Eggshells, how to use chemistry to optimize calcium for your garden
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มี.ค. 2023
- Today we're going to be talking about the best way to use egg shells in your garden. The best way to get a calcium boost to your plants (and also a P, K, Fe, Zn, Mg, Mn boost!). It's all about turning Calcium Carbonate (a bound-up mineral) into Water Soluble Calcium (calcium that your plants can use immediately). For that, we need to do some chemistry. Don't worry, it's not difficult.
Note: If you are using method 1, once your reaction stops, if you still have eggshells remaining, you likely ran out of acid. So seive the solution into a bottle, put the remaining eggshells in a new acid bath. If the reaction still doesn't go, then you are all out of calcium carbonate and are done. Drain the acid ajd put what's left of the eggshells into the compost.
Note x2 for anyone thinking "oh no! CO2!!!!": this will happen regardless. So no, this is not a new CO2 source. It's similar to the silly argument that we shouldn't compost because it's a huge CO2 source. That's just a terrible bad faith argument, because we either make CO2 or we make Methane. THAT is the choice. I.e. what is the other option? To freeze the compost and prevent microbiology from closing the loop? Remember, nature doesn't do waste. It's a human invention.
Have fun with your chemistry!
Cheers 🍻
______________________
Want to support the work we do by becoming a member? Check out our membership program here: / @canadianpermaculturel...
Or help me plant trees directly through Patreon by becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/user?u=15912954
Buying seeds and want to support us at no cost to you? Use this West Coast referral link: www.westcoastseeds.com/?rfsn=...
permaculturelegacy.wixsite.co...
Want to see more of the family? Love board games? We now have a second channel called Game Knight: / @gameknight464
On this channel we show more family life, camping, board games, more kids more wife, more fun outside of gardening. Want to get to know the family better? Check it up and subscribe!
You can now also find Canadian Permaculture Legacy on Odysee here: odysee.com/@CanadianPermacult...
Odysee will automatically import any videos from here, and is a blockchain streaming service - so once my videos are there, they are there forever. Unhackable. Permissionless.
Channels we support:
Moving to the country to start a new life. Young Family trades sodgrass for a horse farm over at Barn Boots and Country Roots: / @barnbootsandcountryroots
For great recipes, cooking, storing, canning, and growing tips, check out Gardening in the North: / @gardeninginthenorth
Music credits:
Epidemic sound: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Closer by Jay Someday | / jaysomeday
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Small correction 😊. Technically there are 20 drops to one millilitre. Therefore a 1000 to 1 solution would be one liter (1,000 millilitres) of water to 20 drops (1 millilitre or 1/5 of a teaspoon) of calcium solution. P.S. Love all that you do!
Thanks! 😀
Very interesting! I have a 2.5 gallln bag full of egg shells. I confess I have been over baking my egg shells and did not know it until now. Still in my first year of raising chickens.
Tried this once before, definitely have a plate or something under the container with vinegar as it will foam a lot. never got it fully dissolved but just sieved out what was left and added that to compost. Getting chicken soon so will be doing the bio-char and egg shells thing.
I am having trouble with not being able to upload comments. I think it's to do with internet fluctuations. Great video. I can understand baking the eggshells for human consumption as a biotin and calcium mineral supplement (mix with apple cider vinegar, add 1/2 tsp to a large glass of water and drink with a straw). Think it's totally unnecessary baking eggshells if it's for garden and chicken feed. Vinegar kills fungi and bacteria. I have to use the calcium, vinegar mix for my apple trees, because although the soil is extremely calcium rich being limestone, it's far too alkaline for the trees to access the calcium. With the chickens, I do a mixture between crushing fresh wet ones with my hands, and coffee grinding washed, air dried shells and adding the powder to the feed sack. I haven't found a source of oyster shell. If I don't feed back the shells, the chickens start eating their feathers. I use powdered eggshell as a supplement for the dogs. I add the charcoal and mini pebbles collected from ant nests to the floor of the chicken coop.
Thanks, ya egghead! (I assume that's sorta what you were getting at in the thumbnail...)
You've mentioned this process before, but I appreciate having a straightforward video devoted strictly to it. I think you've finally convinced me to stop being lazy with my eggshells and do something with them other than dumping them straight into the compost.
