Dear DJM, I have never heard of Hugelkultur either, but a Google search did turn up a number of hits. Looks interesting, but I have always heard that uncomposted woody material put into the soil without adequate nitrogenous materials will actually draw nitrogen out of the surrounding soil as the little microbes need both C and N to thrive. A balance of 20:1 to 30:1 is recommended for successful composting.
I just remembered the radio show I heard on rock dust recommend igneous rock dust (ie Basalt or Granite). From: Gasification [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Murphy Sent: Monday, December 09, 2013 2:43 PM To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification Subject: Re: [Gasification] Biochar et al. Robert, I haven't got any thoughts on Hugelkultur I'm sorry to say. Actually, never heard of it before ! Clay won't get you any mileage. You want basalt dust. The fines are an unwanted by-product fromn a quarry. You want it as fine as possible, like talc actually and what buy from a quarry will have some of this, but only a small percentage. The bulk will be maybe 2 - 3mm, pretty small and it will work, but the smaller the better. Bacteria are surface feeders and the smaller the particle, the greater the surface area and therefore the higher the pupulation of bacteria you can support. To get a good result from rock dust, you should use it with compost. DJM. On 09/12/2013 4:22 PM, Robert Deutsch wrote: Rock dust is a by-product of rock crushing plants, I think granite is preferred dust for Ag use (could be wrong on that point).
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