[permaculture] rock dust, need help filtering the hype from the facts

Keith Johnson keithdj at mindspring.com
Thu Feb 12 22:56:53 EST 2009


Wendy,
Depending on the fineness of the material you are working with, the 
relative abundance of soil organisms, and the preexisting health of your 
soil, the material you apply will have varying amounts of availability 
to plants. I've learned that the best way to use rock powders is to 
apply them more often, every couple weeks or monthly, in smaller doses 
rather than one big annual meal. You wouldn't sit your kids down to a 
table with a year's supply of food and tell them to have at it. You 
shouldn't do it with the garden either. If you apply it to the surface 
of a mulch / lasagna garden it will trickle down into the root zone in 
short order with rain or irrigation. To make a small amount do more work 
apply the powders directly near the root zone of the plants even dusting 
the plants themselves. It won't hurt them and will even help protect 
them. If you do two rows of radishes, one with and one without, in a 
couple weeks you will notice a distinct difference in the roots of the 
plants. The ones with dust will have many more fine feeding roots and 
fewer of the long reaching seeking roots, basically telling you that the 
former are getting more of what they need without having to travel. This 
means less stress and less work for the plants. If you are using coarser 
materials the effect may be delayed a bit until the soil organisms get 
their "teeth" into it.
Keith

Wendy Smyer Yu wrote:
> Keith,
>
> Thank you so much for all this information.  I am so glad to have somewhere to look to do my homework, and to hear your personal experience.
>
> Now I have a more specific question:  we're in the thick of our short rainy season (CA) and I'd like to get a good sheet mulch on in the next few weeks (yes, I'm feeling a timing pinch, but I've just moved back from overseas).  If I don't figure out what rock/mineral products to use right away, am I losing an opportunity that would come from "interlayering" it with the sheet mulch?  Or is it best anyway to apply it at the surface and it wouldn't matter if I was several weeks late?
>
> Sorry for the really basic questions, I'm having to re-learn everything - the problem with theoretical learning when not based in practice (darned un-rooted apartment dwelling existence to be blamed!) is that it doesn't stick!  
>
> Again, thank you!
> Wendy
-- 

Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47407
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