More on Azomite

While cleaning out a closet last night, I came across an old, professional natural health magazine from 2003. There was an article in the magazine referring to a Journal of Urology article. At the time, prostate cancer rates were on a steep increase, and the the authors hypothesized that depleted selenium in the nation's soils played a highly contributing part in this increase.

Peer-reviewed, double-blind tests were performed, and the results verified their hypothesis: selenium consumption greatly lowered the risk for prostate cancer.

Their recommendation was to supplement 150 to 200 micrograms of Se per day, but as a former nutritional counselor and natural product rep, I know that many of the mineral supplements containing selenium do not absorb all that well.

Azomite contains the perfect amount of selenium, and food grown in azomite will be nutrient dense in this vital micronutrient; more importantly, the availability of selenium in food is much higher than in supplement form.

If you are feeding a male over the age of 40, it is my humble opinion that it is highly beneficial to add azomite to your growing media.

FWIW, I do not have any financial stake in azomite.

Azomite is an acronym meaning "A to Z of minerals including trace elements". You can google azomite.com for all kinds of information on this product including the analysis of its 70 ingredients. I have a bag I'm trying out this year. It is volcanic material and I like the idea of good things from the deep earth helping the garden. I don't have a financial interest in this product either.

Interesting info on selenium. It is one of the minerals, along with copper, that many of us with goats have to supplement, especially since our government limits the amount of selenium that can be added to livestock feeds. If we don't supplement with several times the recommended levels we have problems with lack of immunity to lots of things.
I wonder with all the supplementing we do if it has much of an effect on the manure and therefore the compost.

Llamas have issues with low selenium also, interesting that goats do too. Somewhere on that site it talks about animal supplementation and I've read of humans taking it directly in small amounts. If your question means can we over supplement our plants/gardens and/or compost towards toxic levels I don't know. If you find out please let us know.

Yes, it's possible to over-supplement with selenium, although I don't recall the advisable maximum dosage.

llama momma wrote:Llamas have issues with low selenium also, interesting that goats do too. Somewhere on that site it talks about animal supplementation and I've read of humans taking it directly in small amounts. If your question means can we over supplement our plants/gardens and/or compost towards toxic levels I don't know. If you find out please let us know.

It was just a thought not so much about toxic levels but how it might affect the levels.

Our goat minerals have the max allowed level but the goats eat it at 2-3 times the recommended amounts(except right after injecting or bolusing) and we still have to inject selenium a couple of times a year to keep the liver levels in the normal range. Same with copper except not injected but given in an oral bolus. Shepp on the other hand accumulate copper in their livers and will die of copper toxicity on the same feed that goats are very deficient on.

A note from the MerckVeterinary Manual - "Since copper is used extensively in poultry diets, sheep rations that are supplemented with poultry litter may contain toxic amounts of copper" . This would make me wonder about commercial poultry manure.

I was referring to the maximum dosage for humans.

I recently talked with someone about placing new sod on my lawn and they were going to add some azomite to help the soil.

If azomite were added to the SFG would it be a one time addition, yearly, every 5 years?

we too are trying Azomite this year....a local nursery where we got our new fruit trees from...is carring it....in a smaller box of 6 lbs and a larger bag....we bought the box and we are sprinkling it around the root area of the seedlings when we transplant....

it would be great if we all kept an update on the Azomite and share the results from using it

I don't have a financial interest in this product either..

happy gardening
rose

H_TX_2 wrote:

If azomite were added to the SFG would it be a one time addition, yearly, every 5 years?

My guess is it would depend upon what you grew in the bed and the nutrients that were taken up.

Wikipedia informed me of this, regarding selenium: "Selenium is also necessary for the conversion of the thyroid hormone thyroxine (T4) into its more active counterpart, triiodothyronine, and as such a deficiency can cause symptoms of hypothyroidism, including extreme fatigue, mental slowing, goiter, cretinism and recurrent miscarriage.[citation needed]" The azomite.com site's Certificate of Analysis also shows it also contains iodine, which I've long heard has something to do with underactive thyroid. Having been diagnosed years ago with hypothyroidism, maybe I should also look into supplementing my 3-year-old SFG beds with azomite, (as well as compost). To simplify: I supplement my garden, my plants suck up plenty of good stuff, I eat the results, and naturally ingest the same good stuff, i.e., minerals and elements.
After all, Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

Here is the FAQ from the website -
http://azomite.com/faq.html

If it's volcanic material I imagine it's a pretty good thing to add. I think I will add it when I make up my mix. Thanks for the info!

I have been reading and hearing good things about Azomite and added it to my beds at the time I filled them. I figured it couldn't hurt and maybe would help in some ways to the benefits of Mel's mix.

