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Re: gravel tailings for fertilizer?



The answer is - yes but not exactly.

Powdered rock, especially igneous rocks, will *slowly* release most of the
minor elements, sulfur, potash and phosphate.  It is a quick fix for no
problems.  When rock is crushed at a quarry for gravel, a small amount of
the rock is powdered for which a quarry has no use.  It usually ends up in
the bottom of some pond.  The stuff, the tailings are an environmental
problem for the quarry.  It blows around and is easily eroded.  They will
be happy for you to take it if you can figure out how, they don't want to
figure it out.

---Jay

On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, lloyd kinder wrote:

> Hi. I asked about others who might want to help buy a load of soft rock 
> phosphate and someone replied as below. I'd like to know if anyone knows 
> if such tailings can take care of the need for phosphate or calcium or 
> sulphur in the soil. And are tailings different from lime. I hope 
> someone can reply with good info. It might save me and others a lot of 
> money on fertilizer. And does anyone know how to get the David Yarrow 
> article? Here's the info I got before:
> 
> >You might want to contact a gravel pit in your area.  According to a 
> report by
> >David Yarrow in the Summer '98 issue of "Organic Farms, Folks & Foods" 
> put out
> >by NOFA-NY, "talings" can often be had for just the cost of trucking 
> and do
> >much the same job of remineralizing and refreshing soil.
> >
> >The price is certainly right -- at least until quarry owners figure out 
> that
> >somebody wants their former waste by-product!  
> 
> 
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