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  • From: "Jim Fruth" <jfruth@uslink.net>
  • To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Trace elementsr
  • Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 09:59:42 -0500

Some time ago (back when I didn't know any better?), I let someone convince me to apply greensand because of its ability to release potassium (potash) slowly. I have an area that gets flooded with each heavy rain and potassium leaches out quickly. I'm of a cautious nature when it comes to my garden so I spread the greensand over only a small area. When I got my next soil test back, I learned what the greensand seller didn't tell me; had I had any sense, I would have investigated it thoroughly before using it. That area now has 2000+ ppm of manganese, about 100 times more than recommended. What's more is that it is in an ionic form (available to plants), unlike the potassium that is chemically bound. The 'book' would say that anything growing there would be adversely affected, but no, I don't see any major, on going problems.

As for spreading sludge, that is a definite no - no. Don't do it!(!) Whether municipal or industrial, sludge has a concentrated amount of heavy metals. Many (most?) plants absorb heavy metals and you could get an unsafe amount in your diet, not unlike the many warnings to not eat fish because of mercury build-up within the bodies of the fish. >The solution to pollution is dilution< Around here, sludge, and septic tank waste, is spread on agricultural lands, hay fields mostly. The cows eat the hay and we eat the cows; European farmers have been doing this for 'eons' with no (apparent) ill effect.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN 56472
www.bberryfarm.com
(218)568-8483 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]






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