pointer80
Senior Member
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Location: northern Michigan

Other ways to add calcium to garden besides egg shells

Hello all, Is there another organic method to add calcium to the garden besides egg shells? Thank you everybody.

bri80
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Location: Portland, OR

Yes, lime and gypsum are typical amendments. Probably work a whole lot better than egg shells, too.

PaulF
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Location: Brownville, Ne

Be sure to get a soil test done by a qualified lab before adding calcium to your soil. Almost all soils have plenty of calcium. Egg shells would do the least damage to your soil balance...they also would add the least calcium if you really are low on calcium.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Gypsum does not change pH as much as dolomite lime. It is however useful for making hard clay soils more workable but it is usually not needed unless you have saline sodic conditions.

Chicken manure has a lot of calcium. Enough to to raise the pH of the soil by a half a point so be careful adding it to alkaline soils

Comfrey,borage and some cabbages mineralize calcium from the soil and comfrey adds calcium when it is added to compost.

If you are using organic materials like plant residues, composts, manures, bone meal, bat guano, and green sand you need to be careful how much you add. Although these are natural or mined products they may contain salts, and unlike synthetics their analysis will vary a little from batch to batch. It is hard to get a pure element from organic products and the release of the elements is usually slow, but not in a controlled way.

Organic composts can buffer the soil pH up to a point and it can sequester some of the nutrients for a while.

You can go overboard even with organics so it is still good to do a soil test once in a while to make sure you stay on track.

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Wood ash, Scrap drywall = Gypsum, drywall mud = Gypsum, baking soda, cement, pellet lime from Farm Supply store.

ButterflyLady29
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Location: central Ohio

Crushed oyster shells are a good, inexpensive source of calcium. Research has been done that suggests they can also have a potential to be used as an agricultural fungicide.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 8513000824
However, I am not sure that there are any sources for certified organic oyster shells.
The bagged crushed shells can be purchased at most poultry feed suppliers. They are commonly fed to chickens as a source of calcium and grit.



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