starting each seed in
03:54its own separate shell, you can see plain which seeds sprout and which do not.
03:59So you plant out only the living ones, and waste no bare gap in your garden on a dead seed.
04:06Every shell that sprouts is a plant you know is good.
04:09So one seed to each shell, and you sort the living from the dead before ever they go in
04:15the ground.
04:15And this is a real saving, for a cucumber seed does not always sprout.
04:20Some are dead or weak, and the ordinary way you sow them straight in the garden and find
04:26out three weeks later by the bare gaps in your row, too late to easily fill.
04:31But started in their shells, you know in a week exactly which took.
04:36So you always plant a few more shells than you need, a spare or two, and then set out only
04:42the strong sprouted ones and have no gaps at all.
04:45Start a few extra and plant only the living.
04:49Now the watering of them, and here is where the source I learned this from makes a claim
04:55I must be honest with you about.
04:57They water the seeds with a chamomile tea, that mild flower tea, and say it disinfects
05:03the seed and stops all fungus and bacteria.
05:06Now I will be straight, that is overspoken.
05:10Chamomile tea is a gentle old thing, harmless, and some folk have long soaked seeds in it
05:16and believe it helps a little.
05:18And there is no harm in trying it, but do not think it a sure disinfectant that kills
05:24all rot, for it is not.
05:26That is more claim than truth.
05:28So water your shells with chamomile tea if you like, it will not hurt.
05:33But plain warm water does near as well, and either way the real thing is to keep them
05:39just moist, watering gently once a day, and not to overwater and drown or rot them, for
05:46too much wet is the true killer of a sprouting seed.
05:50Keep them barely moist, warm and bright, and in a few days, four or five, the little cucumber
05:57sprouts push up, and in a week, you have your strong little seedlings, and you can see which
06:03shells took and which did not.
06:05Now here comes the beauty of the whole method, the planting out.
06:09For you do not take the little plant out of its shell at all.
06:13You plant the whole shell, cucumber and all, right into the ground.
06:18And here is why that is so fine.
06:20Two reasons.
06:21First, a cucumber seedling hates to have its roots disturbed.
06:26It takes it hard, sulks, and sets back when you pull it from a pot and tear its roots.
06:31But planted shell and all, its roots are never disturbed a bit, and it never misses a beat.
06:38And second, that egg shell you plant with it is near pure calcium, and as it rots away
06:44in the ground, it gives that calcium slow to the soil, right at the plant's roots, feeding
06:50it, and calcium is a thing the cucumber wants for strong growth and sound fruit.
06:56So the shell that started your seed then feeds your plant as it rots.
07:01Now one small thing.
07:02Before you set the shell in the ground, give it a gentle crush.
07:06Just crack it a bit in your hand, so the growing roots can push out through it easy and the
07:12shell breaks down quicker.
07:14Crush it lightly and plant the whole thing, shell and seedling together.
07:18Now the planting itself, quick, for the honest growing basics still hold.
07:24You plant your cucumbers about a couple centimeters deep, which the shell about manages for you,
07:30and a good distance apart, a foot or more between plants, for cucumbers want their room
07:36and sprawl and crowd if set too close.
07:39And the soil you plant them into wants to be deep and loose and rich, worked with plenty
07:45of compost and a touch on the sour side, slightly acid, which the cucumber likes.
07:51So a rich, deep, loose, slightly sour soil, the plants set well apart, each with its crushed shell
07:59of calcium.
08:00Firm them in and water them.
08:02And plant them out at the right time, mind, only once all danger of frost is well past and
08:08the ground has truly warmed.
08:10For the cucumber is a warm weather plant that a cold snap or a cold soil will check or kill.
08:17So hold your little shelled seedlings back till the weather is settled and kind before
08:22ever they go out.
08:23Now here is the second thing that source claims, and I must correct it plainly, for it is the
08:29sort of thing that gets a body's hopes up for nothing.
08:32They make a brew of milk and yeast and call it a fertilizer that feeds the plant and a
08:38pest control that protects it, saying pests cannot digest the lactose in the milk.
08:43Now let me be straight with you.
08:45Milk and yeast is not a fertilizer.
08:47It has not the real plant food, the nitrogen and potash and such, that a feed needs.
08:54So it will not feed your cucumbers the way they claim, and the notion that it guards them
08:59from pests because bugs cannot stomach milk sugar is just folk nonsense.
09:05It does not work so.
09:07So do not put your faith in a milk and yeast brew to feed or guard your plants, for it
09:13will
09:13disappoint you.
