Bat Guano

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on February 20, 2011 at 21:16

I wouldn't be too happy about using bat guano as a fertilizer as a lot of its production requires destruction of habitats and loss of biodiversity. It's all very well for fairly primitive agrarian cultures to use local materials to increase their soil fertility but commercial extraction for sale to the affluent west is a different matter.

 

Sorry, but I get on my high horse sometimes about these things. There's plenty of natural fertilizers available locally without moving stuff half way round the world.

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Permalink Reply by Flighty on February 20, 2011 at 21:24

I agree with Colin!

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Permalink Reply by Debbie on February 20, 2011 at 21:27

I was wondering where on earth they get it from. Not a nice thought.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on February 20, 2011 at 22:56

Debbie, the raw material usually comes from caves in South America or Malaysia and is very unpleasant stuff to handle. The dust causes a condition similar to farmers lung and in addition contains lots of harmful bacteria.

 

The stuff available over here is sterilized but I still wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole.

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn Blake (The Plotkeeper) on February 21, 2011 at 0:31

Did some research into it and I don't think i'll be using it either, wouldn't have the destruction of bat habitats on my mind. Not earth friendly stuff, is it? Think I'll stick to rock dust and will inform my friend about it. Thanks for the info.

Colin Robinson said:

Debbie, the raw material usually comes from caves in South America or Malaysia and is very unpleasant stuff to handle. The dust causes a condition similar to farmers lung and in addition contains lots of harmful bacteria.

 

The stuff available over here is sterilized but I still wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on February 21, 2011 at 23:02

Evelyn, I've always been curious about this rock dust and its beneficial effects. I'm aware that soils derived from certain volcanic rocks are extremely fertile so if they use crushed basalt it would work. I was sceptical at first but when I realized that some of the trace elements in soil are there in minute quantities it was obvious that continous cropping would eventually lead to their depletion. These are elements that are only available from the mineral part of the soil and are not easily replaced.

 

Let us know if it really does what it says on the can.

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn Blake (The Plotkeeper) on February 27, 2011 at 12:38

Hi Colin, I can definately recommend Seer Rockdust, I spread it on last year and my crop and the health of the plants were excellent, a big improvement on the year before. In fact the allotment users had a bad crop of potatoes but mine kept on growing. It got to the stage where they were embarassing and I began to think they might be all tops and no bottoms! But not so, it was the biggest crop ever. It was the same for all the produce except maybe the fruit. It is expensive but you only need use it every 4-5 years. this year I am going to give sea poodir a go too. I hope you try it and let me know the results.

Colin Robinson said:

Evelyn, I've always been curious about this rock dust and its beneficial effects. I'm aware that soils derived from certain volcanic rocks are extremely fertile so if they use crushed basalt it would work. I was sceptical at first but when I realized that some of the trace elements in soil are there in minute quantities it was obvious that continous cropping would eventually lead to their depletion. These are elements that are only available from the mineral part of the soil and are not easily replaced.

 

Let us know if it really does what it says on the can.

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