Steer Manure

Green sand has slow release silica in it, if you recycle soil or are growing outdoors it is perfect. Each cycle of you recycling your soil it keeps getting better. it also contains a ton of other minerals.

Fertilize your roses with greensand to prolong their blooms next year. Roses and other flowers thrive on greensand because it supplies marine potash, silica, iron oxide, magnesia, lime, phosphoric acid and 22 trace minerals. It's also a boon for tomato lovers, because it has the vitamins and minerals that tomato plants need to produce abundant, intensely flavored fruit.

It also contains silica that is released over time from the iron silicate its derived from.

I've used Greensand from espoma but like @MistaRasta said...it takes yearrrrs to break down. But I reuse my soil like crazy and it's not something I reapply everytime. Honestly I only apply it once when I first mix up a batch, I'll haven't had to reapply it yet lol. I sparingly use a potassium silicate supplement in my commercial garden, I didn't use it in my personal garden for the round I'm cutting down currently but I'm throwing it on the next round to see if I see any improvements.

Edit** I take back what I said, I just looked at my grow journal I did use Greensand in my round I'm cutting down right now.

Also found this article about green sand and its benefits.

The reason is simple we love Greensand. If you have never used the product (or never heard of it) Greensandis a mineral called glauconite, which is found on the ocean floor and mined for use as an organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. Greensand supplies marine potash, silica, iron oxide, magnesia, lime, phosphoric acid, and 22 trace minerals. Greensand works great on Southern “hard as a rock” clay soil this spring, to help improve its texture, and enrich the nutrient content of my soil without using chemicals. Greensand is one of the oldest and most generally useful tools in the organic gardening tool box. Greensand has been used since the eighteenth century as a soil amendment and slow-releasing fertilizer (0-0-3). It is one of the best certified organic sources of potassium. It comes from sandy rock or sediment containing a high percentage of the mineral glauconite (greenish-black to blue-green). It contains potash, magnesium, iron, silica and can contain as many as 30 other trace minerals. The recommended usage is to broadcast 50 to 100 lbs. per 1,000 square feet. It improves plant health in general and is also be used to loosen heavy, clay soils. It will also improve the moisture retention of sandy soils. Greensand is OMRI listed for organic use.

Yodaweed said:

Green sand has slow release silica in it, if you recycle soil or are growing outdoors it is perfect. Each cycle of you recycling your soil it keeps getting better. it also contains a ton of other minerals.

It also contains silica that is released over time from the iron silicate its derived from.

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I could see applying it to an outdoor vegie garden where the soil will be reused, but the super slow release of PK for cannabis.. meh..

Rasta Roy said:

I've used Greensand from espoma but like @MistaRasta said...it takes yearrrrs to break down. But I reuse my soil like crazy and it's not something I reapply everytime. Honestly I only apply it once when I first mix up a batch, I'll haven't had to reapply it yet lol. I sparingly use a potassium silicate supplement in my commercial garden, I didn't use it in my personal garden for the round I'm cutting down currently but I'm throwing it on the next round to see if I see any improvements.

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I try not using anything synthetic in my grow, potassium silicate is a lab made product that I will not put into my organic/veganic grows.

Once you add that, it's no longer organic/veganic.

I would rather not have the silicate than contaminate with synthetics. I have several bottles of synthetic potassium silicate I will not use on my organic grow, they go into my hydroponic system.

You can't use too much green sand, so if you reapply its fine

GrowerGoneWild said:

I could see applying it to an outdoor vegie garden where the soil will be reused, but the super slow release of PK for cannabis.. meh..

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You don't reuse your soil? I thought everyone did...isn't the backbone of growing in a ROLS system to recycle the soil and reamend and reuse? I been using my current batch of soil for over a year. I also cooked it in the scorching Colorado sun(sheltered in a trash can) for several months before using it, giving the stuff I add time to break down.

Yodaweed said:

I try not using anything synthetic in my grow, potassium silicate is a lab made product that I will not put into my organic/veganic grows.

Once you add that, it's no longer organic/veganic.

