Oyster shells addition

10 years ago

Could I add oyster shells after 15 minutes 900W microwave sterilized to container soil after breaking to small sizes? I am thinking about multiple purposes, one is for the nutrients and the other is soil aeration.

Thanks in advance.
Caelian

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Comments (5)

woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
10 years ago
Caelian:

I'm not an expert on this but oyster shells is calcitic LIME. A great source for calcium, but will also raise ph like dolomite lime. Also, probably better in soil than in containers.

Maybe somebody else can correct me if I'm wrong.

Kevin
Kimmsr
10 years ago
Because of the time any soil bacteria will need to make any nutrients in oyster shells available to plants the only thing they would do in containers is provide some drainage.
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chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you Kevin and Kimmsr for the feedback. Still I keep collecting information of easily available things for container gardening.

Caelian
gonebananas_gw
10 years ago
The shells are aragonitic, not calcitic, lime and thus are a bit more easily dissolved and decomposed and thus used by plants. The microwave may not properly heat shells. The microwave frequency is tuned to a hydrogen bond I believe. Maybe boil them instead, or bake..
chilliwin
Original Author
10 years ago
Gonebananas, thank you for the feedback.

Caelian

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Oyster shells addition

Comments (5)

woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a

Kimmsr

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Comments (5)

woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a

Kimmsr

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