Best fertilizer is crushed stone, not manure

[GlassSteagallfan]

Download this 1894 'Bread from Stone' ebook.

Agricultural Chemist Dr. Julius Hensel found that crushed stone is better fertilizer than manure and chemicals. Crushed stone, for example, can rejuvenate poorer soils. It gives the nitrogen-potassium-potash theory a black eye.

A must read for any gardener.

13750

Cheers!

************UPDate*********************

The ebook posted above comes from the website 'Soil And Health Library' which is mostly out of print older books, now in pdf ebook format. Here's the link: http://www.soilandhealth.org/index.html

[joedjemal]

Not quite, rock dust is a good source of micronutrients but it works in a subtle way. What happens is that it encourages the development of mycorhizal networks that feed the plants the micronutrients in exchange for sugars.

You still need npk but the symbiosis formed between the plants and the fungi means that what nutrients are available are passed to the plants much more effectively and you end up with healthier plants on fewer fertilisers..

I always inocculate with mycorrhizal fungi when planting perennials together with an application of rock dust. Also some rocks are better than others. The best is powdered volcanic rock which contains the most variety of micronutrients.

[Carmen]

Specifically, it is paramagnetic rock. I recommend the work of Phillip S. Callahan, Ph.D. His book "Paramagnetism Rediscovering Nature's Secret Force of Growth" The best soils are paramagnetic.

Callahan also studied the ancient round towers of Ireland and found they were highly paramagnetic, causing the surrounding farmland to be fertile and productive. A very interesting study that I have only touched the surface of!

[Lettherebelight]

I have never heard of this before, stones as fertiliser.

I do know that many pioneers began to starve because of denatured foods grown on their mineral-depleted land after just a few years of farming, however. Many people had to continue moving west in search of good land for cultivation, not realising why they were no longer able to grow on their land...

My understanding from Hensel's research, is the method for creating stone fertiliser is to heat the stones (ordinary field stones?) for 1/2 an hour, then immerse them in water (cold?), then pulverise them. Is this correct? Is this easily done? Has anyone here tried it?

Thank you for this information, Glassteagallfan.
Joedjamal, do you use all types of fertiliser?
And Carmen, what is paramagnetic rock? Do you mean like basalt stones?
Thanks everyone.

[Arrowwind]

I use paramagnetic rock from the Yellowstone area of Montana. From studies done on it there is much to be said about its Magnetic quality. Things grow better even when the rock dust is placed in a film cannister near the roots of the plant.

Gardening is all about rock. Soil is made from rock as are you and I. Its minerals. The caveat is in getting the minerals into a bioactive form. This is where the micro-organisms come in. Only the micro-organisms can get the minerals bioavailable to the plant.

Biochar is one of the most excellent things to add to a garden because the charocoal houses the mico-organisms and keeps them in the soil to do their thing for a long time and according to research on Amazon biochar it will remain in the soil for thousands of years.

I have a neighbor who grows corn in the very same location year after year. I would not call him an organic gardener as most organic gardeners are. He never uses compost.
Yet he gets record crops of corn off of this one little patch year after year without adding any nitrogen or chemical fertilizers or compost. He puts on a product called natural guard, a bag of micro-organisms to the soil. These organisms shred the minerals in the soil out of the rock, the dirt to make it bioavailable to the plants. Believe me, the soil in this neck of the woods is not so hot. It depetes easily , but he has found the cure. Now if he would put biochar in, after it becomes inocculated with the mirco- organisms, he may not even need naturel guard anymore.

[Arrowwind]

I have started making my own biochar.

since I have a wood stove it is easy to do. In the winter, at the end of the day I load the wood stove up with logs and damper it way down.

In the morning when I get up there is usually one or two that is fully charcoal. The wood is no longer there, yet it remains in the shape of the log.

I take this charcoal log out to the garden and smash it down with the shovel. It crumbles to small chunks.

what I have added to the garden is biochar. I also put it in the compost pile. In time the micro-organisms will move in and stick around.

[Carmen]

Thanks Glassteagfallen. Your thread has got me re- reading Callahans book. Great stuff Arrowwind. I would highly recommend the magazine "Acres USA" to learn about all aspects of paramagnetic rock. You have some wonderful scientists in the states who know all about this stuff! Dr Arden Anderson is one who seems to be quite ignored in his own country but travels extensively around the world teaching biological farming. My son has a large dairy farm which is operated biologically, not conventionally. This after happened after I took him to one of Dr Anderson's seminars.

