This is a trial of different ways to attempt to increase the levels of minerals in food. Previously I have used basalt rock dust as a soil amendment but have never done comparative trials of different remineralisation methods.
For this trial there are 4, 1m (approx) square beds as follows:
| 1 - Soil |
| 2 - Soil + seaweed foliar spray |
| 3 - Soil + sea minerals |
| 4 - Soil + rock dust |
Each bed will grow 4 separate crops, planted at the same time and treated in exactly the same way. The crops are: onions, carrots, lettuce/cabbage and dwarf French beans.
At harvest each crop will be sampled for BRIX levels and records kept. I hope to be able to repeat the trial over next 4-5 years.
A good explanation of BRIX and nutrient density can be found in The-Quest-for-Nutrient-Density by Jon C. Frank.
The beds were completed and 9 onions planted in the same square of each bed today, 29 April 2008.
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| The completed beds |
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| A bucket of garden compost was added to each bed and lightly forked in |
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| This bed had basalt rock dust added which was raked into the surface of the soil |
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| The finished beds with 9 onion sets (Jetset) planted in the top left square of each bed |
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[...] for about 10 years. This year I wanted to do trials of soil remineralsisation treatments (see the 2008 trial pages for more information.) I used 1m square beds and sub-divided eashc bed into 4 squares each [...]