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Post by mountaindweller on Jan 22, 2013 19:50:09 GMT -5
There are some plants or weeds that apparently mine the subsoil and accumulate the minerals they find there in the topsoil.
I use comfrey mulch especially around tomatoes and yarrow is good around fruit trees. And you can make liquid fertilizer out of it.
Horsetail is another plant which R. Steiner followers use, but it is banned here as a weed and I cannot get this herb or find it anywere growing in the wild.
But the plant can only mine what is there, or are there always enough minerals in the subsoil? How efficient are they anyway? Which other plants do you use?
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Post by ferdzy on Jan 22, 2013 20:15:20 GMT -5
Horsetail is another plant which R. Steiner followers use, but it is banned here as a weed and I cannot get this herb or find it anywere growing in the wild. Count your blessings! It's one of our worst weeds. I don't know if it brings up minerals but it only really grows in very poor soil. |
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Post by steev on Jan 23, 2013 0:43:24 GMT -5
I rely on deciduous trees to do my subsoil mining; every Fall there are truckloads available free for the hauling.
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Post by MikeH on Jan 23, 2013 12:24:50 GMT -5
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Post by richardw on Jan 23, 2013 12:25:01 GMT -5
Horsetail is another plant which R. Steiner followers use, but it is banned here as a weed and I cannot get this herb or find it anywere growing in the wild. Horsetail really is a invasive herb alright,i was given a plant a few years ago and it ended up spreading right through the herb garden and along my driveway,spent hours hoeing it out of the garden and used heaps of salt in the drivway,but its died out in the end. But the plant can only mine what is there, or are there always enough minerals in the subsoil? How efficient are they anyway? Which other plants do you use? I would think that the minerals would have to be present in the subsoil for a start and that also it would have to do with what type of subsoil you have as well,subsoils that contain at least some clay would hold minerals better than ones that dont. |
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Post by hortusbrambonii on Jan 23, 2013 12:27:54 GMT -5
You mean equisetum vulgare? That evil thing even survived the worst of the dinosaurs...
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Post by raymondo on Jan 23, 2013 15:00:08 GMT -5
I'd imagine that anything deep rooted is going to be able to get to minerals in the subsoil. I have comfrey and I let common dock (Rumex obtusifolius I think) grow in places and use the leaves as mulch. I also get my neighbour to drop all his yard waste (mowings, prunings etc) at my place.
ed: I forgot that I also sow lucerne here and there to slash as mulch.
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Post by steev on Jan 23, 2013 17:09:21 GMT -5
There you go: mine the neighbors!
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Post by mountaindweller on Jan 24, 2013 5:53:44 GMT -5
I mine the neighbours and lawn mowing companies.
There is really something special about some plants. Try growing tomatoes with and without comfrey mulch I think there is a difference!
The thing is that most of these plants are as well used in herbal medicine, for example both comfrey and yarrow is good if you cut your finger.
Apparently equisteum arvense is good against fungal infections in the garden, but I couldn't try it because it does not grow here. There are other forms of equisteum too.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2013 18:08:29 GMT -5
I've trimmed back honeysuckle hedges, placed a raised bed alongside them. They constantly shed leaves into the garden, but not enough to choke the vegetables.
Curly sheets of bark from the Eucalyptus trees blows across the street, and against our chainlink fence. This makes a nice surface dressing, IMHO. I fill up planters, to the top, with the leaves and shake them until soil settles in.
I try to put anything biodegradable in to the mulch pile, and use the dirt underneath of it with great results. If I lived by myself, there would be garbage can devoted to this.
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Count your blessings! It's one of our worst weeds. I don't know if it brings up minerals but it only really grows in very poor soil. 
