Try Some Dinosaur Dirt as a Soil Amendment in Your Garden

In recent decades, people have gotten pretty darn creative about finding or developing new soil amendments for the organic garden. Here’s one we especially like: so-called “dinosaur dirt.” This OMRI-certified material is 100% natural, and is an excellent conditioner for tired soils.

Marketed under the name Rich Earth Soil Conditioner, dinosaur dirt is simply fossilized mineral soil dug up from 75-million-year-old deposits in Utah—hence the nickname. (No actual dinosaurs are involved in its manufacture. Sorry.) The active components are humic shale ore and Leonardite. Both are humates: that is, prehistoric soils that are rich in the organic acids that leach out of humus, the semi-decayed organic component of topsoil. In addition to straight humic acid, there’s also a heavy leavening of fulvic acid, which strengthens plants against stress factors like drought, pruning, and insect attack; and ulmic acid, which stimulates root formation and growth. Given the concentrated organic acid content, you’ll get not only a good dose of nitrogen, but also 70+ other trace elements. These nutrients are released very slowly, over the course of at least six months. In addition to all this, dinosaur dirt also aerates the soil, stabilizes soil PH, and improves water retention.

Don’t miss our store section of soil amendments!