Bone Meal - Probably off topic
Rodger Whitlock (Mon, 26 Jan 2004 13:20:56 PST)
On 22 Jan 04 at 21:39, Robin L. Hansen wrote:
I'm just now getting to finish the fall issue of The Bulb Garden and
Ms. Richardson makes note of the fact that she considers "modern"
bone meal generally useless as bulb fertilizer.
Can anyone tell me why?
In ye goode olde Dayes, bonemeal was ground-up bones that had
fragments of meat still attached and the collagen still in place.
These days, bones are processed for gelatin and such, and are
nearly pure calcium phosphate -- which is nearly insoluble! This has
been true for quite a long time, I believe.
Putting bonemeal on your garden won't harm it, but it probably
doesn't do much good.
Don't waste your money on it.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate
on beautiful Vancouver Island