Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
I second this, skip the dolo. It's sht. I'm still have Ca issues with my last batch of soil that I used it in (and didn't crush before hand) and its been about 10 months since I let it rest after mixing it up.


A good source of relatively long-term Ca would be egg shells. I take 25-100 shells depending on soil mass, bake half for a few hours on like 350, crush all of them with a mortar and pestle, then add to my initial mix. I use this in my gardens too.
Have you tried Gil's Cal/Phos egg shell recipe? I want to try this one of these days:

http://theunconventionalfarmer.com/recipes/calphos/

Peace!

P-
 

Midwest Weedist

Well-Known Member
Have you tried Gil's Cal/Phos egg shell recipe? I want to try this one of these days:

http://theunconventionalfarmer.com/recipes/calphos/

Peace!

P-
No, I haven't. But after reading through the method I guarantee it'll be the only method I use from now on! I've got about 30 egg shells in the freezer waiting to be processed. I wish I had a lab in the area that I could have test it for a complete analysis, oh well, one day!
 

hyroot

Well-Known Member
No, I haven't. But after reading through the method I guarantee it'll be the only method I use from now on! I've got about 30 egg shells in the freezer waiting to be processed. I wish I had a lab in the area that I could have test it for a complete analysis, oh well, one day!

Be careful with that because vinegar is an herbicide


I'd just put the egg shells in a worm bin.
 

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Unroasted eggshells don't have any available calcium according to this!?
That's mashed up..

Forgot eggshells during a recent quick build:
-I took like 40 shells and ground them into powder
-Took 40 more and mashed em coarse
-Poured a portion of this mixture in the new no tillbed in a row where no plants were..
-Innoculated this "calcium belt" and couple eggshell spikes with a nice basic microbeman style AACT

And now I find out its mainly phosphorous !?

(Good thing we got lots of good calcium already.. )
 

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
Be careful with that because vinegar is an herbicide


I'd just put the egg shells in a worm bin.
If you can get the stoichiometry right the acetic acid will all turn to acetate which can be fermented again to form co2 and methane gas. So it basically becomes harmless over an amount of time if not in super excess.
 

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
Unroasted eggshells don't have any available calcium according to this!?
That's mashed up..

Forgot eggshells during a recent quick build:
-I took like 40 shells and ground them into powder
-Took 40 more and mashed em coarse
-Poured a portion of this mixture in the new no tillbed in a row where no plants were..
-Innoculated this "calcium belt" and couple eggshell spikes with a nice basic microbeman style AACT

And now I find out its mainly phosphorous !?

(Good thing we got lots of good calcium already.. )
I would question that because eggshell are made mostly of calcium carbonate. The acetic acid(vinegar) is used to release the calcium from the carbonate. I don't know where the phosphorus came from.
 

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
I would question that because eggshell are made mostly of calcium carbonate. The acetic acid(vinegar) is used to release the calcium from the carbonate. I don't know where the phosphorus came from.
This is in the comments:
There is some phosphorus in egg shells, although they are about 95% calcium carbonate. I should probably amend this recipe since egg shells are much lower in phosphorus than other common sources you’d use, bones for example.

P-
 

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
This is in the comments:
There is some phosphorus in egg shells, although they are about 95% calcium carbonate. I should probably amend this recipe since egg shells are much lower in phosphorus than other common sources you’d use, bones for example.

P-
I just saw this:
  1. Pan fry the eggshells. Fry until some are brown/black, some white. The burnt shells are your Calcium source while the white are the Phosphorus source.
 

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
I just saw this:
  1. Pan fry the eggshells. Fry until some are brown/black, some white. The burnt shells are your Calcium source while the white are the Phosphorus source.
Yeah that is what doesn't make any sense. How can burning something introduce a whole new element? Short story is I don't think it can.
 

DonPetro

Well-Known Member
Unroasted eggshells don't have any available calcium according to this!?
That's mashed up..

Forgot eggshells during a recent quick build:
-I took like 40 shells and ground them into powder
-Took 40 more and mashed em coarse
-Poured a portion of this mixture in the new no tillbed in a row where no plants were..
-Innoculated this "calcium belt" and couple eggshell spikes with a nice basic microbeman style AACT

And now I find out its mainly phosphorous !?

(Good thing we got lots of good calcium already.. )
Thats bogus...i only powder my eggshells now and the tomatoes didn't show any end-rot at all so i would say they have plenty of calcium and fairly readily available.
 

Midwest Weedist

Well-Known Member
Egg shells are
95% calcium carbonate
3% calcium phosphate
2% magnesium carbonate

Any egg residue will have trace amounts of nitrogen.
So they're basically Calcium, Phosphorus, and Carbon, sans whatever elements are bound up with them like oxygen. Seems like you

Yeah that is what doesn't make any sense. How can burning something introduce a whole new element? Short story is I don't think it can.
I would imagine that it just makes it readily available rather than creating it from nothing or something else.
 

Mohican

Well-Known Member
You could just replace the vinegar with phosphoric acid. I already use phos acid for my hose water to drop the pH. I also use higher doses on the avocadoes to prevent a root disease.

Phos acid is also great for removing Ca and Iron Oxide. I cleaned my shower head in it in seconds :)
 

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
You could just replace the vinegar with phosphoric acid. I already use phos acid for my hose water to drop the pH. I also use higher doses on the avocadoes to prevent a root disease.

Phos acid is also great for removing Ca and Iron Oxide. I cleaned my shower head in it in seconds :)
That would definitely work and eliminate the need to ferment. But adds a lot of phosphate, like a 2:1 ratio phosphoric acid: calcium. Can you overdo the phosphate? Where do you find phosphoric acid?
 

Mohican

Well-Known Member
Got mine at the Farm Supply store. Grow More brand in the large jug. One pump squirt in a 5 gallon bucket gives me 5.7 pH water. Same pH as the rain I collected.
 

unwine99

Well-Known Member
Hey organifolk, this is what I saw when I lifted my pot out of the tray this morning after watering last night. I think they are springtails judging from a few pictures that I've seen online including the picture below this one. I know they're typically regarded as beneficial but what is considered an overabundance? This? lol .........This is what the entire perimeter of the 16 inch tray looks like.
045.jpg
springtailssm.jpg
 
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