North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>]

"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.

                                                  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
All other messages are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

Message archives are here:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex

NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/