Can you plant orchids with snail shells? what are the precautions

Snail is a kind of hard-shelled mollusk in the lakes and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, especially in the areas around Zhejiang and Xuzhou, Jiangsu. It is a delicacy on the table in late spring and early summer.

The shell of the snail is relatively hard, and the shell of the snail left after eating is also a good additive for growing orchids. After use, it will also greatly improve the loose and permeable effect of the plant material. However, when it is added to the orchid plant, it must be reprocessed. Because the snail shell is internal spiral hollow, one end is closed. Therefore, when planting orchids, the roots of orchids are likely to grow into the shell of snails, causing the roots of orchids to fail to grow and elongate. Therefore, the tip of the snail shell must be knocked off with a sledgehammer or pinch off half with pliers before use, so that the snail shell is hollow and transparent, so that even if the orchid root system grows into the snail shell, the root growth will not be restricted.

In addition, a variety of seasonings will be added to the leftover snail shell in the process of cooking. Such as: salt, monosodium glutamate, etc., so the snail shell must be soaked in water before use, the snail shell salt, monosodium glutamate and other ingredients can be soaked, cleaned before use. The amount of addition should not be too much, usually accounting for 1 / 5 or 1 / 6 of the total plant material. It can only be used as an auxiliary material for planting orchids. To sum up, when planting orchids with snail shells, we should pay attention to washing off the salt from the snail shells and pinch off the tip of the snail shells with pliers to avoid preventing the growth of the orchid roots.

Snail shells are often used by flower friends in the south and not often by orchids in the north. This is also due to different regions, the types of orchid plants collected will be different.