In order to look after your plants properly, you will need to give them all of the essential nutrients they need to thrive. Calcium is an important micronutrient that your plants need to create new growth.
But buying a calcium fertilizer can often be an expensive endeavor, and there are plenty of methods that you can use to create your very own soluble calcium fertilizer.
Today, we’re going to show you how you can create your very own dissolvable calcium fertilizer using eggshells from your own kitchen.
We’ll discuss why calcium is important for your plants, and then show you a super easy method that you can use to create your very own calcium fertilizer without spending a small fortune.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about creating your own dissolvable calcium fertilizer!
Does The Calcium From Eggshell Fertilizer Actually Assist Your Plants?
If you’re new to growing and looking after your own plants, then it’s all too easy to question whether they actually need calcium fertilizer to help them grow. However, this is actually a very important step in growing your own plants.
No matter what type of plant you want to grow, it will need a calcium fertilizer to grow big and strong.
Similar to how we humans need calcium to help strengthen our bones, plants need this micronutrient to help them grow new elements such as leaves, roots, buds, and shoots.
So if your established plant is getting larger, it will need more calcium to help it grow more tissue.
Calcium is also able to help your plants better maintain the structure of their cells.
Making sure that your plant has enough calcium to go around is also an excellent way to prevent the dreaded blossom end rot. This is a blight that can affect several types of vegetables, including cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes.
If you prefer to opt for a more commercial fertilizer, then this will of course have some calcium in the formula.
However, if humidity is high or the temperature plummets, this can affect the calcium uptake in your plants, which can of course lead to them being deficient in calcium.
So there’s no harm in giving your plants an additional boost of calcium so that they can stay happy and healthy. Your plants will be particularly grateful for this before they are about to sprout new growth.
Creating Your Own Eggshell Fertilizer Is Better For Your Plants Than Using Other Methods
If you look around on the internet for advice on how to make your own calcium supplement for your plants, there are plenty of options around. Some people will tell you to create your own plant tea using crushed eggshells and hot water.
Some people say to crush up the eggshells and add them to your soil so that the calcium can permeate through this into your plant’s roots.
However, there’s no guarantee that this DIY advice will actually benefit your plants at all. This is because the calcium in the eggshells – calcium carbonate – is an insoluble substance.
It will take a very, very long time for this to break down to the point where it can be absorbed by your plant’s roots.
This is why using our recommended method will be better for your plants than these other DIY methods.
The addition of the vinegar helps to break down the calcium carbonate in the eggshells into calcium so that it can become a format that your plants are able to absorb.
Then all you need to do is add it to your usual form of water before applying it to your plant’s soil.
Your plants will use their roots to take up all the nutrients they need from the water that you apply to them.
So if you were to just crush up eggshells and add them to hot water as one of these alternative methods suggests, this won’t break down the calcium carbonate into calcium so that the plant roots can absorb it.
So how does vinegar do this? It all comes down to the acetic acid within the vinegar itself.
There is around 3% acetic acid within vinegar, which will then react with the calcium carbonate of the eggshell to produce something that you can use to fertilize your plants.
There’s no need to worry about this being too acidic for your plants either, as the reaction will neutralize the vinegar’s pH. You can always check the solution with a pH strip if you’re worried about affecting the acidity of your soil.
How To Create Your Own Dissolvable Calcium Fertilizer Using Eggshells
So now that we know creating your own dissolvable calcium fertilizer using eggshells is the best method to follow, you will of course be wondering how you can do this for yourself!
All you will need to do before you get started is ensure that you have everything you will need. When you use eggs for cooking in your home, make sure that you stash the eggshells to one side so that you can repurpose them for your own calcium fertilizer.
Let’s take a look at how to make your very own calcium fertilizer using eggshells and water!
Collect Your Ingredients And Materials
First things first, we will need to ensure that we have all of the ingredients we need to create our very own calcium fertilizer.
In order to create the ground eggshell powder, we will need to have around 10 eggshells to hand. You will find it easier to collect eggshells as you use them.
So whenever you use an egg or two in your day to day routine, you can then rinse them, and put them to one side in your refrigerator.
It’s better to opt with more eggshells rather than less, as you can always keep the ground eggshell powder for creating more fertilizer as and when you need it.
The next ingredient you will need is white vinegar. You will need to ensure that you have enough to match each gallon of water that you use. The last ingredient you will need is of course water to mix the eggshell and vinegar solution with.
It will be best to use the type of water that you normally use to water your plants. Filtered, distilled, or rainwater will work best for your plants.
In terms of materials, you will need to ensure that you have everything you need to grind your eggshells down to a powder, a measuring cup, a ramekin or small bowl, a measuring jug, and a small pot with a lid to help store away any excess eggshell powder.
To grind your eggshells, you can go for a more manual method such as a mortar and pestle, or you can use a rolling pin to help you crush them up small enough.
If you have a coffee grinder to hand, this can also do an excellent job of crushing the eggshells within a matter or seconds.
Now that you have everything you need to hand, we can get started with creating your calcium fertilizer!
Clean And Dry Your Eggshells
You’ve done an excellent job collecting up so many eggshells. But now we need to give them a clean so that they can be ready to turn into an eggshell powder!
There’s no need to panic if there’s a little bit of egg whites left on them. But we’ll want to give the eggshells a clean before we get started under cool water from the faucet.
Don’t worry about scrubbing them or using dish soap – simply placing them under running water should be enough to get most of the leftover grime off them.
Next, we will want to dry them out. Set your oven to around 180 degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven is heating up, you can arrange your eggshells on a baking sheet.
Spread them out so that they will get the benefit of the heat and won’t be too clustered together. When the oven gets up to heat, bake your eggshells in here for around 2 hours.