Also--winter really clarifies how much of a sponge charcoal is, doesn't it? The batch I made a couple months ago has remained a solid block since then. The ice just does not want to let it go. Kind of a pain, but I'm hoping that the freeze/thaw cycle also helps break it down a bit.
I'm glad that you're back to the gardening stuff, but I've really enjoyed the stuff you've done all winter. Combining your career expertise with your passion expertise brings us some unique ideas.
haha yeah, I love making fun of myself
You droppin’ science, son! Cool video. I really like the science part of gardening. Thanks for the interesting video.
cheers 🍻
Thanks for this chemistry! When I have tried to use eggshells for hen supplement, I actually heat the eggshells first and then I crush them with a potato masher (ricer).
There are a pair of ravens who live at the ranch. They are are quick to pick the eggshells from the compost pile,I suppose they are probably providing the same function as the chickens (if less selectively ).
Have enjoyed your videos very much. Always thought provoking!
Calcium is great for chickens too. They lose quite a bit of it as they lay eggs. Good video! Gonna try this.
Exactly 💯
This is really interesting! I will be using this for my own wood-food-forest. Always extra nice to see chics!
You can also turn the eggshells themselves into biochar . They can also be crushed into a powder and fed either in their feed or a dedicated feeder so they can choose to eat it or not .
After a while you’ll find there’s not as much smell from the manure and the chickens will be healthier as the gut chemistry will make the environment in the gut not as hospitable for pathogens . The biochar will also strip out excess nitrogen and bind it up to make it bio-available after a while , the nitrous oxide that would normally be released is bound up
Thanks for sharing this excellent info on using eggshells. I have usually broken our shells by hand and fed them back to the chickens. I didn’t realize that the biochemical conversion through chicken digestion made the calcium and other nutrients into a more plant useful form. I usually use the manure as incorporated with their bedding (straw) and either compost it or lay it in a layer over wood chips I spread around my fruit trees/shrubs. Great information.
So much science, thank you.
Wow I was putting mine in the compost I thought it was the best option, will do that by now.
This can still he a good play longterm, and the slow breakdownay be ideal, to balance a nice constant but low amount of bioavailable calcium. I personally do all 3 methods. I grind some up and put it in the garden (my mother grinds hers and give it to me), I make a foliar feed using vinegar which I spray during fruiting on tomatoes, and then feed the bulk to the chickens, to restore their calcium levels, and also get excess pooped out as fertility.
💖 Awesome! Saving this.
Very informative, thanks for that!
Thank s for the info
Great video! Thanks!
Hooray! Now I know what to do with all the egg shell I've been saving! Thank you!!
Wonderful!
I've used a coffee grinder for small batches. Makes a fine powder.
This is ideal if you use method 1, or just put straight into compost or on top of the garden directly.
I run mine using method 2, so extra size is useful, and I don't want it in a fine powder.
Also, if you do it the fine powder way, you should mask up. 😷
I do coffee grinder and feed then to my vermiculture worms.
Great information; thanks for sharing!
Glad it was helpful!
Great information once again! I've never heard this before but it makes a lot of sense that chickens would be good at turning eggshells into plant food, since they'd naturally be around a lot of eggshells.
Thanks for this video, great information! I use a rolling pin to crush up the eggshells. It works well for me.
Thanks for sharing,, amazing information.
An alchemist would think so!
Very interesting information thanks 👍👍. I just shared it with Shawn James he was talking about making biochar. Thanks again.
Where's a good Ontario supplier for sea buckthorn plants?
This is nicer than the garage for filming. 🙃😁
LOL, I have 300 videos and 1 in the garage, don't worry, we are coming into spring... lots of great footage coming up. My world here is still sleeping and brown, and in some spots still under snow.
All I do is bake eggshells and then pulverize them into powder and put that into the soil or little compost buckets in the middle of my raised beds. Earthworms love the grit! I don't know how long it takes the powder to be absorbed, but I may add the vinegar step to my regime.
Just remember that vinegar is also used as an organic herbicide, so just be careful how much you use. If you do it like I did, and let it sit for a day, then if you have any remaining eggshells in the container, you know it's only water that is left, and all the acetic acid was consumed in the chemical reaction.
TIL the calcium carbonate (e.g., Tums antacid) I chew as a calcium supplement is not bioavailable until it reacts with the hydrochloric acid in my stomach and becomes calcium chloride.
Watching the process is pleasant and satisfying, like the crunch of the eggshells. Your video reminds me of both a cooking demonstration and a science demonstration.
