Calcium aid for house plants

While my sister was getting married they gave all the guests some organic seeds as gifts. As a closest relative I had been granted with seed bags of all the types, not just one. I believed I was terrible with plants for a long time. Many years ago after I graduated from university I had an african violet. I loved the plant, I was talking to her everyday. I was working part time in an office. She was travelling with me too, half the week there, and half the week at home. I was learning Italian back then, and practicing my Italian with her, starting many sentences with "La mia fiore..." and not long after our conversations began "Lamia" became her name. Then cold winter came. I thought Lamia would get cold if I gave her cold water, so I started to warm her water before I gave it to her. Soon after she lost her balance and dried out. I never had any other plant after her death. And last year I had these bunch of seeds from my sister's wedding, already waiting in one dark corner of the house for about a year. In spring, about a few weeks late of the perfect time I decided to plant them. Then on, it was nature's miracles. They liked their place, they did not hate me either. Tomatos, pepper (terrorised by tomato growth-sad story), parsley, purple basil.... later on with the additions of rosemary and mint the balcony became a small garden. Some geraniums too, since they can look after themselves very well. It's incredible how they manage to grow with just sunlight and water. And I wanted to give them some extra stuff from what I can do -with not so dirty or time consuming processes- at home. One easy thing was to give them the excess black tea leaves that are left in the pot after you cook them. I think they liked it. Thanks to my friend Ilgın for this tip. she has given me many more tips, but I was lazy for the rest. Even on higher floor balconies a lot of small scale wild life choose to live in these plants. Some are harmless and might be considered housemates, but some consume the plants. In that, apple vinegar was a dear friend. Mix it with some water and spray them on your plants. Harmless, and nobody likes its smell.

The photo above has actually be taken by my sister, shows the growth of her tomatos. (photo credit: Özge Ar)

The thing I want to write about now is a simple recipe as calcium aid for plants.

Egg shells have great amount of calcium that your plants can benefit from. On the internet I've found several versions of the recipe that I'm going to demonstrate now. I tried it last summer. I haven't really seen an extraordinary growth or anything on my plants after I did this, but they probably made use of it.

When I first heard that egg shells were good for your plants, I thought I could just lay crumbled egg shells around plants or bury them in their soil and that would do. Mistake. As stated by many parties, this apparently has no use in terms of calcium aid. Only if you lay crumbled shells around your plant over the soil, some harmful bugs find it unpleasant to walk on them, so you might save the plants from those.

To make the shells useful one has to follow a few procedures, before putting them in the pots.

First gather some egg shells.

Then heat the oven to 200 degrees and cook them in the oven.

Crash the cooked egg shells into small pieces.

Put some apple vinegar on it. And wait for a chemical reaction. I can not tell the chemistry. I've read it back then and it sounded plausible. It was about bonding of some molecule with some molecule and they become gas and leave the mixture as bubbles. And what is left is sole calcium and water in the mixing pot. Brilliant.

So you must expect bubbles to come out. (I didn't have bubbles, but maybe I didn't see them).

After this process is complete, you may give this mixture to your plants by burying it within the soil in their pots. I think after sometime it should be all consumed. I think my plants ate it all, because while digging through for some air a couple months later there was nothing left.

It is nice to have some plants. Really good company while working on articles or reading stuff.

#plant #houseplant #balconyplant