Before you throw away the crayfish shells after your late-night World Cup snack, turn them into flower fertilizer and your plants will bloom like crazy

The World Cup happens to be on right now, and I, the editor, invited a few friends over to watch the matches and have some late-night snacks. When it comes to these snacks, the most popular one is the crayfish we all know so well. In the past, after eating we would just casually toss the leftover shells and such straight into the trash, but recently a good friend told me that crayfish can also be made into flower fertilizer, and the results are quite good. So how exactly do you do it? Let's read on.

Why can crayfish be used as flower fertilizer?

Actually, I had the same question at first. Later, after my friend explained it, it turns out crayfish shells contain a large amount of organic matter, including calcium, phosphorus, protein and more, and these are exactly the trace elements our potted plants need. So if they can be put to use, they are absolutely a great helper for growing flowers.

For caring for flowers, fertilizer is very important. It is best to choose an ecologically safe organic fertilizer, rich in balanced nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, with various organic matter, minerals and amino acids added, to promote vigorous plant growth, produce more flower buds, bloom more and last longer.

So how do you make flower fertilizer?

First, we can collect the crayfish shells and heads. Since crayfish served as a late-night snack are usually quite heavily seasoned, it is best to boil the leftover heads and shells once in clean water. The purpose of this is to remove as much oil and salt as possible, keeping only the useful parts.

After boiling in clean water, we can put the heads and shells on the balcony to dry for a few days. Once completely dried, crush them. If you have a grinder or a garlic pounding jar at home, the whole process will be much easier. Finally, grind all the heads and shells into powder and the whole job is done. This powder can be used directly as flower fertilizer, and the specific method is very simple: dig a few shallow holes along the edge of the flower pot, add the powdered fertilizer into them, then cover with soil, and everything is settled. If your plants show signs of calcium or phosphorus deficiency, this method is most suitable.

Of course, besides drying and crushing them into powder fertilizer, we can also use the leftover crayfish heads and shells to make compost or prepare soil mix. The specific method is to put the heads and shells that have already been boiled in clean water together with other kitchen waste into a bucket, then add some subsoil, just enough to cover it. After filling, seal it up, and after about 2 months the whole composting process is basically complete. Once composted, it becomes excellent fertile soil, quite good as a base fertilizer for potted plants.

However, this method is not perfect. The biggest drawback is that the smell may be rather unpleasant. The solution is simply to ventilate more, place it on the balcony, or use a fan at low to medium speed to blow air over it for a while.