Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 20:16:44 +0000 From: Matt <drake@erols.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3537$foo@default> Subject: Calcium
Criss Creel's article on growing Nepenthes
(http://redtail.unm.edu/cp/nepinfo.txt) states the following:
4) Bone meal at full strength - Bone meal provides something which
most people do not consider a needed mineral: calcium. Plants in
general love calcium. There is basically no calcium in the growing
medium for Nepenthes, so they resort to catching insects. I know of
no ill effects of using bone meal.
5) 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.
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This reminds me of something I once heard a poet say in a speech I
attended (don't recall his name). It went something like this "When
an elder speaks, listen, and listen respectfully, but don't believe a
word of what they say." This is obviously meant to be humor, but in
reference to the excerpt from Chris Creel's concerning the old woman's
advice, I think it should apply.
While taking a test (unrelated to CP) I encountered a paragraph in a
reading section which talked about how calcium can be added to bodies
of water to REDUCE acidity.
If this is indeed true, then using Bone Meal or eggshell water would
be detrimental to CP, as while it may add calcium to the growing
medium, it at the same time reduces the acidity. I am not sure if
this is on a molecular level or a base/acid reaction, if the latter
than there is the potential for salt build up as well.
Hopefully Chris subscribes to the CP-List so he can comment on this,
he may after all know something I overlooked. :)
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