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strawchicago

Rock, Herbs, azomite, kelp, crack-corn for flower & disease resistance

strawchicago z5
7 years ago

Re-post the info. I posted in the other thread, which got too long:

Molasses contain too much iron, at 20%, which pushes down Manganese. I prefer a BALANCED nutrient like whole-grain crack corn:

Crack-corn is cheap, sold at feed store for $3 for a 5 lb. bag, or $13 for a HUGE bag that lasted over a year. Good stuff to fertilizer roses in alkaline clay. Cracked corn is acidic at pH 4, birds like to eat that, plus it neutralizes my alkaline tap-water at pH 9.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5687/2

NPK of corn meal is 1.6 / 0.65 / 0.4 .... that's better than horse manure NPK of 0.44 / 0.17 / 0.35. Whole-grain corn's minerals profile is impressive, with 53% magnesium, 25% iron, 35% phosphorus, 14% potassium, 40% manganese, plus anti-fungal agents of 37% selenium, 24% copper, and 26% zinc.

I'm looking into herbs to supply trace elements, since chemical-fertilizer have so little trace elements (like 0.05 mg copper and 0.05 manganese and 0.06 zinc). Kelp has all trace elements, but too salty for hot & dry weather.

Basil has 6 mg of zinc and 3 mg of copper (versus only 1 mg of copper in mint). I can eat the entire cup of Thai basil, but mint is hard to eat .. too strong. For herbs highest in copper, see below:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-002125000000000000000.html?maxCount=27

Zinc is the strongest anti-fungal, next is copper. Blooming require trace-elements, besides potassium and phosphorus. Lentils is also high in zinc, copper, potassium, iron. But lentils is more expensive than cracked corn.

Below link show rosemary, parsley, and sage as high in zinc:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/530281-herbs-that-contain-zinc/

Other herbs like chervil are high in zinc at 9 mg:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-002124000000000000000-w.html?maxCount=21

Manganese is needed second after iron in rose-tissue analysis. Manganese is important for root-elongation & flowering. Below link shows herbs highest in manganese, with dried spearmint at 11 mg, ground cloves at 30 mg ... I got this huge container of ground clove for only $2 from Mexican store & worked great to keep deer and bunnies off my roses.

Ground ginger has 27 mg manganese, plus cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice are also high in manganese:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-002126000000000000000-w.html?maxCount=47

Below is a bouquet fertilized with crack corn in hot & dry summer to lower my high pH tap-water at 9. I would use sulfate of potash/gypsum together with crack-corn to make the blooms larger. Blooms are a bit smaller.

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