Calcium plants

[itsonlyme]

Hello everyone,
Due to the weather here in Spain, wild plant food is extremely difficult to find. I now get a Tortoise Wild Seed Mix from the UK. I grow it in pots and after about 3 to 4 weeks can feed it to the tortoises. I plant up a pot every 5 days.
My qustion is, if I put crushed cuttlefish in the potting soil will it increase the amount of calcium in the plants
Prase educate me.
Regards
Gordon

 

[Tom]

Hello everyone,
Due to the weather here in Spain, wild plant food is extremely difficult to find. I now get a Tortoise Wild Seed Mix from the UK. I grow it in pots and after about 3 to 4 weeks can feed it to the tortoises. I plant up a pot every 5 days.
My qustion is, if I put crushed cuttlefish in the potting soil will it increase the amount of calcium in the plants
Prase educate me.
Regards
Gordon

I have been told that soil with a higher calcium content will grow plants with a higher calcium content, at least up to a point. I've never tested this assertion in a lab, but I assume someone has at some point…

Might be easier to simply offer the cuttle bone to the tortoise so it can self-supplelemnt, as needed. Or scrape some on to the food a couple of times a week.

 

[Yvonne G]

My tortoise partner, Will, adds crushed oyster shell to the soil where he grows tortoise food.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

It depends on the type of calcium added, some like eggshells and oyster shells will only break down properly over winter while others such as finely ground limestone will be absorbed very quickly into the soil and plants. If you add limestone powder it only needs doing every few years. But be careful, it will effect the pH of your soil.
I'm not sure how quickly cuttlebone would break down, so I would just sprinkle it on food or allow the tort a nibble, as Tom has said.

 

[Moozillion]

I think opuntia (prickly pear cactus) grows in Spain, unless I'm mistaken. I believe this has a very good calcium to phosphorus ratio.

 

[Maro2Bear]

I agree with @Tom - seems a lot easier to just provide the cuttlefish bone directly to your tort.

 

[Moozillion]

I keep a cuttlefish bone in my tortoise's enclosure all the time. Sometimes she'll ignore it for weeks, other times she'll eat the whole thing in just 3 days.

 

[leigti]

I always keep a cuttlebone in the enclosure but I have never had a tortoise actually chew on it.

 

[leigti]

I have a bunch of oyster shell, I have chickens. Would that be OK to put a little bowl of that in the enclosure?