[Arrowwind]

Thanks Joe. Your thread has got me re- reading Callahans book. Great stuff Arrowwind. I would highly recommend the magazine "Acres USA" to learn about all aspects of paramagnetic rock. You have some wonderful scientists in the states who know all about this stuff! Dr Arden Anderson is one who seems to be quite ignored in his own country but travels extensively around the world teaching biological farming. My son has a large dairy farm which is operated biologically, not conventionally. This after happened after I took him to one of Dr Anderson's seminars.

I do subscribe to Acres, for 2 years now. I love that magazine and it has really advanced my understanding.
Be sure to read my post #6 that I entered when you put this one in.

since your son does biodynamic gardening perhaps he knows the secret to Steiner's fertilizer made with cattle horn, where you bury the horn for a year or two.. I wish I understood how to to this. I can find where to purchase these prepared horns but I want to make my own. Ask your son if you think of it, just how to do it, maybe he knows?

[Carmen]

No, he is not biodynamic, he farms biologically. To me it's organic, but scientifically organic. I have info into how to make the bio-dynamic fert. I will look up my books and post it for you later. Its just putting manure into cow horns and burying them over winter. It's the mixing with water and spraying at the correct time that's the complex part. We did it in my vineyard which we have since pulled out! You can also buy these preparations from your local Bio-dynamic Association. We can in New Zealand anyway!

[Arrowwind]

Specifically, it is paramagnetic rock. I recommend the work of Phillip S. Callahan, Ph.D. His book "Paramagnetism Rediscovering Nature's Secret Force of Growth" The best soils are paramagnetic.

Callahan also studied the ancient round towers of Ireland and found they were highly paramagnetic, causing the surrounding farmland to be fertile and productive. A very interesting study that I have only touched the surface of!

Of course... on the paramagnetic rock site that I purchase from they had a photo of one of these towers. I didn't get the connection! till now. Thanks!
Its like putting the film cannister with the paramagnetic rock dust in it near the roots of the plant and getting better growth! No actual physical contact is needed. All that is required it to be within the magnetid field...
amazing! the ancients figured this out and built towers to fortify their gardens!
Thanks for spelling that out for me!

[Arrowwind]

No, he is not biodynamic, he farms biologically. To me it's organic, but scientifically organic. I have info into how to make the bio-dynamic fert. I will look up my books and post it for you later. Its just putting manure into cow horns and burying them over winter. It's the mixing with water and spraying at the correct time that's the complex part. We did it in my vineyard which we have since pulled out! You can also buy these preparations from your local Bio-dynamic Association. We can in New Zealand anyway!

Thank you! I am most interested. Did you see an improvement with its use? I heard that a very little goes a long long way. Does the horn have to be from a freshly slaughtered steer, I wonder?

[Carmen]

It's a fascinating subject. I have quite a few books on it. I do struggle a bit with the scientific side of things but when I persist and re-read quite a bit, the wholistic aspect of it comes through. Phil Callahan was stationed in Ireland during WW2 and he studied the round towers while there. He found that the placement of the Irish round towers corresponded to the stars alignment. (not sure of the constellation!) He was a great nuts and bolts scientist with a love of nature. He also was stationed in Japan. He was a radio operator. The old Japanese also knew about paramagnetism and diamagnetism. Their formal gardens had the paramagnetic and the diamagnetic rocks, the ying and the yang.

Thanks for the info on bio-char.

[modwiz]

Thanks Joe. Your thread has got me re- reading Callahans book. Great stuff Arrowwind. I would highly recommend the magazine "Acres USA" to learn about all aspects of paramagnetic rock. You have some wonderful scientists in the states who know all about this stuff! Dr Arden Anderson is one who seems to be quite ignored in his own country but travels extensively around the world teaching biological farming. My son has a large dairy farm which is operated biologically, not conventionally. This after happened after I took him to one of Dr Anderson's seminars.

Another book, "Secrets of the Soil", by Peter Thompkins and Christopher Bird is one that I read time and time again because it is so magical. Chapter after chapter it gets into the various ways and techniques people have used to create more fertile soils. Full of great information and a riveting read.

