Livinlocal
Well-Known Member
Any other organic gardeners in this group?
For the last few months I have been putting a few hundred pounds of extra live rock through a bleach and rodi rinse/soak process, and had a random thought...
What if we used clean, ground up rock as part of a calcium amendment for our gardens?
now I know this may sound crazy to some people, but to me it actually sounds like a very good alternative to spending a lot of money on calcium amendments. I know there will be people that advise against this because there is no longer Rock being exported, but where I live, I couldn't even sell it for a dollar a pound, and would never attempt to ship it. I won't be breaking up any large / nice looking rocks. This would be more for the smaller rocks that would have no use in a aquascape. Also, no Tonga will be harmed in this process LOL.
With that being said, I believe there may be a beneficial use to using clean/dried rock from the ocean. It is essentially calcium bicarbonate, along with having stored nutrients inside of the rock. In theory, it would help the soil replenish calcium, phosphates, nitrates, and other trace minerals.
Right now the main calcium amendment I purchase for my garden is crushed oyster shell, which is not the cheapest. Again, in theory, I could use the rock to replace oyster shell and could potentially also help introduce other elements that would be beneficial to my garden.
to me, I don't really see any type of negative effect, which leads me to why I created this post.
what could possibly go wrong? Is there something in the rock that could potentially kill the garden? What am I potentially looking over?
The only thing I can really see possibly being an issue would be salt deposits left inside the rock, but after soaking The Rock in bleach for a couple weeks, then doing 5 rodi baths for 2 weeks at a time, I'm pretty sure there aren't any salt deposits.
Anyway, is this a good thought, or am I absolutely crazy? All advice and suggestions are welcome.
For the last few months I have been putting a few hundred pounds of extra live rock through a bleach and rodi rinse/soak process, and had a random thought...
What if we used clean, ground up rock as part of a calcium amendment for our gardens?
now I know this may sound crazy to some people, but to me it actually sounds like a very good alternative to spending a lot of money on calcium amendments. I know there will be people that advise against this because there is no longer Rock being exported, but where I live, I couldn't even sell it for a dollar a pound, and would never attempt to ship it. I won't be breaking up any large / nice looking rocks. This would be more for the smaller rocks that would have no use in a aquascape. Also, no Tonga will be harmed in this process LOL.
With that being said, I believe there may be a beneficial use to using clean/dried rock from the ocean. It is essentially calcium bicarbonate, along with having stored nutrients inside of the rock. In theory, it would help the soil replenish calcium, phosphates, nitrates, and other trace minerals.
Right now the main calcium amendment I purchase for my garden is crushed oyster shell, which is not the cheapest. Again, in theory, I could use the rock to replace oyster shell and could potentially also help introduce other elements that would be beneficial to my garden.
to me, I don't really see any type of negative effect, which leads me to why I created this post.
what could possibly go wrong? Is there something in the rock that could potentially kill the garden? What am I potentially looking over?
The only thing I can really see possibly being an issue would be salt deposits left inside the rock, but after soaking The Rock in bleach for a couple weeks, then doing 5 rodi baths for 2 weeks at a time, I'm pretty sure there aren't any salt deposits.
Anyway, is this a good thought, or am I absolutely crazy? All advice and suggestions are welcome.