Okay, now I feel better after making my confession

I agree. Even though I have a bunch of sources in my compost I'd rather give it all I've got and hope for plants that can fight off diseases and bugs better than ever. We'll see! And as far as that confession Bob, go forth and sin no more

That's what I was thinking. Now to find some, locally and cheaply.

I read a year or two ago about someone who had a fruit orchard. They kept extremely accurate notes and noticed a big and consistent difference in using Azomite. That testimonial may be on the Azomite website mentioned by Llama Mama. I have been meaning to get some and today I was mentioning to my son as we were shopping for lots of seeds that I also need to get some Azomite. I do intend to get a lot and use it for my sfg beds, my lawn and my fruit trees. Well actually everything! I think a little goes a long way. I'm sure my house plants will like it also!

I grabbed a 44lb bag of the pelletized (not micronized) Azomite from the local Intermountain Farmer's Association Co-op, on the recommendation of growingyourgreens.com

Turns out that location is the only source in Las Vegas for any kind of Azomite, so I am lucky to be able to get it!

As I filled Plot B and Plot C of my garden, I mixed in Azomite. Plot A doesn't have any (yet), but I have no qualms adding it. 1-2 pounds per square feet is a small modification, but if it results in bumper crops, yeehaw!

brainchasm wrote: 1-2 pounds per square feet is a small modification, but if it results in bumper crops, yeehaw!

That application seems excessive to me so I checked and it is a bit less that is recommended.
Azomite Soil Application Guidelines
With 0.15% nitrogen, I am not sure this rock dust is the panacea that some are making it out to be. But if your compost quality is poor or there isn't enough of it in the garden the azomite should certainly improve things.

It is not meant to be a source of typical fertilizing macronutrients N-P-K, instead as a source of 70 or more micronutrients. If you want to browse the site it has all the information you could want from scientific studies, application rates, history, etc. Personally I am very curious to see how this product performs this year.

There is a page explaning the brix test results on the plants too which showed plants were consistantly and extremely high in nutrients. Heck, that's what I want too. You'd think I was a salesperson but I am not! Just very curious about this volcanic source of nutrients..

This is from the website azomite.com:
"Most conventional fertilizers contain mainly Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K), which are called macronutrients. Plants require macronutrients in large amounts. NPK are only three of the essential nutrients required by plants. When choosing a fertility program, growers often neglect trace minerals and focus primarily on NPK. For plants to complete their life cycle and produce at full potential, a wide range of trace minerals is necessary; AZOMITE® contains a wide range, from A to Z. AZOMITE® is a natural inorganic substance and does not harm the environment. AZOMITE® is 100% natural and OMRI-listed for use in organic production."

I'm sold!

John of growingyourgreens on utube is a proponent of Mel and his SFG methods and mentions that new gardeners should build their gardens this way, which he does himself, but he has also learned about the benefits of adding azomite for its additional several trace minerals which help soil to grow healthier and bigger crops along with using trace minerals from the sea (Sea-90) as well. As a subscriber to John's channel, I can see there must be some benefits to adding the azomite just in seeing his results.
Though I haven't done this myself yet (we may move next year) I will certainly enjoy seeing pictures of gardens here that have done so and hear what others have to say.
Those of you trying this amendment, please keep us posted on your results. thank you.

I got on the website this morning and here is one quote from it: "Proven to avoid and/or reverse the effects of blight in trees and vines." I thought that may be interesting to those of us who get blight. There is a photo showing a flat of tomato seedings without Azomite and a flat with Azomite. Of course the flat of tomatoes with Azomite are much larger and sturdier looking or they wouldn't have shown it, lol.

We are lucky here in Utah that Azomite is actually from here so we have a lot of resources. It was first discovered and used in 1940 by the man who discovered its existence.

camprn wrote:

brainchasm wrote: 1-2 pounds per square feet is a small modification, but if it results in bumper crops, yeehaw!

That application seems excessive to me so I checked and it is a bit less that is recommended.
Azomite Soil Application Guidelines
With 0.15% nitrogen, I am not sure this rock dust is the panacea that some are making it out to be. But if your compost quality is poor or there isn't enough of it in the garden the azomite should certainly improve things.

Correct, I missed a number there. It was in my head to type "10sqft", it just didn't make it to my fingers. So 1-2lbs per 10sqft.
And yeah, it's NOT an N-P-K source, it's all the micros (selenium, etc).

FWIW - last year I had a problem with my bush green beans and from testing, I knew the N-P-K levels were OK. The color of the leaves led me to believe that I probably had a boron deficiency.

At that point I researched Azomite and found that it contained the trace minerals not usually found in the commercially purchased compost I had used to make the beds. I added Azomite to the soil and had a good crop of beans.