[ex-cavator]

Always on the lookout for something to beef up my soil. I work for a water company on sewage treatment works. One of our works has a big problem with water snails in the filter beds - as a result, the channels and chambers downstream get choked up with the little blighters and it all has to be shovelled out.

The resultant mix is basically secondary or humus sludge, the product of aerobic digestion and therefore pretty safe to use after a period of standing, reasonable amounts of N and P, but containing copious amounts of tiny snail shells that crumble easily to powder, hence a rich source of calcium.

Would this be good for the plot, & if so, what types of crop would benefit most?  

[mumofstig]

I think tomatoes might like some, as it's lack of calcium that causes blossom end rot (via irregular watering)

[Yorkie]

Does calcium equate to lime?  If so, don't put it around acid-loving plants such as blueberries.

[Aunt Sally]

There is a recipe here for calcium rich mulch.

http://www.gardenwiseonline.ca/gw/how/2007/05/01/create-calcium-rich-mulch

[Goldfinger]

Aunty, where (what is, more like) would I get 'alfalfa meal'??   :blink:

Oh, and also 'hoof and horn', for muntys home made compost? (Found the recipe in a search a while back     )

[Aunt Sally]

No idea but the important part of the recipe is the oyster shell !

[mumofstig]

Google hoof & horn ...I reckon you can still buy that quite easily as it's an old style fertiliser like Blood fish and bone.

Have a look if Garden Organic sells alfalfa meal, I think I've seen it in their catalogue - it one of the new style plant foods for people that don't use animal products, I believe

[Aunt Sally]

I've grown alfalfa as a green manure.

[mumofstig]

That's great Aunty! who needs a manufacturing plant to dry it and make it into pellets -  when you can grow it  yourself ? 

Cut out the middle man says I 

[Bernard]

Snail shells = calcium carbonate
Will reduce acidity in soil, could be seen as a slower acting alternative to lime.

Egg shells are similar, I put them on my compost heap. They will reduce some of the acidity in the compost before it is spread. (But to a marginal degree, I suspect.)