Rock Dust.

[Guest grandad]

i got seers rock dust, comes from volcanic rock in scotland

[net2-3]

ive just doin a soil grow half wid rock dust half not got a tub free of my grow store to tell em what think and i think their is no difrence in perfomance when u useing good nutes and soil any way so dont be thinkin it like some wonder rock.

Do you innoculate your plants? If not then the rock dust probably wont make any difference. As far as I'm aware the elements in the rock dust won't become available directly to the plant in the timescale of a cannabis plant's life, instead it helps to sustain any fungi or bacteria added as an innoculant (and you are only likely to obtain this benefit if you're not using chemical salt based nutes that will likely kill any fungi or bacteria that are added to the soil.

[Guest TS]

ive just doin a soil grow half wid rock dust half not got a tub free of my grow store to tell em what think and i think their is no difrence in perfomance when u useing good nutes and soil any way so dont be thinkin it like some wonder rock

Hi there,

I'm thinking about getting some Basalt rock dust from the seer centre to give a try on a grow.

Has anyone got any experience of this stuff and what is like, has anyone tried it and if so did they see any difference?

Any info would be gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Murran

Heya , i use seers and one main reason was for the drought resistance as sometimes i have to leave plants unattended longer than i can manage , over twelve months ive noticed and recorded a minimum of 12 to 24 hours before the plants show visible signs of under watering (ie wilt) than untreated ones of the same/simlar condition , thats a huge widow for my set up , we have also used seers for eighteen months in gardens and allotments and very pleased with the ongoing results and test , funky fun and potions :wink: .

add , may i ask what you were expecting from rock dust kush4yield ?

[charlesweedmore]

what does Rockdust do ?

can i use perlite instead of Rockdust ?

[Randalizer]

can i use perlite instead of Rockdust ?

NO!

:wink:

They are NOT the same thing.

[ripthedrift]

Perlite is a generic term for a naturally occurring siliceous rock. The distinguishing feature that sets perlite apart from other volcanic glasses is that when heated to a suitable point in its softening range, it expands from four to twenty times its original volume. This is due to the rapid expansion of water within perlite, which creates the extremely light perlite that we use within the garden arena, with many benefits when it comes to it's horticultural uses..

Inorganic, inert and sterile, No known toxicity or fire hazard, Prevents compaction - improves aeration, drainage

Does not decompose - lasts for years, Stimulates root initiation and vigorous (depending on particle size) growth

Insulates and can help to minimises temperature fluctuations

Almost neutral ph, Holds moisture but does not become soggy, Free from disease, weeds and insects.

Its not has good has rock dust from a good source .

Rock Dust is a volcanic rock, particularly high in minerals. When crushed to dust and applied to the soil the natural weathering process is accelerated, depending on how much Rock Dust is applied. The weathering process continues each year as microbial action decomposes vegetation. This releases organic acids that percolate down through the topsoil and dissolve the fine particles of stone, freeing the minerals and trace elements.

This process ensures that in the following growing seasons these mineral and trace elements are available for future crops. Another benefit is that Calcium and Magnesium in the Rock Dust combines with atmospheric carbon to form

carbonates that are captured in the soil and recycled by soil organisms

e2a spelling

But it needs to have a very active and healthy micro heard in the planting medium to really see the full benefits from its use ..balanced medium , happy plants

:wink:

Edited June 22, 2009 by ripthedrift

[charlesweedmore]

thanks. i cant find here rock dust,what can i use instead of this ?

i have dolomite lime for calcium&magnesium and bio bizz algamic for all trace elements .should i still try to find rock dust ?

[ripthedrift]

thanks. i cant find here rock dust,what can i use instead of this ?

i have dolomite lime for calcium&magnesium and bio bizz algamic for all trace elements .should i still try to find rock dust ?

if it was me then yes I would use rock dust .....its really that good..!! for the soil or planting medium

read on .... B)

Twelve thousand years ago the great glaciers of the last Ice Age finally melted away revealing a deeply scoured, rock-strewn landscape pregnant with new life. Ice sheets three kilometres thick are heavy. They creak and groan their way down the valleys. They grind the igneous crust of the earth mercilessly. And in 90 thousand years, the length of an Ice Age, they leave behind a bed of pulverized rock dust up to three meters thick.

This rock dust is the mineral base of the soil; rich in elements needed for plant growth, complementing the hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere.

In Europe, North America, and Russia, agricultural soils have been renewed ten times in the past million years. But not so the soils of Australia, for our country was too close to the equator to be covered by ice.

Australia's soils are, as a consequence, extremely poor. Phosphorus, copper, zinc, molybdenum, cobalt, and sulphur, are all in short supply. Our native vegetation is highly adapted to scavenge for every last atom of these elements in the litter of past life. Conventional farming knows nothing of this, pours on synthetic plant food to grow a crop, treats the soil as a hydroponic base, the cruelest blow to the last surviving life forms in the darkness of our land.

Six years ago Men of The Trees in Western Australia began work on rock dust, a by-product of the quarrying industry, to see if they could restore our 'non-glacial' soils. The results were astounding. Tree seedlings grew at five times the normal rate in the nursery. When planted out they continued to leap ahead, helping restore degraded farmland in our semi-arid wheatbelt.

But was it the plant food in the rock dust that did the trick or were other factors at work? Certainly adverse effects were apparent when rock dust was tested on wheat crops at the Society's trial farm, Amery Acres, near Dowerin.

Rock dust improves soil hydrology, it tends to buffer acid soils, it can provide potassium to plants on demand. But, most striking of all, it may defend trees from the effects of harmful electromagnetic radiation such as the excesses due to our thinning ozone layer.