This is a crucial part of the process as it will remove any unwanted moisture from the eggshells. The heat will also kill off any unwanted bacteria which can lurk on the raw egg leftover in the shells.
Once the 2 hour period has passed, you can then remove the baking sheet from the oven and put them to one side to cool down.
Grind And Crush Your Eggshells
When your eggshells are lovely and cool, it will be time to crush them and grind them down into smaller pieces.
You can do this step using your fingers, crushing the eggshells between your hands and rubbing them with your fingers so that they form much smaller pieces than when they were whole.
This will ensure that you are able to get as much of the crushed eggshell pieces into your coffee grinder so that you can grind them all down into that fine powder.
Once you’ve crushed them into smaller pieces, you can fill your coffee grinder around midway with these crushed eggshells. Now you can use the coffee grinder to grind the eggshells even further, until they have formed a fine powder.
If you notice that there are coarse particles leftover after a couple of seconds, keep grinding. You’ll want to get the eggshells to be as fine a powder as possible so that the vinegar can get to work quickly.
Once you’ve gotten the eggshells down to a fine powder, you can empty them into your readily prepared pot with a lid.
Don’t have a coffee grinder and are using a more DIY method such as a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin? Then just try your best to get them ground down to as fine a powder as you can manage.
If you are using a rolling pin, then you may benefit from placing the eggshells in a sealed ziploc bag to prevent the eggshells from going everywhere.
Mix Your Eggshell Powder With Vinegar
Now comes the exciting part! Using your small mixing bowl, you will need to place 2 tablespoons of eggshell powder and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar.
The general rule of thumb is to use around 2 tablespoons of each ingredient to match each gallon of water that you will be using your plants.
Next, you will need to mix the two ingredients together so that they are well combined. It will be best to do this with a non-reactive implement such as a wooden stick or a miniature spatula.
It’s best to avoid metal utensils as these might react with the vinegar. You will know when it’s working as you will see the mixture begin to bubble up as the two components react with one another.
You will then need to leave the mixture to sit to one side for around an hour, making sure to stir it every now and then so that all of the eggshell powder reacts with the added vinegar.
Add The Water To Your Calcium Solution
After you have left the eggshell powder and vinegar plenty of time to react to one another, you can then add it to your water. Remember that the quantity that we measured out above will be perfect for one gallon of water.
If you need to use more water, make sure to adjust the dosage accordingly.
In your prepared measuring jug, combine the water and eggshell solution. There should be around 4 tablespoons of eggshell solution that you will mix for each gallon of water.
Give it a good stir so that the two combine well, and then it will be ready to use with the plants around your home and garden.
You may benefit from using a measuring jug that has a lid. This will allow you to shake the water and calcium solution so that it’s better mixed together.
Use Your Calcium Fertilizer To Water Your Plants
Now that you’ve done all of the hard work, you can get ready to fertilize your plants using your freshly created calcium fertilizer! You can use this DIY calcium fertilizer for virtually any plants around your home or garden.
House plants, vegetable patches, and flowerbeds are ideal for using this fertilizer.
This will give your greenery the boost of calcium that they need in order to grow healthy new shoots, leaves, buds, and flowers. To get the most out of your DIY calcium fertilizer, make sure to time this watering with your plants’ growth cycle.
This will ensure that your plants get the calcium boost they need, right when they need it.
You can also adjust this recipe to suit your needs. If you only have a small amount of plants that need fertilizing, you can pare down the measurements accordingly.
So instead of using 2 tablespoons of crushed eggshells and white vinegar for every gallon of water, you can use 1 tablespoon for half a gallon of water.
If you have a large number of plants you need to water, you can double up the measurements, using 4 tablespoons of crushed eggshells, 4 tablespoons of white vinegar, and 2 gallons of water.
Keep Any Remaining Eggshell Powder For Making More Fertilizer
Have you found that you’ve crushed far too many eggshells into a fine powder? This isn’t too much of an issue, as you can simply store them in an airtight container, ready for when you need to create more of your calcium fertilizer.
Make sure to keep them in the refrigerator, and they will last you for a good couple of months. This will also make it super easy to create more fertilizer, as you will already have the crushed eggshells to hand.
You can simply measure out how much you need, then mix this in with the same amount of white vinegar.
If you don’t want to have to fuss around with a coffee grinder, mortar and pestle, or rolling pin every time you need to create more crushed eggshells, then it could be worth doing this stage whenever you have time.
You can then place the crushed eggshell powder into your airtight container and store it away in your refrigerator until you need it.
In Summary
So there you have it! You now know how to make your own calcium fertilizer without spending a small fortune.
All you need to do is ensure that you have the right ingredients and equipment to hand, and then you can easily create your very own calcium fertilizer without spending a small fortune.
Unlike other DIY calcium fertilizer methods, this method actually converts the calcium from the eggshells into a soluble form that your plants will be able to absorb.
Simply mix 2 tablespoons of crushed eggshell powder, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and 1 gallon of water for the best results. You will need to mix the fine eggshell powder and the white vinegar together first so that they will have time to react together.
Why not give this DIY method a go to give your plants the calcium boost they need? You’ll certainly notice a difference when their new growth cycle starts!
Hi, my name is Amy Enrich and I have had a keen green thumb since my parents first taught me how to sow a sunflower seed. The process of watching it grow from seed to sprout, sprout to shoot, and then to a full-blown plant is a wonderful sight - I never get bored of it!
I love talking to anyone who will listen about plants, different varieties, how to look after them, and more. That is why I have created Plant Vessel, to help other plant lovers look after their new family members properly and keep them thriving!
Please stick around and enjoy my plant content, and don’t blame me if it influences you to go and buy some more plants!
