That's interesting... I grow shiitake mushrooms and they are said to be a good source for selenium (selenium is a type of antioxidant).

I grow them on hardwood logs that I inoculate and leave out in the forested hollow below our house. I know the mycelium feeds on the rotting wood, so whatever's in that must be the source for what's in the mushrooms.

Disclaimer:
I AM NOT A SOIL SCIENTIST.
I HAVE NOTHING TO SELL YOU. Believe whatever you want about what I write here.

I am a chemist by education and occupation. I also enjoy gardening and trying new things, in the garden and out. The chemical analysis performed is qualitative. That is, I did not run a calibration curve to determine concentration of anything present. I was consistent in the amounts used for analysis so I can ‘eyeball’ the data and readily see if one sample is much higher in concentration relative to another. However, the quantities recommended for use by the manufacturers vary so a straight across comparison isn’t really meaningful. I have not adjusted for recommended quantity. Sea90 requires very little product. Ecomin a modest amount, and Azomite requires the greatest quantity.

The following is my analysis of soil from my garden and three soil remineralization products.

Garden soil
Cation chromatography: sodium, potassium, calcium, ammonia, all about equal
Anion chromatography: negative
X-ray fluorescence: strong silica, iron, medium calcium, aluminum, lesser potassium, vanadium

Azomite
Cation chromatography: strong sodium, potassium, calcium
Anion chromatography: chloride
X-ray fluorescence: strong silica, iron, calcium, potassium, lesser aluminum, chloride, barium, manganese

Ecomin
Cation chromatography: sodium, potassium, calcium, all about equal
Anion chromatography: negative
X-ray fluorescence: strong silica, strong iron, medium to strong calcium, lesser aluminum, vanadium, potassium, nickel, copper

Sea90
Cation chromatography: overwhelming sodium, also potassium, calcium, magnesium
Anion chromatography: overwhelming chloride, nitrate
X-ray fluorescence: very strong chloride, medium calcium, sulfur, lesser potassium, iron, zinc, bromine

Seasalt
X-ray fluorescence: strong chloride, weak sodium, sulfur, calcium, cobalt
Ion chromatography not done on sea salt


I specifically looked for Selenium per Heather’s comment but did not see any. It looks to me like Ecomin or Azomite would be the way to go if one desired to try soil remineralization. I can’t wrap my head around the amount of sodium chloride, good old salt, in Sea90. Isn’t salting the earth something done to make things not grow?

I found some old references regarding soil remineralization. Both have expired copyrights and PDF copies aren’t too hard to locate by internet search.

Bread from Stone by Dr. Julius Hensel, agricultural chemist, translated from German, 1894.
From what I gather this is the start of the modern soil remineralization movement.

Paydirt by J.I Rodale, 1945,
Another popular reference. Rodale, as many already know, was proponent of organic gardening.

Key words to use when researching this topic include:
Stone dust
Rock dust
Quarry dust
Basalt
Soil mineralization
Soil remineralization

As I mentioned in a previous post, I plan on dividing up my garden into 4 small sections, one without amendment and one section for each of the three amendments I purchased. I will plant each section the same and monitor with photographs and possibly notes, depending on how motivated I get.

Well, it seems to me that your soil did pretty good as far as available minerals. It'd also be interesting to know how the soil in each bed tests after you amend them with the different products.



This is going to be a lot of fun to follow. I'll have to look into it more too. I'm certainly familiar with Rodale Press, so I'm guessing he's a part of that.

Thanks for posting the results Perry. This is really cool stuff!

The concentrations of elements in my soil was actually comparable to the rock dust amendments so unless there is some trace element that I missed (quite possible) I'm guessing not alot of difference would or could be seen. Think of it like this. It's like adding a teaspoon of table salt to a bucket of seasalt. It's mostly the same thing in a comparable concentration.

I could see the usefulness of mineral amendments in a depeted soil like a desert or an intensively farmed soil. But a casual gardener's soil with regular compost may be like an unlikely candidate for depletion.

I saw some interesting books on soil science and analysis on Amazon.com. When I get far enough along with my current readings (other topics) I may have to purchase a couple.

Today I tilled garden with my Mantis mini-tiller to remove light weeds, raked a dividing mound (hard to see in photo), added amendments per manufacturer’s recommended concentration, and set up sprinklers for watering.

