Remineralizing Garden Soil

Comments

  • Hassena
    Hassena Posts: 345 ✭✭✭

    Great article! We often think of adding organic matter, like compost and mulch. However, Rocks are the parent material that make up soil, they help determine the pH. It's very difficult to alter the pH of large amounts of soil because of the rocks building the structure for all the little microbe matrimonies.

    thanks for sharing.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @merlin44

    Awesome report! Thanks for posting! The comment made at the bottom of the article by Magdalene on fungi is a really good one. There are actually many different species of fungi that support and help feed plant growth. I was in a workshop with Trevor Goward (well known lichenologist in Canada) and he explained the importance of the rock lichens in breaking down the rocks they grow on.

  • gennywu
    gennywu Posts: 96 ✭✭✭

    Clear explanation of why we need to use rock dust in our gardens. I have been using Azomite in my garden, and I do believe it has kept my plants looking healthier and made them healthier to eat.

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    Found a local source for Azomite, will be using it this year. Will be interesting to see the results.

  • hippeastrum99
    hippeastrum99 Posts: 6 ✭✭✭

    Naturally, the soils are on top of the local bedrock... which weathers and supplies more minerals, from underneath. In that sense of course rocks are part of soil. Interesting, though, is to use different rock dust from the local rock, for example in limestone area using basaltic rock dust. How would that affect the soils?

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    re 'soil amendments, or mineral products' = People buying such usually are lured by Advertising catch-words like "RARE earth", & "Important trace minerals", - because they either do not know, or do not consider in their decision-making, that we continually live by faith/beliefs. & very few facts. - iow 'human science', or the awareness thereof, remains in its infancy.

    -> That humans via trial & error stumbled upon (discovered) the minerals on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table Table of elements, does not mean humanity knows what all they do, let alone how one awareness influences (kills, endangers or empowers) another awareness, because millions of other actual 'facts' of which nothing is known, enter into the equation that would totally change the context/situation.

    -> in this pdf you find words like 'may' (not can, let alone "will")

    Why? - because sellers know that too many knowns & too unknowns... effect changes.

    -> Next 'typical (rock) analysis', means what? - Not much of any effect. Because it is Not what is in the rock, OR even in the soil, those crushed/pulverized rocks OR minerals are in, OR even how many/much plants uptake, OR even we ingest, OR then digest. None of those 5+ steps (& their scientific implications matter) in the final analysis. THE only thing that matters to us is what specific minerals & their amount our body actually gets to use mostly INside each cell, as briefly introduced here https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/842482/what-is-remineralizing-or-remineralization/p1 That is what matters, which is why "soil-Tests" are therefore also fairly useless, as also touched on there.

    -> re ppm - iow "parts per million" - Same as above, what application has it inside our gut, let alone our cells? And re "heavy metals": 6.2ppm lead in Azomite, which is a pink silica ore (Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate or HSCAS.

    BUT Selenium is the least at "0.79 ppm" (under 1 ppm). How essential Selenium is in the human body, do you have any idea ? Selenium is one of the essential trace minerals for animals & humans, iow our bodies cannot make it, meaning we have to get it from what we swallow. Without it the heart, immune system, eyes, joints, reproductive system & more suffer especially critically the thyroid.

    -> re RARE : Azomite has like 70 minerals, yet less than 30% of minerals have been found to be ESSENTIAL to human health. Why are people willing to experiment ? with other minerals Azomite has: Lead, mercury, fluoride, uranium, etc ... known to be toxic.

    Just like the 'Pure Himalayan Pink Salt' - which is neither pure, nor comes from the Himalayas. it's the most impure salt. It too contains lead, mercury, fluoride and uranium. The main content of Himalayan salt is about 96% NaCl (sodium chloride), with the remaining content consisting of minerals in minute quantity. Himalayan salt is nutritionally similar to common table salt, (though it lacks the beneficial IODINE added to commercial iodised table salt. ) - And only kinda from the Himalayas. Banish those images of gorgeous pink salt mountain cliffs rising into the clouds in the world’s highest mountain range: Most pink Himalayan salt actually comes from a Pakistani government-owned mine that’s south of the famed mountains. The Khewra Salt Mine is now a tourist attraction.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Excellent article @merlin44 ! The whole website is full of really good information. Thanks for posting!

    I am fortunate enough to be gardening on "virgin" soil. It has only been gardened for the 25 years I have lived here. It was very much an alkaline, mineral soil as it had very little organic matter when we started and have added many truck loads of compost and manure. However, the rock dust treatment is a good idea to make sure that there is a replacement for what my garden is taking from the earth.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    ok, from Utah's desert pink silica ore, are we now moving on to "glacial gravel/Basalt rock dust" ?

    Search-engine found https://www.remineralize.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Aerial-photo-of-a-large-aggregate-quarry-near-Olympia2C-Washington.jpg Right in our neck o' the woods, near the Puyallup river. - And just to say: we have no weeds, nor are our foods eaten by 'bugs'. Most likely too because this plot here had not been Food-grown since prolly forever. They just cut-down the gorgeous FORESTS, to build cities.

    However, did Read the above https://www.remineralize.org/2007/12/how-to-remineralize-the-earth-getting-vital-nutrients-back-into-our-soil/ article too, & it says "Remineralization is a straightforward procedure. Simply apply a specific fine rock dust (called glacial gravel) to a field, garden, forest, or even a planter. This type of dust creates a broad spectrum of minerals in the soil in a natural balance. Local sources of rock dust are available, & products that can be purchased (see www.remineralize.org).

    Well, not going to buy any, as like I've said repeatedly here: "Our foods grow in a mere two inches, yet are Huge, & Sweet, & oh so Yummy... as just 1 recent Cucumber example.

    In order to show the 8 cukes were still growing... the last week in October, had to show full length including Stem & my hand near the bottom, so sorry this photo is kind of HUGE:


    I will start a new thread with some excellent PDF explanations re Remineralization...