"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle"
[...]
Sounds like a waste of money. If your soil is lacking something,
you
find out what it is, and replace that, not a whole lot of other
stuff. But you probably don't need anything you wouldn't get from
the
usual gardening processes: compost, bonemeal, etc, seaweed if you
can
get it, and a bit of ordinary fertiliser if you need it. There's
no
magic in volcanoes: the best thing for improving soil is growing
things in it.

It isn't a waste of time: in fact, in trials it has proved
spectacularly effective in increasing crop yields.

It was featured on (IIRC) one of the R4 science programmes. I can't
unforget the details, except that I think the initial experiment
was
carried out in Perthshire.

OK, I'll accept that -- unfortunately missed the prog. So how does it
work? And has it worked in other places? I can see that from time to
time a depleted soil might need trace-mineral replacement; but surely
that's a rare case?

I'm assuming that the experiments were carried out with the usual
controls, in order to avoid what I think of as "the reading-scheme
phenomenon" (impressive results achieved with a new teaching method,
but turning out to be just because of the extra attention received by
both pupils and teachers).

--
Mike.


I think your original statement "Sounds like a waste of money" was spot on,
however, for those who want it here is the price schedule

Rock Dust comes in 20 kg. bags which will cover approximately 40 sq. yds as
an annual application, prices are as follows:-

1 bags £15.99 each
2 to 4 bags £14.50 each
5 to 10 bags £12.99 each
Prices INCLUDE delivery and VAT