HelpfulGardener.com

The guy I bought my house from was a organic landscaper, he left me with a couple of bags of AZOMITE. Seems to work pretty well and my fruit (tomato's, cukes and peppers) seem to really like the stuff. WOndering if anyone else had ever used it?

I'm not familiar with it. Do you know its NPK ratios, or other nutrients it contains?

What are its "ingredients"? Sounds like potent stuff!

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

Mineral Analysis

Alumina (Al2O3)*
11.43%

Oxygen (O)
.73%

Barium oxide (BaO)
.09%

Phosphorous pentoxide (P5O5)
.15%

Calcium oxide (CaO)
3.67%

Potassium oxide (K2O)
5.23%

Carbon (C)
.61%

Silica oxide (SiO2)
65.85%

Chlorine (Cl)
.22%

Sodium oxide (NaO2)
2.07%

Ferric oxide (Fe2O3)
1.37%

Strontium oxide (SrO)
.03%

Hydrogen (H)
.38%

Sulfur trioxide (SO3)
.21%

Magnesium oxide (MgO)
.78%

Titania (TiO2)
.20%

Manganese oxide (Mn2O3)
.02%

Nitrogen (N)
.15%

Trace Elements (below) 0.38% LOI @750o C** 6.43%

It is certified Organic. It's actually a rock dust only found in Southeastern Utah, and nothing is added. It's mined, put into bags and shipped.
I belive it's part of the Biodynamic movement to remineralize the Earth. Check out www.azomite.com for a complete analysis and also to find distributors. Like I said seems to work pretty good.

Wow. I think I'll look into it! Sounds terrific.

Thank you for the info.

Cynthia

Azomite
A to Z Minerals- A Complete Organic Fertilizer
An Organic Fertilizer full of Minerals & Trace Elements

Azomite is the name of a special rock in Utah. Early this century geological prospector Rollin Anderson found deposits of montmorillonite clay in a valley south of Salt Lake City. U.S. Bureau of Mines analysis showed the clay is similar to Chilean/Peruvian caliche rocks from which much of the world's nitrate was mined. Anderson ground montmorillonite as fine as possible, then put it in his garden. Results were amazing and nearly immediate. Minerals in Azomite Organic Fertilizer are necessary to optimal metabolism in living things. Ground to dust, trace minerals are small enough to pass through cell walls of organisms.

Azomite Trace Mineral Fertilizer is natural mined rock from a specific volcanic deposit in central Utah marketed as a free-flowing, less than 200 mesh, tan to pink powder with a density of 48 lbs./cubic foot. No additives, synthetics or fillers. Mineralogically, Azomite is rhyolitic tuff breccia. Azomite has 67 major and trace elements, so its name means "A to Z Of Minerals Including Trace Elements." Typical analysis shows every element that's beneficial to plants and animals, and other elements (micro-nutrients) scientists believe essential. Azomite was mined since 1942 as soil amendment. Crop farmers report improved growth, health, size. Potatoes report 19-60% increase in yield; sugar beets are larger, with higher sugar content. Citrus growers report improved recovery from decline, healthier trees.

BAM! There we go....give me some of the good stuff. I literaly put this stuff on a couple of days ago and my veggies are responding nicely. Outside of ordering on the internet this stuff seems hard to find, luckily there is a local distributor near by.

Seems like there have been some scientific analysis with control groups and the experimental groups with azomite. In fact a couple experiements were performed by MSU and other accredited agriculture college's. Will update in a week to see how the progress is coming. Thanks guys and girls

Our local organic place stocks it. I've had a 50 lb bag all summer but haven't tried it. I'll give it a shot soon.

OK! I ordered some, but the bags have NO information on them about application rates.

I did an Internet search on "Azomite application," but the recommended rates seemed rather high and more geared towards commercial-scale or arborist-scale uses.

Any ideas on how much to use in containers (X amount per Y diameter, for example)? Or sprinkling/applying to in-ground plants?

I'm not looking for a wholesale change in pH, just the provision of trace minerals to help my veggies, berries, infant fig tree, roses, etc. grow.

Thx for any help!

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

Application Guide

https://azomite.com/app_guide.html

"
Vegetables and Flowers:
When preparing the soil, use AZOMITE® at the rate of 1 lb per 10 sq ft. ..."

...means use ~ 1/10th of 1 lb for 1 sq ft. THAT basically means "sprinkle" it lightly around the plant as a side-dressing and work it into the soil with a cultivator.

Right. This "1 lb per 10 sq ft" rate is the one that seems very high. Along with 500 lb/acre...

I was wondering whether anyone had hands-on experience with effective application rates for Azomite, or whether I need to (*sigh*) set up the experiment and spreadsheets myself. (Of course, I *can,* but would rather not, hoping someone else has the experience and will share it.)

Thx for the info; have you used Azomite yourself? Was 1 lb/10 sq. ft--a) absolutely wonderful, b) observably effective, c) smothered insect eggs but no observable effect on plant growth, d) detrimental to plants?

Cynthia

It's not scientific but I usually buy organic fertilizers and other soil treatments and just try them. With Azomite, I had 4 -30 foot rows of pink eye peas to play with. The plants were about 6 inches tall. I hand spread from a two gallon bucket Azomite along two rows. About two weeks later, the rows I treated were about 10% taller but the biggest difference was that the leaves were noticeably greener and the plants were a good bit healthier looking. I'm sold on it and pretty much use it throughout the garden. It's too expensive to broadcast but very affordable to scratch it in along the rows.

Charlie MV wrote: I'm sold on it and pretty much use it throughout the garden. It's too expensive to broadcast but very affordable to scratch it in along the rows.

Good to hear that you're "sold on it"! So I didn't waste my $$.

And you betcha! it's "too expensive to broadcast." I can't imagine 500 lb/acre, much less the other amounts they toss around on their website.

Let's see...2 gallons for 60 row-feet of plants...equals 1 gallon for 30 row-feet. But now I'll need the density of the Azomite.

Back in a minute.

Got it. 48 lb/cubic foot.

And there are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot (or, looking at it the other way, 1 cubic foot per 7.48 gallons).

1 gal/30 row-feet x 1 ft^3/7.48 gal x 48 lb/ft^3 = approx. 0.2 lb/row-foot, or 3.2 oz/row-foot.

How wide an area in each row of the pink-eyed peas received the Azomite?

Believe me: this calculation is yet one more reason why the US needs to adopt the metric system: g (or kg) per cm (or m) of row; compare to the g (or kg) of product I have, and move a decimal point. Which is why 4th- and 5th-graders in the rest of the world can do volume/capacity calculations, and 8th-graders in this country are still struggling with it and THEN have to learn the metric system in math/science class so they can "do" the class and THEN get turned off to math/science. (Sorry, personal soap box.)

I've taught this stuff, and kids never "get" why they need to understand unit conversions. "We'll never use this!"

But of course, we just did!

I just kind of dropped it. I'd guess about 6 or 8 inches wide on average.

Hand spread or sprinkling means putting enough down to see it cover the surface but just barely -it is not solid.

No I do not use it, yet. I have not done enough research to satisfy my need for knowledge about the effects, esp. long term effects. Plants respond to application of chemicals when they are lacking the chemicals they want. Besides, I am not sure the any plant here needs Alumina or that the soil needs mineralization. (if it is not broken I surely do not try to fix it 'cause I have plenty of broken things that really do need fixing)


I agree about metrics. It boggles my mind that we are the only (major) country on the entire plant Earth that still teach and use the English system. We were supposed to switch to the metric system over 20 years ago.
Still waiting ...

Get on that soap box as much as you want. I do, .

Have Fun!

all is well and my garden seems to love the Azomite. I am a firm believer in remineraliztion of the soil and I think Azomite does the trick. I have two rows of cukes and due to space trellis them upward. On one row I used Azomite and my organic compost on the other row I used just the compost. What a difference, the row with Azomite has produced 5 times more cukes. Not only that they are bigger and grow alot faster. Plus they taste yummy, as do the other cukes with no Azomite I just had to wait longer for them. I also used Azomite on some Tomato's with the same result. Here is the kicker. I have two Hop plants which I experimented with. The one in which I used Azomite is almost 50% larger and developed hops three weeks before the other one. OK I'm sold.
Also in response to fhj52, most soil is broken. Thousands of years thru natural and human intervention soil that was once packed with minerals are now depleted. There is a great book that talks about restoring the soil "Secrects of the Soil" by Tompkins and Bird. I highly recommend this book.

I scoured the net pretty well and really couldn't find anybody talking bad about it. I did notice it's sold for human consuption as well as an additive in animal feed.

Hi Everybody,
I've grown vegetables, herbs,fruit trees and ornamental plants and roses using AZOMITE for almost a decade. There are a lot of other mine sites and companies claiming similar products work better but they often don't include a full scientific analysis and have the years of research AZOMITE does.
I would beware of any product claiming to already have "chelated" minerals that come out of a natural mine site.
Chelation refers to the process whereby an organic chelate reacts with an element, almost always a metal, to form a compound which is extremely difficult to rupture. In other words, once a metal is chelated it is, in essence, removed from the system, it is inert.
Natural minerals are chelated through various acids, either organic or inorganic, and micro organisms and their acids and water and turgor pressure in the ground over time and depending on lots of factors may happen slow or fast.
Saying a naturally mined mineral rock is chelated is confusing and may not be true depending on how someone is describing it.
The reason AZOMITE works so well is because it contains all of the naturally occuring macro and micro nutrients needed by plants and animals and also contains the full spectrum of rare Earth's, also known as the lanthanides that contain small metal components that give them electrical properties.
AZOMITE also has a high amount of natural silica which has been researched to be highly beneficial in a number of plant processes and in fighting disease and salinity in soils.
There are too many individual benefits and functions of the individual elements contained in AZOMITE and the way they work in soils, plant and animal digestion and aquatic environments to list here but it truly is an amazing product that I am sure we'll see more of as people begin to understand the state of our soils and the need for better fertility and human nutrition.
I wouldn't be able to grow award winning vegetables without it. Even my worm bin gets a littlle AZOMITE in it and I've fed it to my champion full blood boer goats and my chickens, guineas and jumbo pheasants too.
The amount isn't quite so important as applying an NPK fertilizer that could break down rapidly and burn plants. It will break down in the soil as the soil organisms attack the mineral particles to transport them to the plants roots. Fulvic and humic acids can help begin the process. Innoculating with mycelium and soil bacteria help too if your soil is depleted or has a history of herbicide and pesticide use.
I treat in the fall and spring and any time I am transplanting out seedlings or when the plants are likely to endure stress from heat or cold spikes. Getting it under the tree in the drip line or in the root zone of the plant under the soil surface is really key to getting it where it's needed. If there is a lot it will just be available a little longer.
Happy Growing!!

I have received my first bag of Azomite...got it from Fedco Seeds. I plan to use it moderately at first and give a few spots a fairly good application; some spots moderate; some spots a light application, and some areas none.

Nice try

Azomite is not a fertilizer!

It is also not a renewable resource although it is organic since it is mined. It is basically minerals. All plants benefit from trace elementts but unless your soils are deficient you should not need to add a lot of it.