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nafex - [NAFEX] stone dust in my car trunk

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  • From: Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] stone dust in my car trunk
  • Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 03:07:42 -0400

"Sand & Gravel" companies are everywhere.  Some towns have two.

Took four pails in the trunk of the sedan, drove into Sand & Gravel Co, backed up to a pile that was a very dark grey, almost charcoal stone dust, took one of the pails in, said "I need four pails of stone dust for a garden project" and he said $4.  Each pail of 5 gallons I estimate weighs 60 lbs.  It has tiny rocks in it but also much finer material mixed in with it.

What is it?  I don't know...just being interested in minerals for plants has made me more interested in the school-boring subject of geology...but the ancient Rodale Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening describes Granite Dust, which is a likely contributer to these pails I picked up, as

Granite dust or granite stone meal is a highly recommended natural source of potash.  Its potash content varies between three and five percent and sometimes more.  One of the first researches showing the value of granite dust to plants took place at the Connecticut Experimental Station.  Tests there showed that the potash in granite rock is available to a growing crop of tobacco, a plant which needs a liberal quantity of potash for optimum growth
 
This is an example of how I am working the remineralizing in a practical way.  Other than reducing the handling of the sedan and dragging the back end down, it is inexpensive and convenient.  I think of Lime as getting Calcium into the soil, to me that's more significant than thinking of it as adjusting the PH.  Well the stone dust gets other minerals into the soil, primarily apparantly Potash but also other trace minerals.  If you use Limestone you are already remineralizing.

Charlie Paradise     Massachusetts

"Lon J. Rombough" wrote:

http://www.Remineralize.org
The late Bob Kurle, who was "Mr. Nafex" for many years, strongly believed in the value of, and need for, remineralizing the soil through the addition of ground rock powders. He had read that ice ages were due to plants having insufficient minerals, which caused them to give off more CO2. Then, when glaciers came, they dropped minerals on the land and restored it.
I do not endorse or dispute this either way, though I have at least seen the value of some ground rock additions to soils. I am posting the website as much for the nostalgia of it as anything, and to let newer members know a little about one of the founders.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.

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