❤️
subscribed !!
Sorry it's maybe me that is not awake this morning but I struggle with the 1000:1 solution. 1000 what for 1 what? I'm suppose to get my first chickens this spring! So excited!
1 part calcium/vinegar solution to 1000 parts water.
@@sandrabrown4993 Thank you very much!
plus read the 60+ comment at top of page 🌳🕊💚
White vinegar is usually only 5% acetic acid (and 95% water, I believe), so you will have a lot of left over calcium carbonate if you have a 50/50 mix of vinegar and calcium carbonate.
Which is the reason why Korean natural farming use a part of eggshells and 10 parts of vinegar
Where I live, you can get white vinegar of 30% acetic acid from any foodstore.
It's still not 100% acetic acid, which is what he shows in the chemical equation.
He also measures the ratios by volume instead of weight. The eggshell pieces have air gaps in between, so volume is not an accurate measure of calcium carbonate mass. To account for different densities between pure acetic acid and calcium carbonate solids, it would be more accurate to weigh them.
Sometimes you need precision. Sometimes you just pour vinegar into a jar. This is the latter.
Off topic, but I really like the pyrex bowls! That's a pattern I haven't seen before. Thanks for the lesson on making water soluble calcium.
My daughter says that’s one thing she wants when we pass on… the pyrex bowls seem valuable to collectors. I hope she has to wait a lonnngggg time to collect.
We got ours from my grandmother. Every time I use them I remember making perogies with her. She was Ukrainian and she was quite a character. One day when I was a bit older we were making perogies and I made a MASSIVE and LONG one. She was frying hers on the stove and I tapped her on the back and I asked her if this is how they should look, and she had to leave the room she was laughing so hard. I will never forget that afternoon! LOL. We were using these bowls.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy That is a great story and memory! Cherish the bowls because they were hers. Those are things we can't ever replace.
@@garthwunsch Exactly. Tell her they are willed to her but she must come over to use them in the meantime. :)
Thanks for the great video. Quick question - do you wash out the egg shells after you crack them? I have never used egg shells in the garden as idea of having to wash them out always dissuaded me but if that isn’t necessary I am keen to try this.
Nah, too much work. Heating them in the oven will kill any pathogens.
I nuke the shells for no more than 2 minutes. The vinegar idea is exactly what I was looking for!
Would adding finely ground shells to the worm bin do much the same? I'm not familiar with the digestive system of the "red wigglers" but I do use that shell powdered for grit for the worms.
1000-1 dilution, WOW. Ok, off to grind and pickle egg shells. 🤔
Fair warning, small, tiny particles of shell combined with vinegar produces lots of foam. 😂 White volcano 🌋!
Worms actually bioaccumulate calcium carbonate and use it to neturtalize acids. When they excess, the poop out humic acid mixed with the excess calcium carbonate to neutralize their digestive tract. So the worms will actually use excess calcium carbonate and poop out fertility with it.
Thanks for that Keith? Quick question, do you recommend Epsom salt for garden use?
I don't NOT recommend it, but I don't recommend it. I would prefer to make good healthy balanced compost. Epsom salt is Magnesium and Sulphur (sulphate technically), and many people add it to get Sulphur. However that comes with adding magnesium. Too much magnesium in your soil can block uptake of calcium.
I always think it is better to just make healthy compost than to play soil chemist. (which is a bit of an odd comment after this video, but still that's also why I prefer to use the chicken method here).
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy makes perfect sense! Thank you!
CaCl2 is $15 per 25 lb bag at walmart. Chicken manure is also LOADED in it.
Good point. This knowledge might come in handy if people have trouble buying CaCl2 in the future. Cheers.
No worries, I love in Saskatchewan! Enough said lol. Everything is frozen 😅
Can you please do a video on electroculture? I’ve seen a lot of woo-woo videos that dont really do it for me, and I’d really love to learn about the science behind it or if it’s all just vaporware
I don't know enough about it. It feels very "energy bracelets" to me, but thats coming from a full acknowledgement that I don't know anything about it.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy no worries appreciate the response. I have a guy coming to do a workshop at our community food forest for in my city - I’ll letcha know how it goes
Electroculture sounds to me like it may well work but, like energy bracelets, is just more gadget after gadget, like we don't trust Mother Nature's generosity. Why the 'bigger n better' once again?; and just because we can, doesn't mean we should??? I feel anyone designing/installing this system should be a fully fledged sincere and respectful geomancer at the very least.
