Has anyone used Rock Dust on your garden?

[Robittybob1]

Has anyone used Rock Dust on your garden? What was your opinion of it usefulness?

[Sensei]

Which rock do you have in mind.. ?

Pretty common rock is Calcium Carbonate CaCO₃.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_carbonate
It's remains of dead millions years ago sea living organisms, such as shells of snails, trilobites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilobite
"The exoskeleton is composed of calcite and calcium phosphate minerals in a lattice of chitin that covers the upper surface (dorsal) of the trilobite"

 

Blended to dust, mixed with a lot of water, it could be used as cheap way to decrease acidity, fertilizer, or to fight with pest (f.e. paint bottom of fruit trees)

 

Prior using it you should check pH of your soil (electronic device can be bought for $10 in Leroy Merlin), and read requirements of every your plant. Wrong fertilizer or too large dose can kill them.

 

You can check whether you have CaCO₃ by using dust with acetic acid. It should make Calcium Acetate and release plentiful of Carbon Dioxide gas.

Calcium Acetate, unlike Calcium Carbonate, is pretty good soluble in water, so used dust should disappear.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Sensei

[Robittybob1]

Which rock do you have in mind.. ?

 

Pretty common rock is Calcium Carbonate CaCO₃.

 

Thanks we call that limestone or agricultural lime when it is ground up. I was looking up a product called Rok Solid but it is made from NZ rocks.

 

I visited a neighbour's farm and they were using this rock solid and their grass was a lot better that what was growing on my block, just 1 km away similar geology and rainfall.

Was the difference due to the rockdust?

In US they have a product called "Azomite"

 

Azomite could be a totally different mineral but does it work?

Edited June 6, 2016 by Robittybob1

[Moontanman]

I used to use lava rock powder that I made myself... I was a bit anal when it came to potting soil for my prized cacti!

 

Not sure if it really made a difference, used it in soil I made for aquariums as well..

[Robittybob1]

I used to use lava rock powder that I made myself... I was a bit anal when it came to potting soil for my prized cacti!

 

Not sure if it really made a difference, used it in soil I made for aquariums as well..

That sounds like a good idea for use in aquariums. What would be the difference between rock dust and fine sand?

How did you make your rock dust?

Edited June 7, 2016 by Robittybob1

[Sensei]

I am using coffee grinder, bought just to mill chemical compounds, then could be used mortar and pestle to smash it even more to fine dust.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Sensei

[Moontanman]

That sounds like a good idea for use in aquariums. What would be the difference between rock dust and fine sand?

How did you make your rock dust?

 

My aquarium soil consisted of earthworm castings, composted azolla, and lava rock powder at about the consistency of flour. The reason I am so anal about ingredients is that I used to work as a lab tech at DuPont, well to be honest I have always been anal but the lab just rewarded the behavior ..

Edited June 7, 2016 by Moontanman

[John Cuthber]

It looks a lot like marketing hype to me.

[Robittybob1]

It looks a lot like marketing hype to me.

That is possible but that doesn't really tell us about the product itself. I was sceptical too for years but looking at the property prompted me to look into it again. Its not cheap.

[Essay]

There is some new-age hype associated with rock dust, and many other soil amendments, but the fundamental chemistry seems sound and is well tested. Though as Sensei mentions, it can be tricky stuff. The best suggestion is to mix it with a compost pile first, along with some charred biomass, and let any strong effects get balanced and buffered--so to speak--before application.

 

I worked with this nursery a few years ago to make sure they understood the benefits of biochar, and their long and successful experience in this area demonstrated enough to convince me. I used one of their rock-dust charged biochar products (designed for transplant situations) improperly on some regular well-established house plants. It slightly burned them for a while, but they recovered and the old, salty soil is much better now.

 

See also:

"minerals-unlock-microbiology-of-gardening"

The most effective manner in which to remineralize soil is to apply rock powders. We do this to replicate areas of the planet where Mother Nature demonstrates maximum fertility, typically near volcanoes where naturally high mineralization is endemic. With the Colorado plains last mineralized by the grinding, weathering movement of glaciers 10,000 years ago, our clay is long due for mineral supplementation.

