Rockdust - has anyone used it?

[solway cropper]

You may as well put sand on your garden. Rockdust might open up the structure of the soil but as for nutrients it contains nothing that plants can readily access or actually need. Ground up volcanic rocks, whether granite or basalt, consist largely of complex silicates of iron, aluminium, calcium, potassium and magnesium. These silicates are basically insoluble which is why mountains don't get washed away in the rain...at least not for millions of years. I'm sure they'll sell plenty of it though because it offers the possibility of a quick fix.

[King Carrot]

I think you may find that scientists and their findings are often morally and ethically questionable as they are usually working for/funded by some individual or company/institution who only wants to hear or project one side of any story, Gullibility and the basic trust of the public in so called scientific results has been one of the marvels of the modern age.

On that note I'm going off to buy 20 Benson &Hedges as the baccy companies scientists sat there’s deffo no health issues, I’ll eat at Mc Burgers everyday, I’ll see if I can get me some DDT – spray the veg and myself too – damm midges that’ll learn em! and as I’m looking at setting up a shellfish business, lets see now – I can get a cheap setup around Sellafield – those glowing shellfishes sure are easy to catch at night


Growing that brocolli was straightforward, just stuck chitted seed at stations in the home made greenhouse and thinned, fed once and watered

[rana]

I’m looking at setting up a shellfish business, lets see now – I can get a cheap setup around Sellafield

Fuuny you should mention that. Not so long ago a couple of prawn farms set up near nuclear power stations. They benefitted from the warm water output of the power stations. Apparently the prawns grew to a marketable size very quickly.

[King Carrot]

Fuuny you should mention that. Not so long ago a couple of prawn farms set up near nuclear power stations. They benefitted from the warm water output of the power stations. Apparently the prawns grew to a marketable size very quickly.

I bet they did

[timethatthetaleweretold]

This thread has been cold for nearly two years…
Hope it's ok if i do a bumper-sized post.


Good on Welsh Wizard for finding the study from Glasgow University.


Glasgow University Theses Repository - The use of rockdust and composted materials as soil fertility amendments


I found that study only after impulsively buying a bag of Rockdust® last December and felt a bit angry –

Campbell’s study is SEER's flagship research project, and they cite it on their website to claim extra science credibility:


Untitled Document

The SEER Centre's aims include dissemination and the replication of SEER techniques throughout Scotland initially, and in order to achieve this a convincing, impartial field trial must be set up which will capture the interest of the scientific, forestry, waste management and agricultural communities.

They haven’t, of course, updated the website to include the study’s results – That Rockdust®’s claims cannot be supported by the study.

My polite email to ask them about this was not acknowledged.


I respect SEER for attempting to provide proof for something they believed in. It must have been a shock when their own research gave unexpected results. They took an honourable risk but shot themselves in the foot.


At this point I believe Rockdust® advocates are motivated by religious faith for the product. (even if there might be reasonable ideas behind it.)

Those deeply involved have an apocalyptic world-view.
That’s fine – so do loads of people, like Christians and 2012 conspiricists – but they don’t try to sell me gardening products!


My Rockdust® dealer kindly lent me her (out-of-print) book – The Survival of Civilisation by Don Weaver and John Hamaker. (1982)

available to read here:
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010146tsoc.pdf


Maybe it’s cheap of me to offer this snapshot of the book (which also contains some genuinely interesting soil theories):



But it does lead to feeling deju vu, with today’s Rockdust® sellers aligning themselves with today’s apocalyptic fears:




Rockdust® is based in a religion more than in science.
The apocalypse can only be averted by adding Rock dust to the soil.


There are other parties involved in Rock dusts apart from the SEER centre et al.

The Mineral and Aggregates industries have an interest in finding markets for their waste products simply to avoid using landfills.

These studies are about finding uses for industrial by-products. - "Novel Growth Media" for Horticulture.

http://www.sustainableaggregates.com...ma_1_3_003.pdf
http://www.sustainableaggregates.com...ma_2_4_003.pdf

The results are more about Rock dusts not doing any harm rather than having any miracle properties.



I wrote to one of the researchers - Dr Manning at Newcastle University - to pick his brains.
He is a proper geo-scientist and said that:

“There are good theoretical reasons why rock dust should work”

He has helped develop another Rock-based fertilizer called MSL-K and has presented in Brazil on ground rock as a fertilizer solution for poor countries.

Anais I Congresso Brasileiro de Rochagem (Chapter 5)


(so perhaps the SEER centre could still turn out to be pioneers rather than snakeoil salesmen? )

His work is quite sober though, and does not contain the type of miracle claims that Rockdust has.

In fact, the science has very modest things to offer – It is acknowledged that most of the nutrients in the rocks tested are unavailable to plants, and there is work on identifying what components of rock can dissolve and become available as K etc.

It’s pretty complicated and I don’t pretend to understand it all:

e.g.

The feldspars and feldspathoids have
a three dimensional Al-Si-O framework structure, which must be disrupted to allow dissolution to
occur.

Conclusion _

Rockdust ® gets the thumbs down but there may be more to come from crushed rock – The Boffins are working on it.

Though right now they are high on theory and low on results.

[VirginVegGrower]

Kind of off topic a little but the mineral rich soils at the slope and base of volcanos (Etna in Sicily, Vesuvius in Italy) produces a fertile area for crop growing. Similar principal maybe?!

[timethatthetaleweretold]

Kind of off topic a little but the mineral rich soils at the slope and base of volcanos (Etna in Sicily, Vesuvius in Italy) produces a fertile area for crop growing. Similar principal maybe?!

Sounds like it.

Description of Mt Vesuvius Farms:

Every square foot of this rich soil is used. For example, even a small vineyard will have, in addition to grapes and spring beans on the trellises, fava beans, cauliflower and onions between the trellis rows, and the vineyard margin rimmed with orange and lemon trees, herbs, and flowers. It also is a huge tomato growing region.

http://volcanology.geol.ucsb.edu/soil.htm

I hope it's true that we can all have rich volcanic soils just by buying rockdust. Hope to hear anyone's results from using it.

[Lotsaveg]

Very interesting!

I looked at a product in the US which claims to work wonders on plants and crops. It claims to be produced from deep sea water and contains all of the micro and trace nutrients that plants need. There's some amazing with and without pictures on the website: SEA-CROP - For Use in Organic Agriculture

I wondered whether these types of products only work if the soil they are added to is in a really bad shape.

[timethatthetaleweretold]

I wondered whether these types of products only work if the soil they are added to is in a really bad shape.

I wrote to James Dexter of Earwig Organics who sell "Geogro" (which is basically Rockdust in another package).

He gave a friendly and honest e mail back, and I hope he forgives me for quoting him without asking permission:

...it may simply be that remineralisation does not show significant results on all soils.The SEER story is that they brought back a previously redundant soil into productivity.Maybe if you already have good growing soils the results are negligible. I must say that my customers who report the best results are the ones that have previously had a hard time growing anything at all on their soils.

[King Carrot]

Very interesting!

I looked at a product in the US which claims to work wonders on plants and crops. It claims to be produced from deep sea water and contains all of the micro and trace nutrients that plants need. There's some amazing with and without pictures on the website: SEA-CROP - For Use in Organic Agriculture

I wondered whether these types of products only work if the soil they are added to is in a really bad shape.

The photo of the unripe strawberries beside the photo of the ripe strawberries speaks volumes, I suspect.