As for me, i'll take the other path and go the Findhorn x Permaculture way, thank you very much.
🌳🕊💚
Great tips - for those of us without chickens, can you add the undiluted vinegar solution to your compost pile? Otherwise that is too much water.
You should be able to, as a spray every time you add material to the compost.
Yep, you can just add it at its full concentration into compost. It will get bound to fulvic and humic acid chains, and soil organic carbon.
I just baked off some eggshells and I plan to feed most of it to the chickens, but I want to try the vinegar solution as well for Foliar feeding my fruit trees. I just looked in my pantry and all I have is apple cider and pickling vinegar. I'm assuming either would work, is that true or should I get some plain white vinegar
Yes it will still work. Apple cider vinegar is just acetic acid with fermented apple juice as extra nutrients in it. For a garden, it would be better. More nutrients.
What is on your coop floor? I need something different in my hens run, I have used straw and wood shavings but have been told those are not good to use.
We found scrap linoleum flooring that we salvaged and reused, then put 1 foot of woodchips on top, then1 foot wood shavings on top.
While this looks fun and would be useful in an emergency calcium treatment, I would rather use eggshell dust as a slow release. Although I do have some jars that would be perfect for this and it would be a better use than leaving them to freeze... Maybe I'll make it and use it to gift other gardeners
If there are community gardens nearby, they could definitely use quite a bit. I think I'll do that myself. Healthier soils make healthier foods and people.
That's such a nice idea, to gift it.
I agree also, the slow release way is really good. The method 1 way (vinegar) can be useful for people who suffer blossom end rot every year on their tomatoes, a quick direct boost before and during fruiting, maybe once every 2 weeks.
Hey Keith, off topic question. Do you ever plant more than one fruit tree in the same hole?
I haven't, but I wanted to do a trio just as an experiment after watching the Florida guy who championed the idea (Dave Wilson I think). Basically the idea is that if you restrict root zone, then the trees will behave like dwarf varieties.
I've heard that doing the same thing can kill trees in a 10-12 year time frame, so I'm just cautious that it may seem like it's working until all 3 trees die, a decade later.
Still, it would be a fun experiment, maybe I will try it somewhere.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Thank you! That video is what prompted that question. I saw another guy do it as well, but he planted his trees on a lean, so that he could open the canopy of each tree (I believe there were three or four), allowing sunshine to get in, and ideally reducing the risk for potential disease pressure. Maybe I’ll try it as well. I don’t know why that would kill the trees, but I like to experiment.
So Biochar (Inoculated char) or Char in the chicken diet?
I put some char in their grit bucket, and also on the floor of their run for them to poop on. Then also more into the compost when I clean out the rub and put the chicken manure into the compost.
I tend to bury eggshells under my mulch, so every time I walk over them they get crushed up a little more.
I suppose other acids would do the trick? Uric acid perhaps?
Chemistry research should give you those answers. Calcium carbonate + ______= ?
Yeah most times acid breaks down calcium carbonate it will end up in a water soluble form. I agree with ninemoonplanet that googling it can be fun.
What about putting eggshells through a vermicompost? This is what I've been doing. Shells disappear pretty quick
Also great.
Sorry, but when you are talking about ratios, are you talking weight or volume? Thx.
Technically molar. But I took into account density, so its volume. For example, you need 2 molecules of acetic acid for every molecule of calcium carbonate. But since acetic acid is half as dense as calcium carbonate, if you mix equal volumes of the two, then you should get pretty close to the ideal mixture.
Off topic question : Is using elemental sulfur ethical for an organic farm?
I bought a whole bunch of blueberries thinking It would be just fine without it, but literally every single videos I watch, even those I respect a lot, they are using elemental sulfur on their blueberries to make the soil more acidic.
I use it. If your soil is short S you need to add it and elemental sulphur is probably the most efficient source - and it is permitted under Canadian organic regs.
@@DK6060 Thx man !
I think its fine, as long as it's sourced ethically. For example, I know some elemental Sulphur is produced in Alberta, but a lot of it comes from near Volcanos and hot springs such as in Indonesia. I personally wouldn't buy it from anywhere I thought worker conditions were really poor.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Absolutely! Well said, we really think the same. Will do.
haha for sure!
