Calcium Hack Thread

[DirtMechanic]

I especially liked the #1 bit about mixing lime and vinegar to free plant usable calcium + CO2.

6 Easy Organic Sources of Calcium to Plants + 2 Gardening Hacks - GKVKs - Gardening Tips and Store

In today’s post we will look into the importance of calcium in gardening and 6 easily availabl

www.gkvks.com

 

[Ruderunner]

I had considered doing the vinegar thing but wasn't sure about any remaining ingredients and their effects.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I had considered doing the vinegar thing but wasn't sure about any remaining ingredients and their effects.

I was in the big box hardware store this morning and I imagine with the fertilizer prices any fertilizer home made is worth considering.

this post was by gringojay at what is now called houzz.

• Hi aliceinvirginia,
  Soak approximately 50 grams of any form of calcium carbonate/liter of white 5% acidity table vinegar from your food market.
  Let stand 24 hours to dissolve.
  Then slowly boil in stainless or pyrex vessel.
  Strain to filter the residual solids from the liquid calcium acetate.
  Fluid yielded from above amount of ingredients will have 15 -17 grams of Ca/liter.
  Check the pH if you plan to concoct a fertigation solution, calcium acetate can be 7.5 pH; that's not acidic.
  Phosphorus will bind with all forms of Ca in the course of time when mixed in a solution. This gives you a precipitate that can not be absorbed by the plant, Calcium Phosphate.
  You will notice very few commercial liquid NPK fertilizers contain Ca; sitting on the shelf it is risking product degradation (& lost $ from returns).
  Likewise, when you mix a liquid batch of NPK+Ca fertilizer make up what you plan to use in a reasonable time (instead of keeping it as a pre-mixed stock).

Here I want to add that plants can take up more potassium than theycan use. Like potassium junkies or something. I learned this from the use of systemic fungicides that are potassium derivatives (salts) of phosporus acids. I use them for sudden oak death (Phytophthora) and in the garden for a variety of listed fungi. Short story is add a little K all along and never a lot at once. But that is true for N as well in my experience. That seems to indicate a possible pathway in usability to me. It seems a thesis led by P with supporting actors like N and K relying on major bit parts like calcium and other minor but major contributors to the garden story.

 

[YumYum]

Tums has a few other ingredients including sugar. I'm not sure if there any side effects.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Tums has a few other ingredients including sugar. I'm not sure if there any side effects.

The only real fast calcium I have any real longer term experience with has been calcium nitrate. I really want to get away from so much nitrogen usage though and have begun to look around for a source that works for me. I guess I will have to remember to add vinegar to the shopping list if I use it or I risk my marital bliss.

 

[YumYum]

Well it just so happens I'm experimenting with Tums and vinegar this very moment. I am going to try eggshells next. I saw a youtube video that says you have to cook off the sugars but they were making calcium acetate jelly or something so I don't think that applies to what we are doing.

Anyways what I did was on 4-29 I mashed up 2 grams of calcium carbonate (4 Tums 500mg each) into a fine material and put in a container, then added 10 tsp of 5% white distilled vinegar. Yesterday it was still bubling some and you could smell the vinegar a little but today it looks flat and I dont really smell vinegar. Next I'm going to aerate 5 gallons of water to a 7.8 pH and put some of that solution in and see if it lowers the pH much.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Well it just so happens I'm experimenting with Tums and vinegar this very moment. I am going to try eggshells next. I saw a youtube video that says you have to cook off the sugars but they were making calcium acetate jelly or something so I don't think that applies to what we are doing.

Anyways what I did was on 4-29 I mashed up 2 grams of calcium carbonate (4 Tums 500mg each) into a fine material and put in a container, then added 10 tsp of 5% white distilled vinegar. Yesterday it was still bubling some and you could smell the vinegar a little but today it looks flat and I dont really smell vinegar. Next I'm going to aerate 5 gallons of water to a 7.8 pH and put some of that solution in and see if it lowers the pH much.

You might test it with baking soda too. I saw a calcium product to vinegar ratio being suggested at 1:25 by weight since the vinegar is mostly water and the idea is to use less vinegar than have leftover acid. Somewhere alkaline might be different but here its a good idea. My plan is using garden lime which we have to use here anyway and its always on hand.. No way I am cooking eggshells.

 

[YumYum]

I'm going to microwave the eggshells instead and then crunch them up. Only takes a min or so.

 

[YumYum]

Well I spilled most of my Tums experiment. Probably costs a lot more than eggs anyways. So I just went ahead and started with the eggshell version of it. I put 50 g of crushed eggshells that where rinsed and microwaved for almost 2 min in a quart jar and added 500 g of 5% distilled white vinegar. I saw 10:1 was suggested so that is where I'm going to start. I think that is going to be too much vinegar and the final product will be acidic which means too much vinegar.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I saw the 10 to 1 as the acid weight to calcium carbonate weight being 1:1. After all they cancel basically leaving Ca.

So when they separate limestone here they cook the water out of it at these cement quarries. That makes me think a microwave is problematic because it heats water but things like dry pasta or dry eggshells not so much. It seems like the acid would not care? Who knows. I bought some cheapo white vinegar so I will follow with pics of that mixed with garden lime.

 

[YumYum]

Check the pH if you plan to concoct a fertigation solution, calcium acetate can be 7.5 pH; that's not acidic.

So if the acid and the eggshells cancel out each other exactly, the pH of this solution should be 7.5?

 

[DirtMechanic]

So if the acid and the eggshells cancel out each other exactly, the pH of this solution should be 7.5?

How do you figure that number? I would want an alkaline bias here since my clay is madly acid. Elsewhere maybe not.

 

[YumYum]

How do you figure that number? I would want an alkaline bias here since my clay is madly acid. Elsewhere maybe not.

That is what you said in post #3.
"Check the pH if you plan to concoct a fertigation solution, calcium acetate can be 7.5 pH; that's not acidic."

I was kinda figuring a pH closer to distilled water or neutral range but really I have no ideal.

 

[DirtMechanic]

That is what you said in post #3.
"Check the pH if you plan to concoct a fertigation solution, calcium acetate can be 7.5 pH; that's not acidic."

I was kinda figuring a pH closer to distilled water or neutral range but really I have no ideal.

Oh as in the pure stuff. I have never needed to know the pH of calcium but he mentioned it in his post. I kinda assumed it was even higher than 7.5 because of all the talk of its use like lime for gardens. I guess it is one of those things where quantity is important because the spice is not strong. I do not think I will be as accurate as Walter White myself so I intend to have a lime heavy result and just decant the top liquid. I think I read once that calcium is something like the 3rd most common either metal or element on the planet or in the soil. It does seem everywhere, bones, milk etc. I guess this excercise revolves around what the guy mentioned about calcium binding with P over time and becoming unavailable. One more reason frequent but light fertilization seems to work better than heavy but infrequent doses of slow release fertilizers.

 

[YumYum]

Oh as in the pure stuff. I have never needed to know the pH of calcium but he mentioned it in his post. I kinda assumed it was even higher than 7.5 because of all the talk of its use like lime for gardens.

No. I'm wondering what the pH of the calcium acetate solution would/should be when the eggshells are finished dissolving and the vinegar is completely used up or converted over to acetate. I thought that was what you were referring to in post #3.