permaculture

["Andrew Clements" <jara@otenet.gr>]

Dear Saor,

   I can attest to the seemingly miraculous efficacy of rockdust and
compost. When I read your first post only 2-3 weeks ago I visited all the
rockdust sites on the www and chucked a load of quarrystone dust, known as
'sand' here ;-) (unsure if it is fine enough or the right rock - ie
silicate, igneous etc) and garden compost on my greenroof and garden - the
plants have literally taken off !!! All my friends say that I've gone mad
and that the reason the garden and the roof have taken off is because it is
Spring and that the minerals simply have not had enough time to get into the
plants yet so it can't be the sand and compost. But I read on one of the
sites that micro-organism growth begins immediately on application of
compost and rockdust and that minerals are available to the plants within an
hour - Admittedly Spring is helping but I feel it in my bones that the main
contributing factor here is the mineral and trace element availability that
has suddenly arrived for my plants. I am now going to add the prescribed 5mm
layer of rockdust all over my farm and wait.

   I have sent an email to SEER asking some questions but they have not
replied so maybe you could address these issues. Concerning the rock type,
the most abundant rocks here are marble, pumice and gravel (white and pink
stones) are these suitable. Also, I have 8 acres of land and utilise natural
farming techniques. I leave the deciduous tree autumn leaf fall where it
falls and the annual summer and winter annual plant die back - Is this
enough organic matter compost or do I need to start getting my friends to
give me their kitchen scraps - Getting municipal composting going in
bureaucratic Greece will be impossible.

  I look forward to your response.

Yours,

Andrew.


> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:41:21 -0800
> From: Saor Stetler <saor@ycbtal.net>
> Subject: [permaculture] NEWS: Remineralization of Soil
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <4248A431.6070500@ycbtal.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
> STONE DUST
>
> Carrots grown with stone dust (left) and without (right)
>
> Along with cold fusion <http://prorev.com/coldfusion.htm>, the
> hard-hitting science department of the Progressive Review has long
> argued for more attention being given to the remineralization of the
> soil as a way of increasing productivity. Now there seem to be other
> ecological benefits.
>
> PAUL KELBIE, INDEPENDENT, UK - With the prospect of an earth made
> infertile from over-production and mass reliance on chemicals, coupled
> with an atmosphere polluted by greenhouse gases there seems little to
> celebrate. But belief is growing that an answer to some of the earth's
> problems are not only at hand, but under our feet. Specialists have just
> met in Perth to discuss the secrets of rock dust, a quarrying by-product
> that is at the heart of government-sponsored scientific trials and
> which, it is claimed, could revitalize barren soil and reverse climate
> change. The recognition of the healing powers of rock dust comes after a
> 20-year campaign by two former schoolteachers, Cameron and Moira
> Thomson. They have been battling to prove that rock dust can replace the
> minerals that have been lost to the earth over the past 10,000 years
> and, as a result, rejuvenate the land and halt climate change. To prove
> their point, the couple have converted six acres of open, infertile land
> in the Grampian foothills near Pitlochry into a modern Eden.