Subject: [permaculture] rock dust, need help filtering the hype from the facts
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:19:04 -0800
Keith,
Thank you so much for all this information. I am so glad to have somewhere
to look to do my homework, and to hear your personal experience.
Now I have a more specific question: we're in the thick of our short rainy
season (CA) and I'd like to get a good sheet mulch on in the next few weeks
(yes, I'm feeling a timing pinch, but I've just moved back from overseas).
If I don't figure out what rock/mineral products to use right away, am I
losing an opportunity that would come from "interlayering" it with the sheet
mulch? Or is it best anyway to apply it at the surface and it wouldn't
matter if I was several weeks late?
Sorry for the really basic questions, I'm having to re-learn everything - the
problem with theoretical learning when not based in practice (darned
un-rooted apartment dwelling existence to be blamed!) is that it doesn't
stick!
Again, thank you!
Wendy
Wendy,
I've been using rock dusts for 20 years now on hundreds of landscapes,
on all types of soil, and the results, time after time after time, are
conclusive. My clients are consistently amazed by the improvement in the
health of their plants and the character of their soils. In Indiana,
where I live now, the common material quarried is limestone which is not
enough. Consequently I depend on other bagged mineral products like rock
phosphate, greensand, humates, azomite, and for trace minerals, seaweed
concentrates. I shop at http://ohioearthfoods.com but if you check in at
ATTRA <http://attra.ncat.org/> (Appropriate Technology Transfer to Rural
Areas) you will find other regional sources listed. Certainly metal
toxicity CAN be an issue but all quarries are REQUIRED to supply an
assay of the elements found in their media. Do your homework and ask
good questions. You'll find something that works for you.
The best source for information about it can be found at http://remineralize.org
Here are some other links pasted from the site. See especially Resources
for supplies near you. Fertrell <http://www.fertrell.com> is a good
source, as well.
Keith