[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Nutrients
Paul Sears recently mentioned the possibility of using bone in the
substrate to supply phosphorus to plant roots.
I tried doing this in a paludarium without noticable effects, good or bad.
The phosphate in bone is quite insoluble and in order for it to be useful
to plants something has to act on the bone to free the phosphorus. It's
used in gardening as a long-term soil amendment and has little or no
short-term effect.
Any but the softest water with "too much" phosphorus in it is probably
supersaturated with respect to one or more calcium phosphate compounds.
The phosphate compounds precipitate slowly, so I've considered (but
haven't tried) using bone meal in a filter media bag as a substrate to
help precipitate the phosphates faster and lower excess phosphate levels.
Similar methods are used to lower the phosphorus content of industrial
wastes.
Roger Miller