Dear list, Instead of buying bags or truck loads of rock dust, why not buy just a bag and potentise it and spray it on the ground as Kolisko suggested below. Although she uses lime as an example, is there any reason why this process wouldn't work with rock dust?
-Chris Allan posted this last year: Koliskos on 'Smallest Entities In Agriculture' The following is from "Agriculture of Tomorrow" by Eugen and Lily Kolisko. This title is out of print and is reproduced here for purposes of education. "Today, people in general are little inclined to detach themselves from the claims of the material world and to seek the spiritual directly in the physical world around them . . . It is, however, precisely from observing dirctly the sense-percptible that a right path will open out for those who wish now to work entirely within the fild of present-day science, if they really seek to discover the spritual there. It can be done . . Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION It may seem strange to speak about "smallest entities" in agriculture, but it is absolutely necessary that farmers and gardeners learn to understand this important phenomenon. The problem of minutest quantities, or better "smallest entities," was studied from 1920 in the Biological Institute at the Goetheanum (Stuttgart) and later on in the Biological Institute at Bray, Berks. The attempt to find a remedy for "Footand-Mouth Disease" led us to the question of "smallest entities." What is the right concentration of the specific remedy to be injected? Rudolf Steiner suggested that the effect of different dilutions on germinating plants should be studied. From 1920 until today we have been studying this interesting subject. One might think that this is a medical problem rather than an agricultural one. Of course it is a medical problem in that we are looking for a certain remedy, but it becomes an agricultural problem as well if we study how the growth of plants is affected by substances which are diluted, or rather potentised. What does "potentise" mean? Exactly what the word itself expresses. In potentising a substance, we increase its effectiveness. We make the substance more potent. The strange thing about potentising is, that we have to reduce the amount of the substance which we want to make more potent. In everyday life we are accustomed to think: if we want to make something more effective, we have to take a bigger quantity. For instance, if we want to make coffee sweeter, we take a second teaspoonful of sugar. In homeopathy we are told just the opposite thing. If we want a stronger action from a certain remedy, we have to potentise it, that means dilute it with water or alcohol, again and again, in a rhythmical way. This is the first and most important thing we have to learn: to discriminate between matter and force. Matter can act in two different ways: as matter, or as the specific force behind the matter. In everyday life we ask only for matter, for quantity, and we do not even stop to think, that there is something like a force which is active in every kind of matter. Sugar for instance is not only sweet, that is one quality we discover with our sense of taste. Besides being sweet, sugar has many other qualities which we are unable to taste but none-the-less have definite reactions within our organism. Now we must raise another important question: What do we want in reality? The substance itself, or the inner quality of the substance? For instance, a farmer may be convinced that his soil needs lime. How does he solve the problem? Usually he digs a large amount of lime into the soil. Again and again he will dig in lime. Let us now study the influence of "smallest entities" of lime on the germination of wheat. We put a certain number of seeds in a control dish with water. Then we dissolve one gram of calcium hydroxide in ten parts of water and shake the mixture for some minutes; then we have the first potency or a dilution of 1: 10. We take I part of the first potency; mix it with 9 parts of water; shake for the same time, and we have the second potency, or a dilution of 1:100. We may continue this process of diluting as long as we like. Usually we make our experiments up to the 60th potency. Having finished all the potencies, we insert the carefully selected seeds, and, a few days later we compare the results. The seeds inserted in he first potency of lime scarcely start to germinate. The effect of lime in such a high concentration is thus proven unfavorable. The seeds in the 2nd potency start to sprout, while while those in the water control are much more advanced in growth. The 3rd potency is more advanced than the 2nd, the 4th is of about the same value as the water control, the 5th already surpasses the water control and has definitely better developed roots. The 6th potency is more advanced than the 5th, and the 7th and 8th potencies show still more increase in growth. That means, if we observe these few potencies, that a dilution of 1: 100,000,000 of lime produces a much better growth than a lower potency. The lime works much more powerfully if we use a minute quantity. Whenever we have to introduce lime into the soil we need not dig in a ,'large quantity of the solid matter, but spray a certain potency carefully on the surface of the soil. It is an easy, and a very economical way of helping the soil which is lacking in lime.