 

Rock powder sources abound. Granite, basalt, lime, zeolite and certain clays can all be used to further fertility in the soil, each with varying mineral content, physical properties, function and expression within soil dynamics. ....Application recommendations vary widely, but a starting point is usually 1 ton per acre, or 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. A quality powder will contain particles from 100 to 200 microns, up to sand and rice sized particles…

 

"grow-your-soil-first"

Essentially, we should focus on growing soil first. Organic practice is centered on carbon, the basis for biological life and sometimes known as “high carbon farming.” Increasing organic matter (carbon) in soil is accomplished with the addition of materials such as compost, cover crops, humates, green manure, biochar and mulches. Increasing organic matter is the key to building healthy, living soil.

 

...as well as "Agricharge"

"Because it can be detrimental to use biochar without first blending it with compost, agricharge is blended with rock dust, carbohydrates, amino acids, and humates, then inoculated with lab grown bacteria, mycorrhizae, and biodynamic preparations to provide the most advanced organic soil amendment capable of radically transforming soil dynamics. The rock dust and carbohydrates provide short and long term food for both the microorganisms as well as the plants."

 

~ Good luck!

[Robittybob1]

@Essay - there's no shortage of rocks in Colorado!

 

Some science mixed with ???

 

 

Gradation, or particle size, is an important factor in choosing a material. The smaller the particle, the more easily it is broken down by microbiology and the more readily available it is. A quality powder will contain particles from 100 to 200 microns, up to sand and rice sized particles where density will hold a higher paramagnetic charge.

Think of paramagnetism as a measure of a rock powders ability to transmit and hold subtle or spiritual energies, either from the sun and planets, or from your own positive intentions.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Robittybob1

[Essay]

Some science mixed with ???

 

As I said, "some new-age hype ...but the fundamental chemistry seems sound and is well tested." How would you market 'rock dust' on today's internet?

~

[Moontanman]

Oh, I forgot, thanks for reminding me, to the before mentioned ingredients I used cowboy charcoal ground up fine as power..

I would think the type of rocj the powder comes from would make a difference, lava rock is very different from limestone or granite...

[StringJunky]

Oh, I forgot, thanks for reminding me, to the before mentioned ingredients I used cowboy charcoal ground up fine as power..

I would think the type of rocj the powder comes from would make a difference, lava rock is very different from limestone or granite...

I would think the mineral content is important, or else, what's the point?

Edited June 8, 2016 by StringJunky

[Robittybob1]

I would think the mineral content is important, or else, what's the point?

Rock dust and Biochar Field Trials did not show any advantage.

There is a series of trials. Rocks are very insoluble so the mineral don't release rapidly. I'm having my doubts.

[StringJunky]

Rock dust and Biochar Field Trials did not show any advantage.

There is a series of trials. Rocks are very insoluble so the mineral don't release rapidly. I'm having my doubts.

if you read this link;

 

http://www.gardensalive.com/product/rock-your-garden-with-rock-dust/you_bet_your_garden

 

You need it to be mixed with soil that has a lot of microbes. It might benefit the microbes that benefits the plants. The idea does make sense but you've just got to make sure the conditions and materials are right to allow mineral availability. It mentions basalt dust as good and I've read granite dust is as well. Note the particle size it recommends as well; that wants to be your maximum.

Edited June 8, 2016 by StringJunky

[Robittybob1]

if you read this link;

 

http://www.gardensalive.com/product/rock-your-garden-with-rock-dust/you_bet_your_garden

 

You need it to be mixed with soil that has a lot of microbes. It might benefit the microbes that benefits the plants. The idea does make sense but you've just got to make sure the conditions and materials are right to allow mineral availability. It mentions basalt dust as good and I've read granite dust is as well. Note the particle size it recommends as well; that wants to be your maximum.

That link gave me some names to use when I go down to the quarry. Thanks.

 

Our OG article sources recommended that you call up a few local 'sand, rock and gravel' suppliers and tell them you want "a very fine material you can add to your soil as a source of plant mineral nutrients." They might call it pond sand, pond silt, pond fines or swamp sand; crusher screenings, crusher fines, bug dust, float, fill sand, or flume sand. Most gravel workers, we were told, will not call it 'dust'.

[Moontanman]

I would think the mineral content is important, or else, what's the point?

 

Various metals and trace elements in lava rocks, iron , manganese to name a couple..