The ideal natural form to feed elements to soil is as insoluble minerals available from finely ground rocks. To maximize conversion of rock minerals into protoplasm and plant nutrients, the best strategy is to grind rocks to powder. This increases the surface area of rock that is exposed and accessible to soil microbes. A normal fist-size rock has a surface area of a few square inches, but ground to the consistency of fine sand, the rock's a surface area becomes several thousand square feet. Thus, microbes can much more easily access and rapidly consume the rock's minerals, and thus more quickly deliver them to plant roots. The finer the rock is ground, the greater the exposed surface area, and the more rapidly soil microbes will digest it.

General recommendations are to grind rocks to at least 200 mesh, which is finer than fine sand. Several successful rockdust fertilizers are 400 mesh or less—as fine as talcum powder. One new product—Summa Minerals—will pass 22% through a 2500 mesh screen.

These finely ground dusts can be difficult to handle, cake up when wet, and easily disburse on windy days. A few manufactureres have granulated or pelletized their products to make them easier to handle and spread with a mechanical spreader.

workshop for farmers & our future Soil Fertility, Biofuels, & Carbon Sequestration local agriculture & global climate renewing our regional farm economies

Recycle the Sea "My research clearly indicates the reason Americans generally lack a complete physiological chemistry is that the balanced, essential elements of the soil have eroded to the sea. Consequently, crops are nutritionally poor, and the animals eating these plants are, therefore, nutritionally poor. We must alter the way we grow our food, the way we protect our plants from pests and disease, and the way we process our food. From the start, my sea solids experiments produced excellent results, and it has now been conclusively proven that the proportions of the trace minerals and elements present in sea water are optimum for the growth and health of both land and sea life." —Dr. Maynard Murray Medical Research Doctor Sea Energy Agriculture

Rocks are not equal in their ability to provide nutrients. Some rocks consist of only a few elements; others contain a wide diversity of elements. Some rock contains too much heavy metal, others consist of a wide diversity of trace elements. Some rocks contain an abundance of silica; others consist mainly of clay-forming minerals.

Molybdenum Missing Element in the Climate Change Equation September 2005

For maximum vitality, it's important to supply soil with ALL the nutrients that are essential for plant and animal growth. Not merely the organic elements and major elements—Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Calcium (N-P-K and Ca)—but all the elements, especially the trace elements.

There are at least a dozen other elements, beyond the major seven, that science now knows are needed for healthy plants. Many more—such as molybdenum—needed by specialized soil microbes, which fulfill special functions to create soil and fertility, such as synthesizing certain enzymes, vitamins, antibiotics, or other critical biolmolecules. Most are required in extremely tiny amounts—micrograms or less—and thus are called "trace elements."

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The Earth Renewal and Restoration Alliance — www.championtrees.org — updated 12/31/2005