HelpfulGardener.com

Hi
I have several different plants and would like to start fertilizing them with organic fertilizer. I heard rock dust is great because micro nutrients, but are there any others that are better?
Thanks

Compost. Preferably homemade. Please see the Stickies in our Compost Forum and read to your heart's delight about the many possibilities for making compost, even in a small space! or even indoors...

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Rock dust can be a valuable tool, but Cynthia's right, compost is the best answer...

What kind of rock? [url=https://www.humates.com/]Humates[/url] are great for adding humus to depleted soils, but only a very little N-P-K value as fertilizer. Granite has certainly got lots of potassium and micros, but no nitrogen and phosphorus. We could add Chilean mined nitrates (petrified guano) but we'd be shipping around the planet, or phosphorus mined here, but it leaves 70% of the mined earth as radioactive tailings (hundreds of tons of this radioactive sludge fell into a sinkhole in Florida and contaminated the Floridian water table a few decades back, not very green ). So it's rock specific really...

Compost is ALWAYS a good idea, and non-specific; just use local stuff and you can't go wrong. Biology is our favorite fertilizer, hands down, and compost is the best way to get there...

HG