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  • From: "Wendy S. Yu" <creeksinger@hotmail.com>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] rock dust
  • Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:44:31 -0800


neal,

thanks for your reply too. I am scouting out local sources, and hope to find
something soon.

re: sustainability - my landbase is so far from what it used to/ought to be
(was seasonal wetlands,
now overbuilt and mono-cropped - California's Sac. Valley) that my little
garden spae might just rejoice
if indeed my potential source of dust, a nearby quarry of creek gravel, comes
through, as prior to damming,
lots of stuff came down from the hills and contributed to the flooding (and
soil regeneration) cycle...

I'm sure it's a familiar tale around the world...

Wendy

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:57:13 +0000
From: nepal <nepal.roade@googlemail.com>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] rock dust, need help filtering the hype
from the facts
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <20090218225713.2f5493c8@kub-804>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Hi Wendy

On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:34:07 -0800
Wendy Smyer Yu <creeksinger@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I would assume that that results really depend on what your rock dust
> is composed of (for example I live near an area that has serpentine
> soils and I probably wouldn't want dust if it came from a serpentine
> quarry near here)... and not many of us are equipped to do nutrient
> testing on our vegies and fruits, or to check to see if
> micro-organisms have in fact increased as a result of application, so
> I wonder how much of the positive I hear is wishful thinking and how
> much is really based on results.

It is the nearest thing to a miracle I am likely to see in my lifetime.

btw you can check to see the results of your micro-organism populations
by the health of your plants and especially the rootball. I have never
seen such wonderful roots as develop in rockdust conditioned soil.

> I came across this http://www.canadafreepress.com/2003/main011303.htm
> (titled "The Greening of Arsenic" in which it's noted that one
> supplier's dust contains a lot of arsenic and lead in addition to
> other more beneficial things... but there's not much of a conclusion
> at the end of the article.

Having looked at the site and the ads they are running on it, I would
say the article is there to promote FUD about rockdust.

> In the end, I'm just researching this because I've moved into a
> suburban rental with some garden space after years of limited access
> to land and I'd like to make a really lovely perennial/annual mixed
> garden (probably heavier on the annuals until I get the ok from the
> landlord, but at least it's a start)...
>
> Anyway, this isn't so much about what my plans are, but I'd like to
> know if rock dust is being touted as a panacea that it really isn't.
> (I've read back through about 3 years of archives here and only seen
> it mentioned a few times).

Perhaps rockdust conditioning is not really a 'permaculture' practise,
nor is it entirely sustainable along a chain of (centralised) supply and
demand.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Wendy

happy growing

neal.

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