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.