Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hmm, if one nail works.... I have several non-bearing trees of various varieties: I should pull out my nailgun and hand it to my right-hand-(mad)man: he..enjoys...that tool. *grin*

Citrus seem to often have a hankering for iron. When they machine cast iron at work, a lot of the guys collect the swath for their lemon trees. They swear by it. Say that only cast iron should be used though... the other stuff is not as good.

Thinking about it in conjunction with the RSG thread, it might make sense. Bacteria that chelate iron are anoxic. Cast iron is very porous. Could water get in and provide anaerobic conditions for these bacteria to prosper? And hence cast iron is better?

I don't know, and perhaps this is getting OT. So we'll leave it at 'Lemon trees are often deficient in iron'

We have an iron fertilizer we use that really helps. And cast iron makes sense...rsg filter....cast iron is very high in carbon.

Oh of course, the carbon is food! I knew it was high in carbon, but didn't make the link! ok... there's a great example of not thinking an idea all the way through!

Cast iron is not high in carbon, thats why it is so soft. Carbon steel is very hard. A file is made of high carbon steel as it needs to be harder than the steel it is filing.

To test the carbon content of steel use an angle grinder with a grinding disk and lightly grind a section. THe more, brighter and smaller the sparks the higher the carbon and harder the steel. Cast iron will produce almost no sparks as there is no carbon to burn.

I learnt that from a blacksmith

hmmmm
I have to disagree with you there Duckpond. I think you are referring to Wrought Iron...



Cast iron is certainly not soft... try dropping a cast iron skillet and see what happens... :-)

my toe!

I meant the cast skillet could crack... but yes, toes are important too

I always thought that cast iron was very brittle

yup... cos of the carbon content. brittle goes with hard in the metal world. Strong goes with soft.
It's just a matter of how you tradeoff the strong/soft with the hard/brittle.

So...if I drop a skillett on my toe near a lemon tree...I should get lots of carbon???

Plus you mite get lots of fertilizer too sh==t

if you're lucky, you could get some blood and bone too. Skillets be damnably heavy

I'm gunna try it...will report back when I get out of physio and can walk again!

rofl Snag!