How to Add Phosphorus to Soil Naturally (w. Shrimp Shells)

Let's try a little experiment of making phosphorous liquid fertilizer using shrimp shell waste & IMO.

The ingredients we need are very simple:

Ingredients to Prepare

• Shrimp waste
• IMO

And some tools:

• A turkey baster
• A container

In replacement of shrimp, a good phosphorous source, you can use crab shells, crawfish shells, scallop, oyster shell or animal bones. These will contain a good amount of phosphorous + calcium which is good for the plants.

The bottle on the left is the IMO I made with papayas and yam. Up until this point, it has been fermenting for about a month.

The smell is lightly sour with a hint of alcohol similar to that of fruit cider. Quite nice actually.

Let's see how to make our phosphorous mix next:

How to Make the Phosphorous Mixture

Firstly, dump shrimp waste in a container:

Then, take some IMO with the turkey baster. Alternatively, you can directly pour it in.

Finally, pump the juice onto the shrimp waste:

Here, I honestly didn't measure an exact amount. I did just eye-ball it so the water level stays above the shrimp shells.

From here, we can put the lid on. Let it ferment so the shrimp shells break down, releasing its goodness into our juice.

For the first week, open the lid a few times so the CO2 can offgas.

Shrimp shells are quite a bit hard to break down. But let's wait and see the results. I will keep you updated as results roll on.

Some results:

From what I've found, the liquid smelled quite bad after I opened the lid to check how it's going. Honestly, I can say that this may not be a success (was a failure). I may need to make a new batch again or in some other form to see how differently it progresses.

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(to be made)

Cover image source