[modwiz]

Thanks Joe. Your thread has got me re- reading Callahans book. Great stuff Arrowwind. I would highly recommend the magazine "Acres USA" to learn about all aspects of paramagnetic rock. You have some wonderful scientists in the states who know all about this stuff! Dr Arden Anderson is one who seems to be quite ignored in his own country but travels extensively around the world teaching biological farming. My son has a large dairy farm which is operated biologically, not conventionally. This after happened after I took him to one of Dr Anderson's seminars.

I do subscribe to Acres, for 2 years now. I love that magazine and it has really advanced my understanding.
Be sure to read my post #6 that I entered when you put this one in.

since your son does biodynamic gardening perhaps he knows the secret to Steiner's fertilizer made with cattle horn, where you bury the horn for a year or two.. I wish I understood how to to this. I can find where to purchase these prepared horns but I want to make my own. Ask your son if you think of it, just how to do it, maybe he knows?



In the book I recommended to Carmen, the very first chapter, Cornucopia, is about biodynamic farming and discusses making that preparation which is the paramount one of many. There is a Steiner farm by me called Hawthorne Valley in Ghent, NY. I believe they sell bags of this preparation which I think goes by the name BD-1.

[Carmen]

The biological farming principles take awhile to kick in. It's not an instant fix and Arden Anderson does say to do it gradually. Justin does not use any nitrogen now. The soil is much more soft and bio-active. His ph has come up which means weeds have disappeared. Cows are sleek and healthy and calving problems are much less.

It's a huge learning curve for farmers as they have to learn this type of farming for themselves and some are just too set in their ways. The farmer has to be a keen observer of what is going on with his land and stock. The conventional way of employing an expert does not work so well. The farmer has to understand it for himself. We also test the brix (measure of sweetness used for grapes) to test for nutritional density. Callahan and others also emphasize that bug/disease infested plants are of low nutritional density (brix) and are not fit for human consumption. Healthy plants do not attract disease or insect attack. This is tested in plots side by side with one another. The insects are the necessary garbage collectors of inferior crops and vegetables. Now that was a revelation to me. Healthy veg for instance should last well when picked. It should dehydrate and not rot!

[Arrowwind]

My first year gardening I had not a single bug. But this past year the cabbage had a problem. I wonder what went wrong. But still the cabbage stored well. We are still eating them and inside beyond the bug damage the plant looks well and no rot seen. They have been in storage now for 5 months. Ive noticed that about dehydrating in stored foods. I suspect that my soil had a problem from too much grass clippings added.

[Arrowwind]

The biological farming principles take awhile to kick in. It's not an instant fix and Arden Anderson does say to do it gradually. Justin does not use any nitrogen now. The soil is much more soft and bio-active. His ph has come up which means weeds have disappeared. Cows are sleek and healthy and calving problems are much less.



Gradual eh? we are on fast track here.
Has anyone experimented with fertilizing with raw milk?

[modwiz]

The biological farming principles take awhile to kick in. It's not an instant fix and Arden Anderson does say to do it gradually. Justin does not use any nitrogen now. The soil is much more soft and bio-active. His ph has come up which means weeds have disappeared. Cows are sleek and healthy and calving problems are much less.

It's a huge learning curve for farmers as they have to learn this type of farming for themselves and some are just too set in their ways. The farmer has to be a keen observer of what is going on with his land and stock. The conventional way of employing an expert does not work so well. The farmer has to understand it for himself. We also test the brix (measure of sweetness used for grapes) to test for nutritional density. Callahan and others also emphasize that bug/disease infested plants are of low nutritional density (brix) and are not fit for human consumption. Healthy plants do not attract disease or insect attack. This is tested in plots side by side with one another. The insects are the necessary garbage collectors of inferior crops and vegetables. Now that was a revelation to me. Healthy veg for instance should last well when picked. It should dehydrate and not rot!

Insects as quality control is such poetry of Nature. I see it as the work of a supreme Mother who is also an artist. It is Her design that no weak plants live because hey will not fill our bodies with the proper nutrition and light. There is also genetic 'memory' from season to season and a bad year leads to bad memory. Any plant having a bad experience puts out a 'call' and the insects come to take it down. The beauty of this system is breathtaking.

[joedjemal]

I have never heard of this before, stones as fertiliser.

I do know that many pioneers began to starve because of denatured foods grown on their mineral-depleted land after just a few years of farming, however. Many people had to continue moving west in search of good land for cultivation, not realising why they were no longer able to grow on their land...