I would rather not have the silicate than contaminate with synthetics. I have several bottles of synthetic potassium silicate I will not use on my organic grow, they go into my hydroponic system.

You can't use too much green sand, so if you reapply its fine

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That's fair!

A lot of the dry amendments we add to our soils are time-release fertilizers as well.

Yodaweed said:

You don't reuse your soil? I thought everyone did...isn't the backbone of growing in a ROLS system to recycle the soil and reamend and reuse? I been using my current batch of soil for over a year.

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I do, but if the decay for greensand takes that long for PK, then why bother, I'll have to ammend with more available nutrients till the greensand puts out.
Yeah I have to save my soil, the one grow I was running I had a few hundred gallons of soil.. so throwing that stuff out would be stoopid...

I totally get the application for outdoors.. like the veggies.

GrowerGoneWild said:

I do, but if the decay for greensand takes that long for PK, then why bother, I'll have to ammend with more available nutrients till the greensand puts out.
Yeah I have to save my soil, the one grow I was running I had a few hundred gallons of soil.. so throwing that stuff out would be stoopid...

I totally get the application for outdoors.. like the veggies.

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Yeah greensand isn't really used as a fertilizer I only use it for silicate and other minerals, its just added as a bonus since it takes longer to break down. It doesn't hurt I can only assume it does some good, and since we reuse/cook our soil it seems logical that time release fertilizers would be superior to ones that are going to just dissipate when you cook it/water it, that's why I prefer granulated products like granulated azomite or granulated gypsum.

That's why I don't use bat guano in my mix, I feel like its useless, way too water soluble.

If you gonna use guano use that nasty bird crap they sell, its so gross but the pellets kinda hold it together for longer. bat guanos are better for liquid applications in my opinion.

@Yodaweed Do you use neem seed meal along with the gypsum? I've been using Gypsum but I just got my neem seed meal in, I'm pretty excited about it because it's got such a diverse bit of everything. But I'm worried about overdosing on the sulfer and wondering if I should cut out the gypsum now that I'm adding the neem seed meal.

Yodaweed said:

If you gonna use guano use that nasty bird crap they sell, its so gross but the pellets kinda hold it together for longer. bat guanos are better for liquid applications in my opinion.

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Id rather not use guano's either. Id rather use vermicompost for PK. If PK is more available, then I dont have to add that much. And I can think of other things that are not manure based for PK, Colloidal Phosphate, (soft rock phosphate), If you want to use manures, steer, or whatever, thats fine, but they do have some problems associated with them, more or less passing along the knowledge.

Yodaweed said:

I try not using anything synthetic in my grow, potassium silicate is a lab made product that I will not put into my organic/veganic grows.

Once you add that, it's no longer organic/veganic.

I would rather not have the silicate than contaminate with synthetics. I have several bottles of synthetic potassium silicate I will not use on my organic grow, they go into my hydroponic system.

You can't use too much green sand, so if you reapply its fine

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Thank you! This makes a lot of sense Yoda. Why would Coot recommend a synthetic? I have two pounds of Agsil 16 that I think I'm going to get rid after reading your post. Tons of horsetail growing around here anyway. The only thing I would miss about it is it's emulsifying properties with neem/karaja oil.

Crab Pot said:

Thank you! This makes a lot of sense Yoda. Why would Coot recommend a synthetic? I have two pounds of Agsil 16 that I think I'm going to get rid after reading your post. Tons of horsetail growing around here anyway. The only thing I would miss about it is it's emulsifying properties with neem/karaja oil.

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Yeah if you can source it locally I would totally go for it, yucca extract is great for emulsifying

Rasta Roy said:

@Yodaweed Do you use neem seed meal along with the gypsum? I've been using Gypsum but I just got my neem seed meal in, I'm pretty excited about it because it's got such a diverse bit of everything. But I'm worried about overdosing on the sulfer and wondering if I should cut out the gypsum now that I'm adding the neem seed meal.

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Yes I do use neem seed meal, its like my number 1 thing I use, you can even use it when you make a tea, it helps a TON! Careful when you add to a tea, it will be REALLY bubbly. I don't think neem seed meal has sulfur in it but I could be wrong. It's a GREAT slow release fertilizer that's why I always add it to my mixes. When you add to tea, its a 0-1-2 since ALL the nitrogen in it is not soluble in water. but when you add to soil directly its a 6-1-2. Really great stuff.

