Calcium Phosphorus Fertilizer (Uses Vinegar)
 

Hi,

I made a fertilizer water solution by using crushed eggs and vinegar in a jar. I let it ferment for 1 month, then I will be using the fertilizer water solution (1 part of this solution is to 5 parts water) as a fertilizer to my orchids.

My question is, will vinegar harm the orchid's roots? Will my solution harm the orchid's roots?

Thank you

Dissolving egg shells in vinegar will produce calcium acetate. There’s no phosphorus in egg shells.

Do you know the final concentration of calcium in your mixture?

Vinegar can be a herbicide, and a dilution to 20% is still a bit concerning.

Yes, indeed. I've used a half-tablespoon of regular strength white vinegar in a quart of water as an occasional leaf wipe for removing heavy mineral deposits on my ficus plants, but that was as strong as I was willing to go.

Sorry, I do not know the concentration of the calcium in the mixture. I just found out about this on the net, but the user applied it on ornamental plants as fertilizer.

1000s of years of farming in Korea has figured this out.

Water Soluble Calcium
If you brown eggshells in a a pan you can react with vinegar to make a calcium acetate solution which can be used as a foliar spray

Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate

Korean Natural Farming is like DIY low resource gardening on steroids. "Fermenting" eggshells isnt going to work as well as this.

That's all great, but that will be a lot of effort to create a fertilizer that is extremely deficient in important nutrients.

There is nothing "better" about ions extracted from "organic" sources.

I did a quick search of water hardness in the Philippines, and most of the water supply already has plenty of calcium, so why bother?

We use a few KNF methods at work. The ones we use are great. The other methods can be useful when they are needed. If the water supply already has sufficient calcium there is no need to supplement.

I completely understand the desire to recycle resources and to try fun science experiments! I do it too, but make sure you do it in a way that meets the needs of your plants.

In general, adding more of a nutrient than is necessary is potentially harmful to the plant. This is especially true for micronutrients - they are needed in much smaller amounts (ie. micro).

Plant science tells us that nutrients can compete with each other for uptake by the plant. In some instances, plants will prefer one nutrient ion over another. If the preferred ion is readily available, over time the plant could become deficient in the non-preferred nutrient even if it is available to the plant. Unless the nutrient balance is restored the plant will not do well.

Best case, adding excess nutrients is simply wasteful. Use the eggshells or banana peels (another currently popular viral plant "hack" that isn't even scientifically accurate) for compost for outdoor plants. Or crush them and offer them to chickens or wild birds.

Eggshells crushed into bite-sized pieces are a fabulous calcium supplement for egg-laying birds. Bake shells for 10 min in a 200F/94C oven (kills any salmonella and e. coli - very important if offering to wild birds), allow the shells to cool, then crush them. You now have a bioavailable calcium supplement for birds. Offer it to them free choice.

What KNF methods have you found work best for you?

We use the LAB and a slightly modified version of the deep litter stink-free-piggery (goes by many names, lol) bedding method in our chicken system. They work quite well. We’ve trialed FPJ but it wasn’t practical for us at the time.