Using Rock Dust

[Aberdeenplotter]

Sounds exciting Madasafish. I shall be interested in the results.

As shall I. When I last used it I didn't have a control so I have no idea if it worked or not

[VirginVegGrower]

There's an interesting video on YouTube if you type in Seer that I've just watched. It's about seven mins long.
Not sure if we can put links up like that on here, so I won't.

[Madasafish]

Results of tests:
Strawberries - eaten by badgers.
Raspberries - half test plants died over winter.

Potatoes:

Over the first 4 rows (6 plants/row) - which had been protected by cloches, the Rock Dust plants gave on average a 10% higher yield per plant - 2.5kg vs 2.3kg.. on earlies.

After that, the lack of cloches and the attacks of worms (very wet ground at times and a poor spring)..meant other rows had very variable results so no data was worth keeping.

[Bill HH]

I am a sceptic, my father and his father before him were noted for their excellent produce, and not a grain of rock dust in sight!!! Indeed what is soil other than rock dust with added organic matter. I put it in the category of fringe medicine, lunar planting and clairvoyance.
Although a sceptic I pride myself on being open minded and if someone carrys out proper scientific studies which prove these things then I will use them.

[Madasafish]

I am a sceptic, my father and his father before him were noted for their excellent produce, and not a grain of rock dust in sight!!! Indeed what is soil other than rock dust with added organic matter. I put it in the category of fringe medicine, lunar planting and clairvoyance.
Although a sceptic I pride myself on being open minded and if someone carrys out proper scientific studies which prove these things then I will use them.

Well based on my results, it's not worth while.

[Martin H]

I remember reading that the best results were when the dust was used on peat soils. That would make sense to me because those soils are desperately low on minerals. But I'm on clay soil so, like Bill, I can't see what difference it could make. I haven't attempted a test though and probably never will unless someone donates me enough dust to cover half of each of my veg beds.

Also the golfer Jespar Parnevik used to eat the stuff as a dietary supplement you know. I'm not sure if that proves anything though...

[Feral007]

Yes it does depend on whether your ground needs minerals or not.

If I had the money to test my farm soil, AND buy some minerals to put into it I've no doubt it would do well. But I'm short on cash, so I will be giving the rock dust a go sometime soon. Along with other ways of dealing with depleted soils.

As for testing half your plants/plots, you need to do it over several years. In a really good season you can expect all the plants to do really well anyway, and in a bad season the opposite. You'd need a good 3=5 yrs to get some reasonable idea if it was right for you.

Always good to go to basics. If your soil is wellknow to be depleted in the area then it might well help. If your soil is well known to be good, then don't mess too much with it. For us you can look at the things the soil grows. Weeds that mine the minerals from deep take over. Even when you spray them out, the seed bank of weed seeds is what takes over. I'm planning to put in some minerals that will allow the seed bank of good seeds to have a maybe not equal, but better chance to thrive and survive.

There is no one fix for anything IMO, look at what you've got. What you want. What that needs.

Go from there.

[solway cropper]

I am a sceptic, my father and his father before him were noted for their excellent produce, and not a grain of rock dust in sight!!! Indeed what is soil other than rock dust with added organic matter. I put it in the category of fringe medicine, lunar planting and clairvoyance.
Although a sceptic I pride myself on being open minded and if someone carrys out proper scientific studies which prove these things then I will use them.

I have to agree with Bill as most soils will contain more than enough trace elements to last for years and the major nutrients can be more cheaply sourced from conventional materials. IF you have a very poor soil then rockdust probably will be beneficial, but so too will be a barrow load of manure or seaweed.

[Feral007]

If that were all every soil needed then our horses would have done the job for us.

But then we're dealing with a much larger area, so much harder to build up, and much easier for the minerals to have been leeched by farming uses and washed out with flooding.
Back to 'look at what you've got tho.' If you've always lived somewhere that had half decent soil it's not needed.

[Bill HH]

When a plant grows it takes minerals out of the soil, do those minerals remain in the plant when its composted? I assume they do.So when we add kitchen waste to our compost are we not adding minerals to our plot? assuming much of those peelings etc came from an external source improving the over all minerallocity (Home grown word).

[Feral007]

We're having a lot of good things with our garden Bill, with adding mulches, manure and comfrey teas, and compost if the chooks leave us any. We also cut up all our plants after they have seeded into the ground, so that nothing leaves the soil.

But as I said before I'm looking at the farming side of rock dust, not gardening. When you look at farming, crops take the goodness out, and unless the animals are putting it all back in (ie not sold off) then you are constantly taking and not necessarily putting back in. After years of that, there's a lot of things needed to rebalance.

[Bill HH]

We're having a lot of good things with our garden Bill, with adding mulches, manure and comfrey teas, and compost if the chooks leave us any. We also cut up all our plants after they have seeded into the ground, so that nothing leaves the soil.

But as I said before I'm looking at the farming side of rock dust, not gardening. When you look at farming, crops take the goodness out, and unless the animals are putting it all back in (ie not sold off) then you are constantly taking and not necessarily putting back in. After years of that, there's a lot of things needed to rebalance.

i think farmers have always recognised this which is why they spread lime and sometimes basic slag, but the obsession with trace elements etc is in my opinion more akin to people who constantly take vitamins when they most likely consume more than they need in a humble orange or a decent meal.
It's just another way of screwing money out of us. Gardens and farms have been producing excellent crops for generations then suddeny we need this rock dust, I dont believe it (Victor Meldrew impersonation).
However I dont dispute that in your case there might be some foundation to using mineral suppliments, Australia is a lot different to England. In fact given you problems I dont know how you produce anything. I am certain if we had snakes, spiders and wombats I would take up stamp collecting and stay indoors.

[Sheneval]

There have been a number of surveys over the years with regard to this subject - this is just one :

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11070600

I remember reading on the internet a year ago that a survey of food between 1949-1999? had revealed that essential minerals had reduced by massive numbers during that period - I will try and find the link again. The explanation if I recollect correctly was intensive farming methods.

I experimented with both rock dust and Carbon Gold last year and found the growth of Broad beans in both cases was significantly better than the ones where only fish, blood and bone was used - I can't speak for the minerals but they tasted so delicious that I used them in salads without cooking.

I intend to use both again this year in about 2/3 of whatever I grow.

[Feral007]

Stamp collecting indoors? Where do you think the big hairy spiders are found

[Bill HH]

Stamp collecting indoors? Where do you think the big hairy spiders are found

I shall have bad dreams tonight now.