Yodaweed said:

I don't think neem seed meal has sulfur in it but I could be wrong.

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From our friends at Wikipedia:

"Neem Cake has an adequate quantity of NPK in organic form for plant growth. Being a totally botanical product it contains 100% natural NPK content and other essential micro nutrients as N(Nitrogen 2.0% to 5.0%), P(Phosphorus 0.5% to 1.0%), K(Potassium 1.0% to 2.0%), Ca(Calcium 0.5% to 3.0%), Mg(Magnesium 0.3% to 1.0%), S(Sulphur 0.2% to 3.0%), Zn(Zinc 15 ppm to 60 ppm), Cu(Copper 4 ppm to 20 ppm), Fe (Iron 500 ppm to 1200 ppm), Mn (Manganese 20 ppm to 60 ppm). It is rich in both sulphur compounds and bitter limonoids."

But if you haven't had any problems with Gypsum and neem together then I won't stress too much on it.

GrowerGoneWild said:

Id rather not use guano's either. Id rather use vermicompost for PK. If PK is more available, then I dont have to add that much. And I can think of other things that are not manure based for PK, Colloidal Phosphate, (soft rock phosphate), If you want to use manures, steer, or whatever, thats fine, but they do have some problems associated with them, more or less passing along the knowledge.

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I would avoid soft rock phosphate in your soil mixes, it contains metals that store in trichomes and get ingested by you. Guano is poor use in mixes because of its solubility, however it makes a fantastic top dressing or Liquid application. And yeah like @Yodaweed said, bird guanos over Bat guanos. Bat Guano leeches heavily while it sits in it's caves before it's harvested where seabird Guano does not so it has a better micronutrient and trace mineral count. When I don't have the time or space to cook up a soil batch I will use top dressing guano applications until the mix alone keeps the plant happy. And I only apply once every two weeks. Half a cup for anything in a 7 or 10 gallon pot. I prefer the all purpose guanos though I don't really need the phosphorus ones, by the time I'm into flower my fish bone meal is taking care of business and plants don't really uptake phosphorus at the levels most growers lay it on anyway. I did a couple side by sides in my current round where I did boost phosphorus with guanos into midflower. Everything looks great but those ones aren't ready to chop yet so I don't have any results yet but soon.

Yodaweed said:

I don't know what silica sand is but green sand is a natural deposit of fossilized marine life, most of it comes from new jersey.

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Not sure where you've been or if you're just getting into organics but greensand is a no-no in cannabis world, As with most gardening this is an Obsolete amendment sold to people who don't know what their doing... this amendment is good to throw in your beds if you plan on living in your residence for over 7 years..but there are much better and faster ways to get minerals..

Silica sand is another term for greensand although less used.. it's made from glauconite sediment and iron-potassium silicate.

We get the minerals from the Glauconite and the silica from the potassium silicate. Like I said Glauconite takes many many years to break down and release its mineral value. I use kelp instead, as it has every mineral green sand has lots of fatty acids, growth hormones, cytokines, yadayadayada and breaks down in about 4 days...

I get my long term minerals through basalt, their available in about 6 months to a year.

Yodaweed said:

Yeah greensand isn't really used as a fertilizer I only use it for silicate and other minerals, its just added as a bonus since it takes longer to break down. It doesn't hurt I can only assume it does some good, and since we reuse/cook our soil it seems logical that time release fertilizers would be superior to ones that are going to just dissipate when you cook it/water it, that's why I prefer granulated products like granulated azomite or granulated gypsum.

That's why I don't use bat guano in my mix, I feel like its useless, way too water soluble.

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But why waste your money on something that you could easily replace with something else that actually holds value?

Rock dusts are cheap and easily had. If you already have these in your mix there is ABSOLUTELY no need for greensand..

Azomomite contains aluminum silicates and these constitute 10-20% of the clay mix itself. As we all know aluminum is horrible for the brain