[Stoves] [biochar] Re: Report on APBC - first two days

[Anand Karve]

Dear Crispin,
the so called insoluble minerals in the soil actually do dissolve in
water, albeit in extremely small quantities. They cannot be detected
in tests using only chemistry based on their detection in a test tube
by using specific reagents. All minerals absorbed by plants growing in
nature come from this soil solution. Powdering rocks helps the process
of dissolving the minerals in water, and that is why addition of rock
powder to a field often gives higher yield than a field to which such
dust is not added. Even silica has to be dissolved in water, before
plants can take it up. Silica and silicates constitute almost 30% of
the earth's crust, and therefore it is the most abundently available
mineral in the soil. Therefore I don't think that adding more silica
to the field would give you higher yield.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 11:38 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Do you know if the silica has any ‘medicinal’ benefit? There are people
> putting ground rock dust on fields and forests claiming benefits so I
> wondered if that was related.
>
>
>
> Thanks
> Crispin
>
>