09:15Now there is one honest, true thing milk can do in the garden, and I have told you of it
09:21before, that a spray of watered down milk, about one part milk to three of water, sprayed
09:28on the leaves, does genuinely help against the powdery mildew, that white dust that plagues
09:34cucumbers, for that is real and old and tested.
09:39So keep the milk for that, a milk spray against mildew, which works, and not for a fertilizer
09:45nor a bug guard, which do not.
09:49So what do you truly feed your cucumbers with, if not that?
09:52The honest, old way.
09:55The same as always.
09:57Good compost and old, rotted manure worked into the soil, and through the season a drink
10:04of compost tea or manure tea, that rich brown brew of compost steeped in water, which really
10:11does feed them, poured on every couple weeks.
10:15That is a true feed, where the milk and yeast was a tail.
10:19Feed them from the compost and the manure, the honest way.
10:24Now let me give you a few plain, honest words on growing the cucumbers on, quick, so you
10:30have the whole of it.
10:32Give them something to climb, a trellis or a fence, for a cucumber grown up off the ground
10:38stays cleaner, drier, freer of disease, and easier to pick than one sprawled in the dirt.
10:45Keep them watered steady and even, for uneven water makes bitter, misshapen cucumbers.
10:53And here is the great secret of a heavy crop, which I have given you in full before.
10:59Pick them often and pick them young, for the more you pick, the more the vine makes, and
11:06one cucumber left to grow big and yellow and seedy tells the vine its work is done and it
11:13slows right down.
11:15So pick hard and pick often, and the vine pours them out.
11:20Now let me say a small, plain word, not a who-profits sermon, for an eggshell is no one's
11:27scheme.
11:28But notice what did the work here, the eggshells you were throwing in the bin, an old egg carton,
11:35a bit of compost, and your own knowing.
11:38Not a bought seed pot, not a bought calcium feed, not any of the brews and bottles sold
11:45to the gardener.
11:46And I have been honest with you about the brews that do not work, the chamomile that is oversold,
11:53and the milk and yeast that is a tail.
11:55For I would not have you waste your hopes on them, when the plain true things, the eggshell,
12:02the compost, the milk spray for mildew, the picking, do the real work for nothing.
12:08So folk come to think starting a strong plant wants bought pots and bought feeds and clever
12:15brews, when it wants an eggshell from your breakfast and the old honest care.
12:21That thrift of starting your garden from what you throw away is worth more than any product
12:27on the shelf.
12:28So there is the old eggshell trick for strong cucumbers, honestly.
12:33Save your rinsed dried eggshell halves and set them in an egg carton.
12:40Fill each half way with rich soil and sow one cucumber seed, barely covered, and you will
12:47see plain which sprout and which do not.
12:50Water them gently, just moist, with plain water or a harmless chamomile tea, and keep them warm
12:58and bright till they sprout in a few days.
13:00Then plant the whole shell, lightly crushed, right into the ground, so the roots are never
13:07disturbed, and the shell feeds calcium as it rots.
13:11Plant them a foot apart in deep, loose, slightly sour, compost-rich soil.
13:18Feed them from compost and manure, not from a milk brew, and use milk only as a spray against
13:25mildew.
13:26Give them a trellis, and pick them young and often.
13:31Do these, and from a handful of eggshells bound for the bin, you will start the strongest
13:37cucumbers you ever grew.
13:39Now I want to hear from you.
13:41Tell me down below whether you had ever started your seeds in an eggshell, and whether you had
13:46ever been sold to milk and yeast brew as a fertilizer, for I would know how many were told that
13:52tale.
13:53And tell me your county, and what you grow your cucumbers up, a trellis, or a fence, or let them
13:59sprawl, for they do far better climbing.
14:02I read every one.
14:05Next time, I want to show you the keeping of the cucumber beetles and the other pests off
14:11your vines the old way, those bugs that get into the leaves and the stems and carry the
14:17wilt that kills a cucumber, and the plain, honest ways to guard against them without a
14:22shelf of poisons or a brew that does not work.
14:27The old people started their gardens from what the rest of the world threw away.
14:31The eggshell and the scrap and the leaving, and fed and grew them by the plain, honest
14:37ways that truly work, wasting nothing and buying almost naught, and were not fooled by every
14:45brew and tale that came along.
14:48There is a quiet wisdom in that, in knowing the true, thrifty way from the false, clever
14:54one, in starting a strong plant from a breakfast eggshell and a bit of old knowing.
15:01The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting
15:06to remember it.