Quarry dust

[pigletwillie]

With falling nutrient levels in our food blamed on the over use of artificial fertilizers, several articles have appeared about using quarry dust to improve the structure and nutrient levels of the soil.

One small farm in Scotland used bassalt dust from a local quarry to great affect on their soil. I work in a granite quarry and have access to granite dust. Is this likely to be beneficial to the nutrient levels of my soil.

My soil is generally in good order having been manured on a rotation system, and is approximatley 16 inches deep over clay

[Johnboy]

Hi Piglet,
We almost discussed this at Ryton recently if you remember. I have for the last hour or so been searching through the Old Forum but unless you know exactly what the letter title was you are lost. So no joy there.
There is a person who is using a mixture of peat free compost and rock dust to form his raised beds because the underlying soli is clay. What he really means is that he is not prepared to dig the clay and convert it to a decent soil. He makes the case that the soil is depleted of the essential chemicals to make reasonable growth. I'm afraid I simply cannot accept what he is saying. At first glance the idea seemed to be quite sound but when looking further into it it is not as sound as it first seemed.
He starts with a false premiss and therefore whatever his says is a false assumption so therefore his conclusion must be incorrect.
I think if you were to add Rock Dust to your existing soil you might well put it out of kilter and to cut the point short bugger the whole lot up.
He quotes Australia which did not have the benefit of the glacial action as his reason to use Rock Dust but we didn't miss the last ice age and the glacial action was what distributed the chemicals in UK.
I was hoping to find something a little more constructive such as his website but I have failed miserebly.

[paul.r]

wasn't it around this time last year or maybe slightly earlier that this story appeared? there were the scottish couple on t.v. reporting on the miracle dust from their smallholding and feeding it to their worms amongst other things. if i'm correct there was an article in K.G. and threads on the forum. Sorry thats not more specific...paul.

[paul.r]

just googled in "rock dust fertiliser" and came up with quite a bit including the scottish couples site www.seercentre.org.uk not searched it all yet but some are calling them cranks. but they got a research grant. and being cranks doesnt make them bad people does it?

[paul.r]

actually the google search seemed more productive than their site.paul.

[peter]

Yesterdays Daily Mail ran this story, under the heading "This Sceptic Isle".

Article was based on ectracts from a book @£9.99 "We want real food." by Graham Harvey, available from 0870-161-0870 P&P free.

Might get it myself.

Where can one buy quarry dust(delivered), without being charged a fortune for "decorative" garden material.

[Beccy]

I'm with Johnboy on this. Again I can not remember details, but I do recall my general imppressions. The 'experiment' was not scientifically sound, the theory being tested was posited on false assumptions etc. etc.

It was like that set of articles about adding micro-organisms to the soil. It sounded like the guy was going to go about it properly, but then he ran one test where he compared plants grown with and with out the magic stuff in pots....and he used one clay pot and one plastic pot. So showing that he didn't have the first idea about properly run trails. Very disappointing.

[peter]

Pigletwillie, you mention (elsewhere) working shifts down the quarry, so how much is quarry dust?

[pigletwillie]

about £4 a tonne collected

[peter]

Does it get bagged for restail?
If so who markets it?


You could have a sideline opening up here!

[pigletwillie]

I dont think that it goes out on its own as a rule because there is no market, its generally blended with other sizes stones as sub-bases etc.