Like with the lentil fertilizer, I was doing a batch of calcium for foliar or soil feeding and I decided to post the process here because it might be helpful for some people, wether because they have a sudden calcium deficiency, they want to give only calcium without magnessium or its a big garden and you dont wanna spend money in calmag. Ill try to be brief (something Im not known for hahaha).
Igredients: Egg shells and apple cider vinegar (avoid white vinegar, its twice as much acidic and doesnt contain nutrients like apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar has been proved to be beneficial for plants in adequate ammounts)
Preparation:
1. After you have saved a decent ammount of eggshells you need to sterilize them. For that you will preheat your oven at 225ºF or about 100ºC and once its heated place the egg shells inside on a tray for 25 minutes.
2. Blend or crush the egg shells in to powder and small chunks. I use a coffee grinder for this and many other things but coffee.
Tap the lid so the powder goes down and wait a bit before opening and do it gently to avoid a lot of dust coming out.
3. Get a container that has plenty of space as you will need it when it starts to bubble when the acetic acid in the vinegar releases the carbon dioxide from the calcium carbonate.
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4. Stir as shown in the videos until you stop seeing more bubbles. For maxium effectiveness you let it sit for about 3 weeks with the lid open so the gas can scape (your container can blow up otherwise) or you open it at least once a day. I just leave the lid in place but not closed. You can use it after it settles in an emergency. 5 to 10ml per liter of water, you can combine it with epsom salts once you mix it with water to get a calmag with sulfur which is pretty nice but I do it because I like using things around the house. Excuse my english, Im spaniard I hope you can understand somewhat what Im saying in the videos hahaha. DISCLAIMER: No, apple cider vinegar is not bad for your plants, its beneficial in small ammounts. The reaction caused when mixing the egg shells with vinegar leaves you with a ph of 7.0, if you dont believe me just ph the solution yourself and you will see, the acidity of the vinegar is neutralized in the process. Again, do not use white vinegar, use apple cider vinegar. You can store it for several months in the fridge, just make sure that all the carbon dioxide or most of it has been released already, for that you can store it for a few weeks in a cool dark place like a kitchen cabinet, with the lid open and stir once a day or every couple days.
If you are wondering why my egg shells are not toasted is because I didnt use the oven to sterilize them. Vinegar kills patogens including salmonella but I do it at my own risk, its advisable to use your oven plus if youre breking the shells in a mortar by hand it will be way easier to break them down. That said I did wash them thoroughly with water and dried them before storing them for later use.
I wanted to post an update. You can do the same with dolomite lime which also contains magnessium if you dont wanna use eggshells and epsom salts. Or if you have some dolomite but no fast absorption calcium. Or if the plants are showing signs of N toxicity and you dont wanna use a calmag.
The process is the same, dolomite lime is mostly calcium carbonate like the eggshells but with a good ammount of magnessium carbonate too. The vinegar releases the carbon dioxide from the calcium carbonate and the magnessium carbonate and they become readily available, same as with the eggshells but with 3 chemicals this time. Remember to always PH your solution. I tried it with dolomite lime recently just to make sure it works and by eye I got a 7PH mix, but not all of carbon dioxide was released thats probably why it was PH neutral, still I dumped it on the water for my calcium hungry plants once the reaction was mostly over. Whatever didnt react will still slowly release calcium. Just make sure there's not too much vinegar (too acidic). As for the dosage I kept the same, 5ml/L. Percentually it has little less calcium than eggshells but it already has the magnessium needed for the calcium to be absorved is already there unlike with eggshells, fow which case you need to add epsom salts or anything else with readily available magnessium to the water.
As for storage is the same, leave it with the lid on if you want but it needs to be open, otherwise the container will explode because it will keep releasing CO2 for a few days even if way slower.
I wanted to post an update. You can do the same with dolomite lime which also contains magnessium if you dont wanna use eggshells and epsom salts. Or if you have some dolomite but no fast absorption calcium. Or if the plants are showing signs of N toxicity and you dont wanna use a calmag.
The process is the same, dolomite lime is mostly calcium carbonate like the eggshells but with a good ammount of magnessium carbonate too. The vinegar releases the carbon dioxide from the calcium carbonate and the magnessium carbonate and they become readily available, same as with the eggshells but with 3 chemicals this time. Remember to always PH your solution. I tried it with dolomite lime recently just to make sure it works and by eye I got a 7PH mix, but not all of carbon dioxide was released thats probably why it was PH neutral, still I dumped it on the water for my calcium hungry plants once the reaction was mostly over. Whatever didnt react will still slowly release calcium. Just make sure there's not too much vinegar (too acidic). As for the dosage I kept the same, 5ml/L. Percentually it has little less calcium than eggshells but it already has the magnessium needed for the calcium to be absorved is already there unlike with eggshells, fow which case you need to add epsom salts or anything else with readily available magnessium to the water.
As for storage is the same, leave it with the lid on if you want but it needs to be open, otherwise the container will explode because it will keep releasing CO2 for a few days even if way slower.
I also use water soluble calcium. Do you ever make water soluble calcium and phosphate?pretty much the same process but you cook bones first and desolve in vinegar.
I also use water soluble calcium. Do you ever make water soluble calcium and phosphate?pretty much the same process but you cook bones first and desolve in vinegar.