This paper explores our observations to date.

Rock Dust - A Lesson From The Ice Ages

In the past million years or so the Earth has gone through possibly ten Ice Ages. For reasons we don't quite understand the planet cools down by a few degrees. As a result, the ice sheets, which normally cover only the poles, spread out and extend as far as the mid latitudes. In fact they reach almost half way to the equator. This period of glaciation lasts for about 90,000 years. Then, just as inexplicably, the Earth warms up a little and the ice recedes back to where it is today down in Antarctica, or up around the North Pole.

Ice sheets are very thick. They can be anything up to 3000 metres deep. Not only that, they move slowly, slipping their way down hill, grinding out valleys and rubbing down mountain sides. They are tremendously heavy. You know how heavy a bucket of water is. Imagine lifting that bucket if it were solid ice and twenty times as high as the Central Park tower!

This slipping, grinding ice scours away at the bed rock of the Earth itself. As it moves it loosens bigger rocks and boulders and these too help grind away at the granite underneath. And after 90,000 years of this there can be a whole new layer of ground-up rock up to three metres deep!

So when the ice melts there's this deep new bed of freshly ground rock containing all the minerals needed for the foundation of a good soil. This is why the soils of Russia, Europe and North America are so good today. They are rich and deep and farmers can go on ploughing them year after year.

Australia missed out. Our soils are millions of years old. The minerals in them have almost leached away so that what is left will only grow crops if we pile on superphosphate, potassium and all sorts of trace elements such as copper, zinc, manganese, boron and molybdenum. Of course if the soils are lacking in the essential minerals the plants will be lacking too. In fact some plants won't grow at all unless we constantly feed them with all kinds of supplements.

The Role Of Micro-Organisms

Now even though plants may take up some elements directly through their roots, there are other minerals essential to life which feed the micro-organisms in the soil. Every gram of soil contains perhaps a billion living organisms! Astounding isn't it? And only when all these single-celled creatures are healthy and thriving do all the processes of life come into full play. The micro-organisms provide food for other creatures; they help fungus to spread through the soil, the fungus attaches itself to plant roots and helps the plant to take up nutrients whilst the fungus takes a wage in sugar from the plant. And there are probably many other little games going on about which we know very little. All we can be sure of is that when everything is in balance the whole system is healthy and the plants really flourish.

Now that is what Men of The Trees is all about. We want our trees to flourish. We want them to grow fast and reliably under the most exacting conditions of our semi-arid country. So we are adding rock dust to the potting mix.

The first time we did this we made an astounding discovery. Every species we tried grew twice as tall as the control - and twice as healthy too! So that is one reason why Lucy Rogers has rock dust included in all the potting mix we use today at St Barbe Grove Nursery. It's also the reason why Men of The Trees has leased 23 hectares of land just east of Dowerin so that field trials can be undertaken to find out what we can about rock dust, how it works, and how it might benefit not just trees but all our crops and pastures as well.

But it will take many years before we can really be certain how rock dust works. One thing is sure. Being in at the beginning of a research project like this, discovering how to reverse the trend to desertification, how to grow healthy crops to feed healthy people, how to restore prosperity to our country is very exciting. And there's plenty of room for you to share in this venture too!

We hope that what we learn may also benefit farmers throughout the third world who also missed out on those Ice Ages and finished up with impoverished soil like ours.

read the rest here and the source

Rock Dust Puts Out More Than You Think

Barrie Oldfield (Australia)

[Bert]

I and several friends are using rock dust, the general consensus is that the plants are studier and generally more healthy all round.

I know its a quote from a long time back....

Needs reposting tho I recon

Ive been using PM rockydust for this grow and the plants are looking much better for it. Also using the last of my rootgrow aswell and it's proving a great mix along with the rockydust.

Bert...

[charlesweedmore]

thanks guys. but i cannot find it. here it means i will be able to use rock dust .i will try to find/make better compost next time and i'll give a chance more to bio bizz nutrients

Edited June 23, 2009 by charlesweedmore

[Randalizer]

When do we get a smoke report charlie? :wink:

[charlesweedmore]

soon randa.i will harvest my plants in 2 weeks.i can see some amber trichs on a ww and i may harvest her next week .even i made a carboard box to dry them

smell is very good and fruity. i will make some cannabutter as well.

stay tuned

Edited April 24, 2010 by O.G.

[Guest cantharis]

what about marble or granite dust?

Marble is calcium carbonate, would possibly make the soil too alkaline. IMHO, granite would be OK - but it is mainly ground silica - same as the much less expensive builders' sand.

I use crushed volcanic lava to help drainage, along with the aforementioned builders´ sand. (Easily obtainable here!!)

Edited July 21, 2009 by cantharis

[neothe1]

Just thought I would give this thread a bump as it took me hours to find it

I'm going to be using some rock dust for the first time so look out for some pictures of my results.

I must add that I'm in New Zealand so I wonder if there's much difference in the mineral content of the rock dust.

The following article in the new zealand herald appears to back up claims that rock dusk can indeed improve overall vigour of you fruits a veggies.

http://www.fertilefields.co.nz/drupal/roksolid_article.

[justonemore]

When was that puplished Neothe ?

I'm using the Seers rock dust for the first time this year mainly on the veg patch as from what I understand it's a long term soil improver, not so usefull for the girls ? I'm sure the vegtables from Iceland are going to be great for the next few years

Also got a daft experiment on the go, these are Basil seeds in vermiculite and compost and vermiculite and rock dust, not hard to see the difference so far.

JOM