My understanding from Hensel's research, is the method for creating stone fertiliser is to heat the stones (ordinary field stones?) for 1/2 an hour, then immerse them in water (cold?), then pulverise them. Is this correct? Is this easily done? Has anyone here tried it?

Thank you for this information, Glassteagallfan.
Joedjamal, do you use all types of fertiliser?
And Carmen, what is paramagnetic rock? Do you mean like basalt stones?
Thanks everyone.

I use stable sweepings rotted down, wood ash and biochar, bonemeal, Scottish rock dust, mycorrhyzal fungi and nettle and comfrey tea. I also use green manures sometimes. That's in the veg beds though. In perennial areas I also use humanure and try and build up communities of plants so they don't need that much feeding.

Edit: I also slip in the occasional rusty nail or two for iron.

[Mu2143]

Compost Tea for the vegetable garden -October 2010 -- Growing a vegetable garden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shIBFdGBGfo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shIBFdGBGfo

[Carmen]

Sounds like a great recipe for a healthy garden Joe! Yes, and compost tea is great. Used to make that and spray it over my vineyard.

[joedjemal]

The plants needed for the biodynamic preparations are nettle, comfrey, valerian, dandilion, yarrow and oak. I use lunar plantings but things like stags hearts are hard to come by.

The preparations sound like magic but what they're doing is acting to encourage specific groups of bacteria to activate your compost. I have a book somewhere with them all in but I find working by feel works as well.

[Swanette]

Carmody recommended this for my soil some months ago and I think he has mentioned before. This is great stuff! It is called Azomite.

http://www.azomite.com/

[Arrowwind]

The plants needed for the biodynamic preparations are nettle, comfrey, valerian, dandilion, yarrow and oak. I use lunar plantings but things like stags hearts are hard to come by.

The preparations sound like magic but what they're doing is acting to encourage specific groups of bacteria to activate your compost. I have a book somewhere with them all in but I find working by feel works as well.

Making all that tea stuff sounds like a lot of effort to me.
I have abundand yarrow, dandilion and nettles and I started comfrey last year so it will be a while.
Can't I just lay cuttings of these plants into my beds as mulch and let them compost around the plants?

[Carmen]

Yes, Arrowwind, the bio-dynamic systems are quite complex and not easily understandable. To me the preps are homeopathic in nature and quite ethereal. Once one has done it a few times and noticed a difference, then they start to make sense. I'm a bit hit and miss with it. I sort of understand and sort of don't!!

Some people swear by them and use them all the time. Maybe some members here use exclusively the bio- dynamics. Be interesting to get there perspective. Joe? Do you use the BD preps as you know about them?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

The compost tea is a system of breeding up the micro-organisms that make for healthy soil and spraying on the land and the plants.

[joedjemal]

Yes, Arrowwind, the bio-dynamic systems are quite complex and not easily understandable. To me the preps are homeopathic in nature and quite ethereal. Once one has done it a few times and noticed a difference, then they start to make sense. I'm a bit hit and miss with it. I sort of understand and sort of don't!!

Some people swear by them and use them all the time. Maybe some members here use exclusively the bio- dynamics. Be interesting to get there perspective. Joe? Do you use the BD preps as you know about them?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

The compost tea is a system of breeding up the micro-organisms that make for healthy soil and spraying on the land and the plants.

I'm afraid I don't use the preparations, mostly because some of the ingredients are hard to come by.

Arrowind, compost tea is really easy. Find a big empty barrel, fill with comfrey and nettles (or just one of the ingredients it'll still work) add cold water and leave to rot down. I usually make it the year before as it stinks but the smell dies down after a while. Then just add it to your watering can as a plant food. It's free and just as good as any liquid feed you can buy in a shop.

If you allow fresh herbs to rot down in your beds, the decomposition process will consume nutrients at first, it's best to just add them to your compost heap.

[Lettherebelight]

The BayouGardener just got himself a new fan!

Thanks, Mu2143, that was fantastic. I'm definitely gonna be bubbling some compost tea this spring!

[Carmen]

No, the compost tea I made was different than what Joe is describing. Mine was brewed over twenty-four hours in a brewer with humid acid and other goodies that bred the micro organisms. The brew was oxygenated and agitated. The temperature had to be correct. It was not a stinky mixture. The resultant brew we then topped up with water in our sprayer unit and sprayed it over our vineyard, thus coating leaves and soil with live micro- organisms. We could send a sample away to be tested to see how well we were 'brewing'. Apart from the odd sulpher spray, this was the only thing we sprayed in our vineyard to keep the plants healthy. Dr Elaine Ingham of America was the source of our knowledge of this technology. The minerals in our soil had to be balanced also to produce healthy organic grapes.

