Rock Dust

Had a look at the Beechgrove Garden interview of a farmer/grower in Perth with a desolate landscape farm
Growing giant vegetables, for years,
He stated that they only use recycled compost from Dundee council and Tayside contracts ROCK DUST
Dundee council compost is available for pick up at £2 100Ltr bag to us
Rock Dust is free take your own broom and bag
Rock Dust they use is the dust from a slate quarry in Perth,
Now the Quarry produce Slates
the broken bits are crunche up and they make breeze blocks
The fine dust and bits left are a pain worth nothing

The farmer in Perth gets tons free from them and attributes this dust to his massive veg, so chucking tons of inert rock dust onto veg makes them grow?

I admit I have seen some pretty weedy trees clinging on for dear life in cracks on cliffs, but crushed up rocks I find hard to believe would be a nutrient ?
Why not just grow in Vermiculite ?
Or would compost and Vermiculite provide the same monster veg ?

As I am off this week I may take a trip 30 miles down the road with my broom and a big bag, and conduct the experiment myself
ONE compost and Vermiculite
ONE compost and Rock Dust
ONE compost and Pearlite

For quick results six lettuce in each

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Rock Dust is a component of the "magic mixes" that the Giant Veg growers use. I have NEVER understood why it could be any use at all ... but maybe you have the proof.

You can buy Rock Dust on eBay (and for all I know Snake-oil and Top-less Bottom-less Bikinis too ... )

"Rockdust- 420 million years old, freshly ground, untreated, volcanic rock from Scottish quarries. Decades of rigorous gardening trials and scientific analysis show Rockdust to be safe to add to soils and compost. Whilst chemical fertilisers may produce more immediate visual results, Rockdust adds a huge range of mineral and trace elements for long term soil health.

Thanks to the activities of the soil and compost fauna (from microbes to worms) remineralised soil and compost produces the following benefits:

- BOOSTS organic soil fertility
- HIGHER nutritional value
- LONGER shelf life of produce
- LUSHER lawns

- BIGGER healthier crops
- BETTER flavour (vegetables start to taste like they used to!)
- INCREASED pest resistance (less reliance on pesticides!)
- IMPROVED drought resistance

Rockdust also works as a COMPOST ACTIVATOR, encouraging microbial activity, creating a higher temperature, reducing odour, locking in more nitrogen and improving fertility of the compost"

Blinking miracle cure then ... Roll-up! Roll-up! Roll-up! ... Snake Oil at the next stall ...

Perhaps I'd better get some and give it a go.

 

Volcanic? Whats its radiation level then?

 

This has recently been discussed here http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/edible-gardening/36607-rock-dust.html

I'm quite on the fence on the subject, there is plently of info online about how good it is, but I'm not convinced.

The trouble with trials I have always felt when conducting them is your constantly monitoring plants all the way through their life, they get more attention than your normal plants would perhaps get and so grow better anyway because of that. Of course you have a control set of plants, but even then you'll monitor and so pay those more attention too.

So when I see the results of trials I'm also quite sceptical of the results. Some people undoubtably conduct them well and leave control sets alone, but I bet a fair proportion do not.

Steve...

 

hope you goes well for you have a good week end m8

 

Not that I know one iota about this stuff, but I wonder if his farm sits on clay soil - if so it may be that the soil is nutritious anyway but the rock dust improves the drainage, hence his veg are thriving?

 

Put it on half the plot and don't tell her? Perfect double-blind-trial ...