[Arid_gardener] value/danger of using Bone Meal in the low desert
Lucy Bradley
lbradley@sisna.com
Fri, 11 Jan 2002 17:07:24 -0700
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We've had several questions lately about the value/danger of using Bone
Meal in the low desert. According to Tom Thompson, U of A Soil Scientist:
>1. Bone meal is not a very good source of Phosphorous anywhere. The
>Ca-phosphates that make up bone are quite insoluble and react very slowly
>if at all in soils to provide plant-available P. To compound the problem,
>many bones are subjected to much more intensive processing and extraction
>now than they used to be. The net effect of rigorous processing will
>simply result in less plant-available P. I don't think there is much harm
>in using bone meal, but I doubt it does much good either. The most likely
>situation where bone meal would be effective is in highly acid soils,
>where the bone Ca-phosphates would be more soluble. This situation is
>very rare or nonexistent in AZ.
>
>2. Mad Cow Disease has never been diagnosed in the U.S. We do not
>import bone meal, or ruminant byproducts, so there is no threat of
>contracting Mad Cow disease from using bone meal. I think this is not a
>likely way to contract BSE, in fact very unlikely. There is a nice
>paragraph on this question at http://lawncarp.tripod.com/madcow.htm.
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<html>
We've had several questions lately about the value/danger of using Bone
Meal in the low desert. According to Tom Thompson, U of A Soil
Scientist:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>1.<x-tab> </x-tab>Bone
meal is <b>not</b> a very good source of Phosphorous anywhere. The
Ca-phosphates that make up bone are quite insoluble and react very slowly
if at all in soils to provide plant-available P. To compound the
problem, many bones are subjected to much more intensive processing and
extraction now than they used to be. The net effect of rigorous
processing will simply result in less plant-available P. I don't
think there is much harm in using bone meal, but I doubt it does much
good either. The most likely situation where bone meal would be
effective is in highly acid soils, where the bone Ca-phosphates would be
more soluble. This situation is very rare or nonexistent in
AZ.<br><br>
2.<x-tab> </x-tab>Mad Cow Disease has
never been diagnosed in the U.S. We do not import bone meal, or
ruminant byproducts, so there is no threat of contracting Mad Cow disease
from using bone meal. I think this is not a likely way to contract
BSE, in fact very unlikely. There is a nice paragraph on this
question at
<a href="http://lawncarp.tripod.com/madcow.htm" eudora="autourl">http://lawncarp.tripod.com/madcow.htm</a>.</blockquote></html>
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