Ok guys, here’s my question. I’ve realized that my recycled soil mix is getting deficient in its mineral content, it’s a mostly organic, loamy mix that I’m starting to blend some sand and other minerals into. I got some Azomite and reamended with it, seems like neat stuff, volcanic ash is cool. The thing that worries me a little is the high aluminum content of it, and I’ve read conflicting opinions on how much that matters. Some feel it’s locked up as aluminosilicates and not mobile, some feel that the way we supplement soils with fulvic and humic will chelate those bonds and make it bioavailable to be accumulated in the plant. I’m planning on mixing it up and using basalt or granite rock dust next reamend, and integrating some pumice as aeration to keep things diverse. But I still wanted to see what the hive mind has to say. Do you use Azomite? In addition to other rock dusts or instead? What do you think about the aluminum content? Is it unnecessary if my soil mix is already full of kelp, silica, gypsum, bone/crab/fishbone meals?
I use Azomite, in addition to src Carbanotite (calcium rich volcanic sand deposit) and Charcoal in my recharging efforts. As an organic guy I looked into mineral content and assays of these products, until I stopped reading. Seems every single input has a horrible dark spin to it. High metal contents, radioactive minerals, Selenium, Arsenic…it goes on and on until I think that buying peat moss is triggering climate collapse. I figure if you don’t grow it, shoot it or cut it down, you HAVE to mine it. Trusting the horticultural community at large and avoiding products from multi-national or Overseas companies is the only way I can keep calm, under the bombardment of competitors bro-science propaganda these millenia. Cover your needs, not your fear. Cheers.
I believe Azomite has over 70 listed ingredients/minerals. I’ve never looked back
Think that’s one of those things it’s easy to over worry about. If you eat great value brand anything you already eating a crapload(relative quantity) of aluminum
Peat in North America, I think is more sustainable than coco. Since it was never mined for fuel over here like in Europe, Canada has pretty strict controls on its mining too. Coco, is hardly sustainable outside of tropics, harvested and processed in SE Asia/pacific islands and shipped well, everywhere. From a sustainability standpoint indoor growers should probably be doing aquaponics. Less media, doubbly productive water use.
I appreciate this viewpoint, and agree. I’m trying to look at the science of organics from agriculture and the most rigorous of cannabis growers, but there’s an extra angle I guess I didn’t mention. I’ve been using my recycled soil now for two years and don’t plan on getting rid of it anytime soon, I plan to just keep amending and recomposting all my plant matter from my grow back into it, and adding aeration and minerals as needed. So I’m trying to be forward thinking about the things that accumulate in a soil over time, particularly those heavy metals. I live in an area that is very old and formerly industrial in a lot of places, it’s a mix of beautiful organic farmland and surprise brownfields from a hundred years ago, so I think I spend a lot of time considering what’s in the soil from long ago and I don’t want to find myself with 200 gallons of excellent, lovingly crafted soil that I’ve lavished with the finest inputs and then it tests toxic for aluminum or something else.
Totally agree with you and trying to avoid accumulation issues. My soil is about 10 years old now, and testing would probably be of great benefit…I would imagine sticking to non-mined organic supplements (pitch guanos too) with a dash of carefully selected micros (from a hydroponic store) to avoid heavy/toxic metal problems in your mostly organic mix.
Right. I use a lot of ocean inputs mostly, and while those can have contamination problems too, I feel good about my suppliers, mostly Coast of Maine and Down To Earth. I use Espoma for my kelp and gypsum, and their Tomato-Tone, since they seem to be an old and trusted organic brand and also very cheap and easy to get. The only poop I use besides a little poultry manure in the TT and CoM 100% earthworm castings is fossilized seabird guano from Roots. The mineral thing I’m still figuring out, pure extracted stuff like AgSil or Epsom is easy enough to understand but the raw rock dusts and ashes with their complex chemistries and decomposition rates are something I’m still learning about.
I was trying to get a grip on that when thinking of using human vitamins as plant micros…once upon a time… LOL
Still gotta try the crushed up aspirin as salicylic acid/willow water thing, but I’m mostly fine with getting special plant vitamins just like my cat gets special vitamins. I just want them to get the good ones, not crap.
yeah thats why I stopped trying to ‘ghetto solve’ everything in the growroom. Ongoing soil testing would be the way if you have the availability. My big problem right now it a few plant eating nematodes, so 10 years down the drain possibly. Ahh yes, living soil in a living world…
Huh, I think you can knock those guys out by solarizing your soil outside in the summer, you can probably save it by cooking off them and their eggs, this guide to IPM for them talks about it:
Have a look at KIS reamendment packs:
Takes all the guess work out. I use a similar Canadian product.
Cheers
G
The problem with that one is that I already use about half the ingredients in my soil reamendment mixes or in some bottled stuff I still have. I do want to get some of the things in there but I’m looking for a really focused mineral product without the other amendments.
Ok so I see no one has mentioned this yet so check it out as long as your pH is with in range the alluminum can’t be taken up by the plant or not available , clay also has a high alluminum content it’s what allows it to / water holding compacity so it’s really best to layer it towards the bottom of pot like a clay layer or close to clay layer outside like in the horizon system it’s just where it goes but for a top dress you could mix it in some compost so it doesn’t clump on the top it gets evenly distributed and over time work it way to the clay layer eventually hope that helps
Sea-90 is a good one I use it at a rate of 1tsp per gal in my waterings and if you got access to red granite it’s high in iron also , it’s what I use I just go down to this place that cuts tombstons and I can get all I can haul for free I just got to load it myself , my poor little truck be squited to the max lol edit it’s like a stone flour
Just bought some SEA-90 today! Good idea on the stone cutting places for stone flour
Yeah I love it, and the granites also have some of the paramagnetic properties like the basalt , I perfer the red granite because of the iron content cannabis loves her iron
I got my SEA-90 from this place, it was the cheapest I found it broken down from the fifty pound bags:
If you use kelp and fishbones it’s likely your soil already contains heavy metals more toxic than aluminium. Organic growers have lost their certification because of using contaminated kelp.
Topdress or make compost or wormcastings with kitchenscraps, tree leaves, grass clippings, thistle, nettle, dandelion, etc. They contain more than all the minerals you need. It’s safe, it’s free and it doesn’t require packaging (waste) and unnecessary major transportation or machines.
All you gotta do is go for a walk in nature with a bag.
