Palagonite Soil Support is a remarkable natural basalt rock dust soil re-mineraliser created through a rare geological process at Mt Sylvia. This exceptional product forms when water interacts with hot flowing basalt lava, resulting in a nutrient-rich soil conditioner that outperforms standard rock mineral dusts.
What makes our Palagonite special? Unlike ordinary crusher dusts, Mt Sylvia Palagonite boasts an impressive Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of around 34 meq/100g – significantly higher than normal basalt dust's 4-14 meq/100g. This means superior retention of both nutrients and water for your plants.
Our Palagonite provides essential macronutrients including calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium, along with iron and plant-available silica. It also delivers valuable micronutrients and trace elements like cobalt, zinc, copper, and selenium – vital for both plant and human health.
Benefits include:
- Reduced soil compaction
- Improved water-holding capacity
- Enhanced environment for beneficial soil microbes
- Long-term improvement in soil pH and health
- Water moderation (absorbs up to 50% of its weight in water)
Pro Tip: For best results, blend Palagonite 50/50 with composted material or manure to accelerate nutrient delivery to your plants through beneficial bacteria and fungi.
Give your garden the natural advantage with Palagonite Soil Support – the sustainable choice for organic gardeners who understand that healthy soil creates healthy plants.
HOT TIP FROM MANUFACTURER: For best results the palagonite should be blended 50/50 with composted material or manure. See below for more on application rates.
WHY PALAGONITE IS SUPERIOR TO OTHER ROCK MINERAL DUSTS
When Mt Sylvia Diatomite Pty Ltd purchased the Diatomaceous Earth Mine at Mt Sylvia in November 2005 it recognised that it had to establish a quarry to extract the overburden altered basalt. The mining of the diatomaceous earth would become uneconomic without the approval of the quarry. The DA for the quarry was approved in 2007/2008 and the quarry has been operating since that time. It has been able to supply TMR Certified road bases by blending screened hard basalt with altered yellow/brown palagonite at particular ratios to create the specified product type. The creation of the quarry was to allow the economic mining of the diatomaceous earth. The realisation that the altered portion of the basalt which we now call palagonite is actually more beneficial to plants than normal blue metal crusher dusts has created a business opportunity that the company is now focussing on.
Basalt rock quarries in Australia normally produce aggregate products for road construction and repair. The crushing processes required to produce these products also produces a fine-grained by-product known as crusher dust or rock mineral dust. Quarry operators have been selling this crystalline material as a rock dust re-mineralizer aimed at farmers and in particular organic farmers, who do not use conventional chemical fertilisers (typical NPK products). The benefit of the crusher dust (or palagonite) is that it helps restore a broad spectrum of elemental nutrients to the soil.
Finely ground rock dusts and palagonite can also help to reduce compaction and improve water-holding capacity in soils; they also enhance the environment that aids the proliferation of beneficial soil microbes. This can be accelerated by the blending of fine rock dusts or palagonite with composted products that may include chicken, cow and other animal manures, green waste or mushroom compost. Bacteria and fungi are the well-known highways for the transport of minerals into the root systems of plants.
Mt Sylvia palagonite, provides the macronutrients calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and minor potassium to the soil, as well as iron and plant available silica. It also provides many other valuable micronutrients and trace elements such as cobalt, zinc, copper, nickel, molybdenum, and selenium. Many of these nutrients are important for human and animal health.
The largely amorphous composition of Mt Sylvia Palagonite, which also has a moderate smectite clay component, has resulted in a product that is both a supplier and retainer of plant available nutrients. The Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of a soil is a measure of its ability to retain both nutrients and water. It is closely related to fertility and is a measure of the number of exchangeable cations per dry weight that a soil is capable of holding at a given pH value and simultaneously be available for exchange in soil-water combinations. Normal quarry derived basalt dust has CEC values ranging from 4 to 14 meq/100g while Mt Sylvia Palagonite averages around 34 meq/100g. This mostly reflects the smectite clay component of the material. This smectite clay content also enhances the water holding capacity. In addition Mt Sylvia Palagonite has a good paramagnetic response (600-1300 c)
APPLICATION
Application rates will vary but, when using Palagonite for the first time a generous application is normally recommended. Because the minerals in Palagonite will break down at a slower rate than with chemical fertilisers the aim is to create a reserve of the beneficial elements for the soil microbes and fungi to access as required. For the backyard vegetable gardener, the optimum rate to spread it is around 1 kilogram per square metre in conjunction with a comparable amount of compost or manure. For tree planting, you may consider higher rates of application. In an example of commercial organic farming practice, Anthony Bauer, (Bauers Organic Farms) has been applying the coarser fraction (-5mm Palagonite) in conjunction with composted chicken manure at 12 tonnes/ Ha. (6 tonnes of Palagonite and 6 tonnes of composted manure).