Great video! I will try this with our egg shells . After watching your climate change video, you tube sent me another video by. Suspicious Observer! Very fascinating! Way above my humble intellect ! You might enjoy it, though.
Suspicious Obersver is a well known misinformation source. Their videos have been debunked so many times. The guy is a failed lawyer who decided to spew conspiracy theories and anti climate science oil propaganda. Total and utter garbage.
Do a video for this same topic but using phosphorous from bone
You would just use bone meal or charred bones instead of eggshells.
What about in a wormery bin?
Yes, it's great to crush and add into a worm bin.
Small correction: Gastric acid contains hydrochloric acid, and chickens have gastric acid too. The acidity (low pH) of gastric acid is mostly from the hydrochloric acid component.
Thanks for this. I didn't know that, and have been reading about gastric acid for the last hour now! Cheers 🍻 I learned so much this morning.
I tried this; after almost a month the egg shells have not dissolved. When is it ‘ready’?
Add more vinegar. Depending on the strength of your vinegar, it could be diluted up to 95% with water.
But really, it's ready even after just 10 minutes or so, even if some leftover eggs shells are in there, you will still have freed up a bunch of waster soluble calcium.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy thanks, I will add more. I think my vinegar was super weak..
I have put over 4000 crushed egg shells directly ont o my garden soil over the last 4 years ,and there is hardly a sign of them !
Potentially stupid conservation of matter question: if the calcium you give to the chickens is in the form of eggshells from eggs laid by the chickens, and you want the calcium chloride from their manure for your plants, do you need an additional calcium source for your hens? Or do they get enough to make eggshell with the calcium content of the rest of their feed? I guess if you were growing all their chicken feed then it would be a closed loop, but my impression is that you also want to eat the plants.
I don't have livestock, but now I'm wondering about a bird feeder. Hmm.
It's a great question! My priority is always balancing my hens calcium, so if the calcium they injest gets used to balance their own needs, I'm okay with that. They get some calcium in their layer feed, and also in the food we give them. So from conservation of matter, I'm sure there is still plenty that comes out the back side.
My mother also collects all her shells (some storebought, although we give her tons of eggs), so all that calcium entering my system is another input.
Great question 🤔 👏
I'm wondering about this too and tried searching for sources to verify the assumption that excess calcium is excreted in feces. Harvard Health Publishing has an article "Calcium beyond the bones" that mentions excessive intake of calcium carbonate in humans can lead to milk alkali syndrome, the symptoms which include high blood calcium. The Wikipedia article on calcium metabolism mentions "Bone acts as a calcium storage center for deposits and withdrawals as needed by the blood", so I don't think it's as simple as the video portrays.
The Wikipedia article on milk-alkali syndrome by itself strongly suggests that excessive consumption of calcium carbonate is dangerous and the excess calcium accumulates in the body.
@@H._sapiens ... right amount K2 x right amount vit D > Calcium gets delivered to right places in body and excess C excreted? 🌳🕊💚
just feed the shells back to your hens. if you have none, the first step is to get chickens. :)
yes I commented before watching through... xD
LOL 😆
Have you given thought to cultivation of fungi and mycology? I don't think I've seen videos of fungi here. Seriously, give the world of fungi and mycology a try, you'll go crazy.
I have many videos on fungi. Check out "What is the MVP of your garden". I also have morel a identification guide. I have one on puffballs. Also many on propagating king stropharia.
I haven't innoculated any logs, although I was going to when I started. I ended up just mostly going with winecaps everywhere because they are so much easier and SO delicious.
Hey man,
I just made a purchase to West coast seeds, and they offered me to give 10$ to a friend. I thought about giving it to you because you helping me so much. But they say '' 10$ on their first purchase''. I'm not sure it would work if you already bought from them but you could use a new email if not.
Anyway let me know if you want it. If so I would just need one of your email with which you would buy with.
I've bought from them before. Does anyone else here want it?
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy If you don't need it my brother will probably go for it :) I wanted to check with you first tho.
I feed them all back to my chooks, but I might try the vinegar method as soil drench for tomatoes.
Careful using it as a soil drench, if you have too much Magnesium already it would be good to add, if your Ca : Mg ratio is already near the ideal 7 : 1 then adding more instantly available calcium could screw up your ratio and negatively affect nutrient uptake. The safer way is the diluted foliar feed pre/during flower (mist the undersides of the leaves in early morning or evening)