Robert, I haven't got any thoughts on Hugelkultur
I'm sorry to say. Actually, never heard of it
before !
Clay won't get you any mileage. You want basalt
dust. The fines are an unwanted by-product fromn
a quarry. You want it as fine as possible, like
talc actually and what buy from a quarry will have
some of this, but only a small percentage. The
bulk will be maybe 2 - 3mm, pretty small and it
will work, but the smaller the better. Bacteria
are surface feeders and the smaller the particle,
the greater the surface area and therefore the
higher the pupulation of bacteria you can
support. To get a good result from rock dust,
you should use it with compost.
DJM.
On 09/12/2013 4:22 PM, Robert Deutsch wrote:
Rock dust is a by-product of rock crushing
plants, I think granite is preferred dust for Ag
use (could be wrong on that point).
*From:*Gasification
[mailto:[email protected]]
*On Behalf Of *Jeff Davis
*Sent:* Monday, December 09, 2013 12:10 PM
*To:* Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and
gasification
*Subject:* Re: [Gasification] Biochar et al.
David,
I really hate to ask this but how does one make
rock dust? Kind of sounds like clay. Could I dig
clay out of a pond and spray it on my compost pile?
What's your thought on Hugelkultur?
Thanks,
Jeff
On 12/07/2013 11:15 PM, David Murphy wrote:
Joe, you might find it of interest to look
up John D. Hamaker on the net. He was an
American Mechanical Engineer who turned his
mind (and subsequently devoted his life) to
improving soil by the addition of rock
dust. He saw global warming as a
precursor to the next ice age. He saw an
ice age as essential refurbishment of the
earth's resources. His argument has a
lot of good solid logioc to it and it's
worth adding to your store of knowledge on
the general topic. If he's proven right,
then we're in a lot of trouble ! If you
want to study it further I have a DVD I made
from a tape he produced I could let you have.
Rock dust is a storehouse of minerals, all
of which are essential to growth. First
to plants and then to the animals which eat
them - including us humans. Rock dust is
insoluble to water but not to enzymes which
are produced by soil benevolent bacteria -
bacteria which are present in soil with good
OM and in compost. Many readers of this
string will be aware of it's benefits when
used as fertiliser.
Seeking to remedy climate change purported
to be caused by anthropomorphic global
warming is an extraordinarily complex
question. And seeking to make a
contribution by sequestering carbon as
charcoal is in itself another complex range
of issues. The charcoal must be first
ligneos carbon - wood - and it is probably
almost as good to lock up some of that
carbon in timber for building houses or
making furniture.
I'd promote the first step by making the
sequestration of the carbon as part of a
broader program of building building soil
organic matter OM. This includes animate
carbon as well as vegetative. At least
get it up to 5% to plough depth, say 10
inches (250mm) as a minimum, aiming at 20%.
That in itself locks away a lot of carbon,
but of a different nature, in that it's
available to contribute to plant growth,
growth without the need for chemical or
artificial fertilisers.
Every 1% increase in soil OM (world wide)
would be a lockup of around 30 billion
tonnes of carbon in a world which generates
now (probably) 20 million tonnes
annually. Just for the record, the
biggest emitter of CO2, bigger than every
other agency combined - every factory,
airplane, car truck tractor etc and so on -
is the soil of the earth as it respires.
So, the more land we put down under crop to
feed the increasing billions, the more CO2
we produce and put into the atmosphere.
So, it's a race against a proven runner - so
called mother Nature - and she's a proven
stayer.
On the other hand, some of the wise owls are
now saying it's not CO2 at all, but PCB's
causing the damage. Maybe they're right -
who knows _for sure ?_ Nobody I'm aware
of despite what they say. It's all
conjecture, some of it soundly based, but
still conjecture relying on historical info
compiled over a geological blink.
Using charcoal and zeolite together is a bit
like wearing belt & braces with
self-supporting trousers. It certainly
works !
The easy and less costly way is to just get
the OM into the soil and plant stuff to grow
and suck up all the CO2 and N.
But whatever you do, don't stop the good work.
David Murphy.
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