I only used two garden sections, dividing each on in half for the experiment. Each half is about 20 square feet, maybe a little more. The third garden section still has wheat in it. Florida isn't really a wheat growing state but I thought it might be fun to try.

I put labels each section but the reflection washed it out so I added the letters to the photo.
C=control, no amendment
A=AZOMITE
E=ECO-MIN
S=SEA-90

Either tomorrow or next weekend I will purchase already started vegetables to plant.

March 24, 2012 Purchased and planted vegetables from Espositos, a local nursery.

This is pretty cool Perry - I know I'm not replying to most of your posts, but I'm watching the thread!

I'm certainly paying attention too.

Thanks for keeping us up to date Perry!!

I think i like Tallahassee Nursery more, they are both good tho. Guess your in the Tallahassee Area?(Maybe Perry guessing by the name. From Mayo

I'm just outside Havana.

Espositos has a particular hot pepper I haven't seen elsewhere. Esposito's, Tallahassee Nurseries, Native Nurseries, and a couple others are all fine places. Sometimes it's more convenient and just as well to go to Lowes or Home Depot too.

not to mention sometimes cheaper

Not the datil pepper is it?

Hi,

Yes you are right I have a Google alert for soil remineralization on the Internet to be able to follow what's happening. We are going to have an online social community soon on the website of Remineralize the Earth for people to be able to exchange their experiences, photos and videos and form groups for different areas. Rock dust is food for the microorganisms and that is one of the many ways that the minerals are translated into the soil and into the plants. I have volunteered for about 25 years and we are not selling any products.

Joanna
Remineralize the Earth




R

I haven't seen the background on what you are doing. If you are using rock dust what are you using? I hope you will join our online social community at the website when we put it up soon.

Joanna
Remineralize the Earth

It's the HABANERO CARIBBEAN RED, arguably the hottest home grown pepper and second hottest pepper overall.

Check on page 3 of this thread for details.

So you gonna make some homemade bear spray?

Maybe , but I've been making my own hot pepper sauce for the past several years.

HINT: the key to good sauce is a 'regular' hot pepper like jalapeno or cayenne or even tabasco, a few really hot peppers (habanero) and a few sweet banana peppers.

haven't forgot about this thread i hope

Not a lot to say right now. I'm just watching my garden grow.

I'm mostly growing weeds.

I have been eating lettuce and got a lot of asparagus, and my cukes are sprouting but I planted them way too early on a whim.

Crazy warm weather here. It feels like I should have planted everything 2-3 weeks ago, and the weeds are growing like it's mid May, but our average last frost is still a couple days away.

I'm still growing snow... well not true, it is finally melting away and it was above freezing this morning.

I'm with Heather. Spent some time shoveling snow yesterday 2 to 2 1/2 feet off the decks. Only day dreaming of gardening and thinking about starting some seed indoors just to get some dirt under my fingernails. Usually plant the garden after Memorial Day weekend around these parts. We still get frost in August, believe it or not. So the plan for this summer is to build a greenhouse. I can hardly wait

Well Perry, how're the plots doing?

Can you see any advantage in any of them yet?

Our weather's been pretty cool for the past week, so thing have been growing pretty slow, but it's warming up a bit so they should start growing faster soon.

I got some tomatoes and peppers in over the weekend. Dill is doing great and cukes are coming along good. Weeds are still doing amazing

The weeds are my fault though. I just haven't put enough mulch on the garden yet.

Took some more lettuce and radishes today. I might try planting some more this week.

The blackberry bushes are growing good, but only a few flowered out. Not sure why.

Our roses are just awesome this year. We have a few old world Damask Rose bushes that we planted just for the fragrance and they are just amazing right now. Last year Japanese beetles ate the buds before they could bloom, but I haven't seen them yet this year.

Ticks are already vicious. I get a few hitchhikers every time I walk out in the pasture to the barn or garden. I'm pretty bit up already. We have five more hens to put out there in another month or so, that will help some.

The tomatoes and cucumbers are all comparable. The onion and peas are doing better in the amended soil. The amendments are performing about equal, maybe a slight edge to the Azomite. Hard to say on the peppers, mixed results there. It's still early though.