[Arrowwind]

Yes, Arrowwind, the bio-dynamic systems are quite complex and not easily understandable. To me the preps are homeopathic in nature and quite ethereal. Once one has done it a few times and noticed a difference, then they start to make sense. I'm a bit hit and miss with it. I sort of understand and sort of don't!!



Some people swear by them and use them all the time. Maybe some members here use exclusively the bio- dynamics. Be interesting to get there perspective. Joe? Do you use the BD preps as you know about them?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

The compost tea is a system of breeding up the micro-organisms that make for healthy soil and spraying on the land and the plants.

I'm afraid I don't use the preparations, mostly because some of the ingredients are hard to come by.

Arrowind, compost tea is really easy. Find a big empty barrel, fill with comfrey and nettles (or just one of the ingredients it'll still work) add cold water and leave to rot down. I usually make it the year before as it stinks but the smell dies down after a while. Then just add it to your watering can as a plant food. It's free and just as good as any liquid feed you can buy in a shop.

If you allow fresh herbs to rot down in your beds, the decomposition process will consume nutrients at first, it's best to just add them to your compost heap.

So Joe, if Im understanding right you add the herbs to your compost tea, along with the manurer? but then you say its best to add to the compost heap? Im confused now. I thought that the herbs were a tea unto themselves.

Most of my gardening is all done in an active compost heap anyway as I do layered or lasagna gardening. Stuff from the compost pile goes to larger plots like for the corn where I haven't started lasagna gardening.

With the lasagna method my plants are huge and beautiful. I dont see that they suffer from nutrient loss.
but I put a lot of stuff in there like
Bokoshi
Paramagnetic rock
Azomite
Nature Guard

along with layers of straw, alfalfa, leaves, grass clippings, goat manure and whatever else is around


I have all those herbs in homeopathic potency already in my homoepathic kit. Can I use that?

[joedjemal]

Yes, Arrowwind, the bio-dynamic systems are quite complex and not easily understandable. To me the preps are homeopathic in nature and quite ethereal. Once one has done it a few times and noticed a difference, then they start to make sense. I'm a bit hit and miss with it. I sort of understand and sort of don't!!


Some people swear by them and use them all the time. Maybe some members here use exclusively the bio- dynamics. Be interesting to get there perspective. Joe? Do you use the BD preps as you know about them?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

The compost tea is a system of breeding up the micro-organisms that make for healthy soil and spraying on the land and the plants.

I'm afraid I don't use the preparations, mostly because some of the ingredients are hard to come by.

Arrowind, compost tea is really easy. Find a big empty barrel, fill with comfrey and nettles (or just one of the ingredients it'll still work) add cold water and leave to rot down. I usually make it the year before as it stinks but the smell dies down after a while. Then just add it to your watering can as a plant food. It's free and just as good as any liquid feed you can buy in a shop.

If you allow fresh herbs to rot down in your beds, the decomposition process will consume nutrients at first, it's best to just add them to your compost heap.

So Joe, if Im understanding right you add the herbs to your compost tea, along with the manurer? but then you say its best to add to the compost heap? Im confused now.

Most of my gardening is all done in an active compost heap anyway as I do layered or lasagna gardening. Stuff from the compost pile goes to larger plots like for the corn where I haven't started lasagna gardening.

With the lasagna method my plants are huge and beautiful. I dont see that they suffer from nutrient loss.
but I put a lot of stuff in there like
Bokoshi
Paramagnetic rock
Azomite
Nature Guard

along with layers of straw, alfalfa, leaves, grass clippings, goat manure and whatever else is around


I have all those herbs in homeopathic potency already in my homoepathic kit. Can I use that?

The herbs are for the preparations, there are a half a dozen or so different ones can't remember them off the top of my head one is cow manure with one of the herbs buried on a specific date, another is a stags heart stuffed with 2 or 3 other herbs and buried on a different date, you then wait a few months, dig them up and sprinkle a little in your compost heap.

Looked them up, it was chamomile not comfrey.


http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/biody_prep.php

Edit: it's so many years since I last read them I got quite a lot wrong, it's a stags bladder with yarrow, oak bark with a sheep's skull etc. They're all at that link.