granite dust
mikkle
14 years ago
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14 years agomikkle
14 years agoRelated Discussions
uses for bark / DE / granite dust?
Comments (3)I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not since you only have indoor space but... I've read about DE being used as a mechanical pesticide because the edges of the particles can cut through exoskeletons of insects. There are several threads on this throughout the forum (just do a quick search typing in 'diatomaceous earth'). Most look like they just put it in the soil. There are also a couple threads on the forum about using it as flea treatment for pets. But where I originally heard of it was here where the rinsings containing the dust were actually sprayed on plants to kill aphids, in this case. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but the particle size for the 5:1:1 mix is dust to 3/8." So I think you could use the dust from your 1:1:1 gritty mix in the 5:1:1 mix if you use that in other container plants....See MoreGranite Dust
Comments (27)My county agent sent me this link because I have been asking him about granite dust as a source of phosphorus. Having read both sides in various places I decided to test it on my own. When taking soil samples for spring I dug under a pile of granite dust that had been near my house for several years so see how much, if any, phosphorus had leached into the soil beneath. I was careful to exclude any granite dust from the sample. My fields are seriously depleted in both potassium and phosphorus from cotton/pine plantings over the years. The sample under the granite heap had over three times the phosphorus that all other fields had - almost up to the necessary level for planting. Our farm is just south of Elberton, GA - "The Granite Capitol of the World" - so granite screenings are available and relatively cheap. Now if only I can find a cheap and organic source of potassium, but that's another thread....See MorePotash..... Greensand, Granite Dust and Soil Report.
Comments (16)To expand a bit on what fertilizersalesman said about phosphourus, it is difficult to make any kind of P adding recommendation given that P is nowhere near as important to plants as it was once believed to be and the lab making recommendations may be using old info on what amount is required or newer info. My personal opinion is that the NPK way of looking at things is fundamentally broken. This doesn't just apply to organic gardeners, but even 100% synthetic commercial agriculture has for decades placed more importance on P that appears to have been wise. To this day one can find high P fertilizers promoted as bloom inducing when it is not at all true. Best I can tell the reason folks got so concerned about P is that it generally isn't very available in mineral soils in cool weather. To deal with the lack of P availability in cool soils folks got the idea that they should dump a lot more P on their soil so that the amount available would hopefully increase. This then led to the erroneous idea that high P was a good thing to get plants flowering and producing. More recent research suggests that most plants will use less P over their lifespan than they will calcium and sometimes magnesium (the ingredients in lime). To me this breaks the entire NPK concept and if we really want to over simplify plant nutrition we should replace NPK with N-Ca-K at a minimum. The good news is that in many cases elevated levels of P (such as is common in my state and certainly common in my yard) are of no real consequence because it suffers from availability problems in my northern, cool soil garden. So, even though P is elevated in a soil this doesn't mean a plant will get an excessive amount of it. We could discuss other nutrients and the common misconceptions of them, the reasons why amounts lower or higher than a soil test recommendation may or may not be important, the role of pH and how critical it is or isn't etc, but let's not :) As has been mentioned numerous times if you wish to pursue organic methods to growing things, please release your mind from NPK and pH. Start by adding organic matter and then see how things go. High amounts of organic matter in a mineral soil neatly resolve most (but not all) problems related to soil chemistry issues. It (organic matter) is the starting point....See Moregranite dust, best way to clean cabinets
Comments (5)Geez! I'm sorry to hear they did that; I'd have thought they'd have had the consideration and professionalism to do exactly what you thought would happen. I'm no granite expert, but how about your soft brush idea combined with a shop vac or regular vac hose right below your brush. You might be able to use a large soft new paintbrush. I'd fear if you used the brush attachment of the vac it might drag grit across the surface of your cabinets and scratch them. With you wielding the brush, you can tap it off between sweeps. Good luck!...See MoreUser
14 years agoKimmsr
14 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years agoKimmsr
14 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years agoUser
14 years agojunktruck
14 years agodocgipe
14 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years agomikkle
14 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years agomsmaggie38654
8 years ago
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana