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gixxerific
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Rock dust from drilling?

I do construction and a lot of the houses we do have Geothermal piping put in for heating and cooling. They will drill 8 - 10 holes to run the pipe down. There are big piles of whatnot left over by each hole. Mainly rock and soil debris. Do you think this would be good for the garden. I suppose finding out waht kind of rock they are drilling through would help but your basic MO bedrock is what it is whatever that may be. If it would be good I could truckloads of it.

What do you think?

Dono

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applestar
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I'm thinking great source of minerals....
The people doing the drilling probably know exactly what they are. 8)

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gixxerific
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applestar wrote:I'm thinking great source of minerals....
The people doing the drilling probably know exactly what they are. 8)
I'm thinking the same thing. There is usualy a 4 foot or so high mound of dust around each hole so way more than I need.

Maybe I could bag it and sell it.

You want to buy some? :lol:

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Contaminants from the drilling rig?

Eric

cynthia_h
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I'd ask for a soil profile, if possible. "Rock" dust can have all kinds of...stuff...in it, whether naturally occurring or anthropogenic.

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gixxerific
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DoubleDogFarm wrote:Contaminants from the drilling rig?

Eric
That thought has come up to me as well. But the only thing would be if the truck leaked oil or grease. Basically just a drill and water in the hole.

Can't be worse than using Miracle Grow right. LOL :lol: :P

dustyrivergardens
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I bet it would be very good. I get my rock dust from ground river rock ground granite and ground up volcanic rock I think the minerals pulled deep from the earth would be great. heck ya I would put it in my garden.

Little Homestead
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Maybe try it first on a flower bed...light dusting. Then have the soil tested the next year to see if there are any contaminants or imbalances.

You could also call your local Cooperative Extension Agency to see what the bedrock is in your area, if there are any naturally occurring deposits of asbestos or high levels of iron or other minerals.

I would be very careful with adding unknown minerals to a vegetable or fruit garden. I used to answer questions for the county Master Gardener Hotline. I had a gentleman call in and ask why his fruit trees were dying. After asking a lot of questions I found out that he had been adding iron filings to his soil in quantities large enough to kill a tree. He got mad at me for telling him that he might have killed the trees with the iron. The point is, you can overdo a good thing without really trying and undoing the damage could be difficult and costly. So be careful.

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rainbowgardener
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Dunno, but I think it is interesting that geothermal heat / cooling is becoming common. I looked in to it when we replaced our furnace, but it still seemed prohibitively expensive to low-budget me. The fact that it will pay for itself eventually doesn't do me any good when I have to put the cash up front.

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soil
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if you cant id the rock, chances are you can get it tested. if you find one good source. it will last your garden for years and years.

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OROZCONLECHE
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This might be a dumb idea, but so does that mean I can go outside get my Concrete drill bits and drill some holes on a rock and add it to my soil?

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soil
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yes but you would be better off just buying some its very cheap. goes by the names azomite, rock dust, rock fertlizer, glacial rock dust and a few more obvious ones.

limestone does not count! too much limestone powder will F^%K up your soil.

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gixxerific
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RainbowG yes geothermal is a great idea. But you and I have smaller homes and the cost to benifit just doesn't work out in our favor. It is very expensive, these houses we work on are 1 - 30 million dollar houses. They are friking huge and it will pay off in time, still a long time. We probably wouldn't live long enough to see the benifit really kick in. In my house it would be it want to say about 20 - 30 years. :shock:

OROZCONLECHE like Soil said just buy it if that is the route you are going. The drill bits you would need would be way more expensive than the bags of it you can buy. :wink: Those bags are just the leftovers from quarrying. So they have tons of it, hence the cost effective resale value.

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OROZCONLECHE
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Oh I know they are expensive those drill bits are some good stuff, but I mean I already have them, and so I like doing everything at home and if making rock dust for free I want to do it free plus I love working with my tools, 8) also is wood dust any good for plants? or just compose, I like making containers of wood they look better in my opinion than pots and stuff like that, so the dust stays in my garage and maybe if it helps my garden I'll throw it in too.

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gixxerific
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Wood shavings/dust is much better for the compost. It is super high in carbon and can hinder plants if used directly it will suck the nitrogen out of your soil if used driectly. But in compost with plenty of greens you can't go wrong. Though I have thrown out small amounts myself before. :?

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OROZCONLECHE
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So is it good to add it straight to the soil?

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rainbowgardener
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gixxerific wrote:RainbowG yes geothermal is a great idea. But you and I have smaller homes and the cost to benifit just doesn't work out in our favor. It is very expensive, these houses we work on are 1 - 30 million dollar houses. .
Wow...$30 million dollar house... I can't imagine. $1 million is ten times the house I have ...

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gixxerific
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rainbowgardener wrote:
gixxerific wrote:RainbowG yes geothermal is a great idea. But you and I have smaller homes and the cost to benifit just doesn't work out in our favor. It is very expensive, these houses we work on are 1 - 30 million dollar houses. .
Wow...$30 million dollar house... I can't imagine. $1 million is ten times the house I have ...
Yep 30+ you should see the house I'm on now.

stryper
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Out in Wentzville, or are you working in the Chesterfield Valley?

When I worked construction for a small builder before going back to school, I work on a $900,000 house off Wildhorse Creek Rd. I think the builder just put a normal air conditioner but he had to put in a septic system with about a 1/4 acre leech field.

But yeah. Lot of rich dirt and rock....most is probably limestone so I'd be careful about it, because of acidity changes. Also took out a ton of trees, which just got chipper-ed.

So you might consider that option too....free mulch anyone.

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OROZCONLECHE
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I heard the City of Ontario was doing alot of reconstruction in the city, they were giving out free Soil, mulch and amendments unfortunately I found out the day after they gave everything away



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