[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Laterite into an established system
I got my laterite last week and being a particularily hard headed
individual, I had to try another way to get the laterite into the
substrate.
What I attempted was to use a cake decorating 'syringe', not a bag, but
a big, plastic syringe with interchangeable tips(1.00 at you guessed it,
the dollar store). I mixed the laterite by hand into a slurry, it did
however retain a few larger chunks. The chunks are the downfall of this
scheme. I was using substrate gold, (yes I know there is instructions
on how to make nuggets, but remember the hard headed thing) and it has a
'shalely' purple sort of chunk throughout it. They plugged the outlet
and generally caused an annoyance.
If you've access to a cake decorating bag(also 1.00 from..) and an old
blender(unlike one member of this list) the 'slurry' method would work
well I think. Ahh, who am I kidding, just use the darn nugget method,
it's far superior.
These 'shalely' chunks offer us a hint as to where substrate gold comes
from. The product so far as I know, is never dried out, evidence of
this is the fact the shale chunks stay together. Shale as I've learned
first hand is one of the few materials which stays together well while
moist, but not saturated. When dried out, it crumbles to dust. I
learned this on a river tour after a flood in southern Alberta.
They are a fairly rich purple color on the inside (where, tell me I'm
wrong, they've not been as heavily oxidized). ?So? what my guess is
that this laterite is a reworked sediment(clay) that is high in iron,
and enriched or naturally high in a lot of other nutrients.
Steve and others, ever try a shale? Rich in organics and nutrients,
fine grained (high CEC if you care), a lot more fun to work with than
plain old clay in the subsoil, but a lot harder to come by. Any
analysis on shale out there? I'm sure someone has a more concise
definition on shale...oohhhh, here's that dictionary of geological
terms..
Shale, a fine grained detrital sedimentary rock, formed by the
compaction of clay, silt or mud. It has a finely laminated structure,
which gives it a fissility along which the rock splits readily...
Alright, so the shale I'm talking about isn't all the way to rock, maybe
it isn't full blown shale, but I think we understand what I'm referring
to.
Colin Anderson
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com