A sandy soil would benefit from the addition of compost and organic materials. I assume that in your climate, digging in leaves would not be a problem because of rapid decomposition. Many of the nutrients you want will come from good compost so don't spend money on other things.

Low dose radiation is beneficial. This is not what we usually hear but the scientific data shows this to be true. So even if you did buy granite dust and rock phosphate, the radiation is not something to be concerned about.

Here is a link that might be useful: Health Benefits of Low-Dose Radiation

What reason do you have for thinking of adding rock feertilizers to your sandy soil? What about compost and other forms of organic matter? Unless you have an adequate amount of organic matter in the soil to feed the Soil Food Web adding Phosphorus and Potash will do little to help since they will not be available to the plants.

"Low dose radiation is beneficial."

Organic gardening does also attract the, hmmm . . . how should I say it nicely? The loosely tethered?

And does anyone else have an answer that even approaches the question?

I see people worrying about the fact that, for example, the cotton used secondarily for cottonseed meal fertilizer may have been sprayed, but I have seen no stated concern about well-known negative (albeit not extreme) conditions in commonly used natural organic fertilizers. Why is that? Is it evaluated realistically or simply ignored, whether by lack of awareness or ideologically?

In answer as to why I would consider these additives, it is much easier to add a few hundred pounds of readily obtainable and slow release potassium, micronutrients, and phosphorous to very low fertility leached sands being put into an acre of fruit trees (mostly). I would prefer thousands of pounds of woodchips or compost but cannot obtain or even deal with that readily or soon.

As with many things, the problem often lies in excessive amounts.

You'll never escape radiation, esp while working in the sun.

Radioactive radon gas can accumulate in buildings that are on the ground, but its not much of an issue in homes that are raised above the ground (like mobile homes). It's probably less of a problem in the open, like in a garden or field.

Fluoride is a component of soils, may be helpful in maintaining bone strength, and you probably brush your teeth with a bit of it a couple of times a day, and swallow a little bit.

Non-organic cottonseed meal does have herbicide toxicity issues, and its use in organic farming isn't allowed in some states. Some people argue that most of the herbicide is confined to the fiber and the seed hull, which is removed during processing of the seed meal.

"Is it evaluated realistically or simply ignored, whether by lack of awareness or ideologically?"

Well, that's the question of the century, isn't it? 8-)

Much of the information we have access to doesn't mention who is paying the bill, which often/usually colors the results. And if we do find the Real Truth, will we recognize it if we see it?

The one thing I really hate about the Internet is the adulteration of truth and the proliferation of non-truths. When we're actively looking for information, and the first ten Google pages indicate something is safe, it's often easier to accept that than dig really deep for the real truth.

So, do we insist on perfection in all things, or just make the best choices we can, from what is available?

Sue

This was perceived to be a problem back in the 1960's and maybe the 1970's and then it faded away after many found we were exposd to low does radiation all day every day anyway and flouride was naturally present in most water.
The real question is why spend money on something you may not need to spend your money on?

People who don't understand radioactivity--including those who seem to think it is all the same--are not ones whom we should accept advice from.

Solar neutrinos likely do us no harm.

Solar IR often causes delayed cancer, but is relatively easily avoided.

Background HF EM radiation one hopes causes little problem.

Radium that is put in your kids' bones--being mistaken for calcium--and sits there next to the blood-cell-producing marrow cells pounding them with powerful alpha radiation, they are a horse of a different color. Same with uranium.

Radiation "ain't all the same."

I'm sure it's been looked into. I guess I just marvel that gardeners that are hyper about the scantest traces of organic chemicals (the proverbial "pesticide on the cantaloupe rind going to the compost pile") are so sanguine about demonstrable risks. They may perhaps be low risks, but are they assessed or ignored?

I guess here I am more interested in gardeners than gardening per se.

Gone, I have a place in north central florida, and I am very interested in your assertion that finely powdered granite is a by-product of rock-crushing operations in Fl. Is that what you are saying? I did not think that there were any significant formations of granite anywhere in the state. If you know otherwise please give me the info.

In fla, I went to a countertop fabricator and got the granite dust out of their dust-collection bags. They told me al the slabs come from Brazil. i did an internet search and found some vague suggestions that Brazilian granite has higher levels of radiation than "other" granites, presumably meaning north american granite. i could not find any actual analysis of brazilian granite, or any talk of radiation in granite at all. I have read a great deal in the past year about mineralizing with rock dusts and have not come across any warnings on radiation.

So I used the dust, in a big way. I am presuming that the radiation in powdered granite is extremely tiny, but I know nothing for sure. That was in april, it will be interesting to return and do some brix-testing of resulting produce.

Some indications to the opposite of your concern below.

Here is a link that might be useful: hard to get in florida

From the link: "as the destructive atomic forces of radioactive particles alter natural metal ions, damaging the delicate biological structures in which they play an integral part."

Pure and simple kookery. The all-too-typical palaver of the snake-oil salesman.

Radiation damages DNA.

That said, rock dust from the better rocks does indeed add significant slow-release mineral-nutrient enrichment and in depleted soils probably is fairly effective. That is why the seasonally flooded Nile valley supposed stayed so fertile so long (until the Aswan high dam was built). The problem is that some rocks suitable as nutrient sources (notably granites, and the principal phosphates) are among the more radioactive rocks.

I am in South Carolina. We have lots of granite. It has a fair amount (and sometimes, albeit rarely, a high amount) of radioactivity (uranium mainly, plus some radium and others). I meant that SC is not far from the Florida phosphate mining district. Shipping cost are presumably cheaper to here than, say, to NY, especially when talking about ultimate pachaging in 40-50 pound bags.

I have nothing per se against using rock dust, even granite, though I do have a tiny bit of pause when considering what would considerably raise the radioactivity in my leached-sand garden soil. I mainly merely ask whether growers who are phobic of minor possible amounts of organic contamination (pesticides, preservatives etc.) are somehow tolerant of or else unknowing of the actual (though not very high) radioactivity of the natural fertilizers.

To answer the last question, about worry about granite dust, the answer is no, I'm not going to worry about it. I think the benefits of eating highly mineralized food will more than offset any possible ingesting of radioactive elements.

Don't you suppose we are breathing up a lot more from Japan?

Below is a link to the analysis of a ground rock product. Your rock may differ.

Here is a link that might be useful: Azomite

It will differ, greatly.

I'd love to try some azomite, but it's too expensive. Anyway it's nuts to be hauling heavy stuff across the continent. It can't be that much better than granite or basalt.

pn, I think that the appeal with Azomite is that is does have an analysis....lacking in other rocks usually.

I don't usually pound the pavement from up north to Florida so perhaps a little shipping might be ok,?

Indiana is a lot closer to Utah than any seaboard state, in any case. And yes, you can get azomite so long as I get to go to florida when I can't stand cold gray any longer :)

By spring I will have a full analysis of our local rock dust here in MA. A number of other rock sources in new england have been analyzed recently as well.

I wonder if the Conservation District (soil people) of the area local to the source of the rock in question would have any answers?

You've posed some interesting questions. Another question would be the one of 'diluting' such imported soil with your local soil.

OTOH, how much worse can it be than the constant assault on our bodies by 40+ years of chemical contamination, topical, ingested and inhaled? It's pretty pathetic when a newborn baby already has over 200 foreign chemicals in its body!

Sue