Egg shell water! :)

[lithopsman]

Hello all,
I recently made egg shell water according to the following from the Sarracenia.com FAQ library:

Egg shells - This is something an old woman told me once. She said that the secret to her beautiful plants was a biweekly shot of egg shell water. Making egg shell water is a simple enough task. First, take the egg shells of six eggs. Put them in an oven at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. Take them out and stuff them in to a 1 gallon water jug which may be capped. Fill the jug with hot water and let it sit in the sun for about a week. After that time, shake the jug vigorously and water your plants liberally.

As you may have guessed, the calcium from the shells probably leeches out during the time in the water, thus producing growth spurts. I have tried this myself except that I did this once a month during my normal feeding/fertilizing time. I did notice a spike in growth and I have been doing it ever since.

Here is the huge article


I hope that it's ok to do this excerpt, if not, I'll take it out...
Anyways I made some of this stuff today, and I plan on using it this upcoming weekend, but I'm worried about it hurting my plants, although I highly expect the opposite... If anyone has tried this, testimonials are welcome! Thanks in advance!!  

 

 

 

[Zongyi_Yang]

I would think of mold growing. and i believe that will be some stinky water, espeacially if you leave it standing in a water tray

. Zongyi

 

[D muscipula]

What i want to know, for those of us who are lazy and cheap, is if we can get some calcium supplements and dilute them a lot and save on eggs and labor.

Seriously, though, wouldn't a small amount of calcium supplement do the same thing?

 

[The Griffin]

When I think of calcium, I think of alkaline, which is of course, ingnorant of me. I read this article years ago, but never tried it.
You say you noticed definite growth spurt from this? Is it stinky or not? Maybe baking the shells first sterilizes them real soon here in Nebraska, putting the jug out for a week in the sun will get you a frozen jug, lol.


Regards,

Joe

 

[Trent]

I agree with Joe. I don't think our Neps are in need of calcium, but maybe this process excludes the hard water minerals. Sounds like a lot of work.
Try using a quarter strength 'no urea' orchid fertilizer with 'minor trace elements' every two weeks and watch the big pitchers grow. It works for us.
George Pring at Missouri Botanical Gardens in 1949 recommended cow manure tea for big pitchers on Nepenthes. Probably smells as bad as the egg shells!

Trent

 

[lithopsman]

Since I've already made it, there is no worry about the work when compared to anything else... I just took leftover eggshells from cooking. Anyways, I don't know if it will smell bad, just made it yesterday... Hopefully, this will work, but my main concern is that I don't want to hurt my neps...

Joe- Unfortunately, I personally haven't used it yet or witnessed the growth spurts mentioned... That is an excerpt from an article in the sarracenia.com FAQ library... THANKS FOR THE OPINIONS, in about six days, I'll let N. alata have a taste and see how he does...  

 

 

 

[Copper]

Hi Griffin. Where are you in Nebraska?

 

[The Griffin]

Trent,

Is that used as a foliar spray, or do you drop that into the pitchers? Never got the courage to try that; just know you are not supposed to use Miracid for Nepenthes.

Joe

 

[Trent]

Hi Joe,
Every other friday morning Michelle drenches through the pots quarter strength fertilizer mixed just for the Nepenthes. We have tried several fertilizers and found the formula used by Sun Bulb Co for their orchids is great. The small bags are sold in Home Depot. It's the higher nitrogen formula (I recall the N at 36 in the ratio) with no urea and has a nice balance of trace elements. At least once a week our Neps are flushed with R.O. water until it pours out the bottom of the pots. There's never any salt build-up, and we have no fungus problems, probably because we grow them on the dry side. Pitcher production has been fantastic. We have a coccinea that by mid-summer had more than sixty pitchers on it.

Trent

 

[lithopsman]

Well, today marks 6 days, so I will use it today or tomorrow, probably just on N. alata at first, then if I like what I see, every one of my Nepenthes will get some. (dare me to give it to gracilis?)

That would be a scarily fast plant if this stuff works as said. I can't wait to see the results, hopefully with great findings, this could become big! (ouch) Anyways, thanks for all of the comments, I appreciate them!  

 

 

 

 

[goldtrap2690]

i would'nt be surprised if this benifits pinguicula as well , i'm gonna try it as well .

 

[mat_man444]

I bet it'll work. Barry has a lot of experience with, cp's so I don't think it is just a myth.

 

[goldtrap2690]

barry did'nt do the experiment as you know barry , he does'nt like to use fertilizers , that is an article from david purk , a friend of barry that grows nepenthes .