The Stonebread Story

Dr Julius Hensel first discovered how important trace minerals were to plants in 1890. Noting spectacular growth in crops and fruit trees after sprinkling special rock dust from his stone mill, he published his finding in “Bread from Stone”, a manifesto on reconditioning soils with minerals.

Exhaustive experiments showed increased yield and bulk, tastier and more nutritious foods, better soil condition and less erosion, increased resistance to pests and disease, improved quality after storage and travel and finally an improvement in animal and human health.

A century later, Steve Flynn, founding director, uncovered these important teachings and established Stonebread.

A competing fertiliser approach, which focuses only on N, P and K soil deficits, has dominated gardening and agriculture to the detriment of our soil. As Hensel quite correctly predicted, ignoring trace minerals and supplying large amounts of N, P and K actually "forces" growth, giving temporary gains in plant size and yield, yet leading to weaker plants and long-term soil exhaustion.

We see this today with increased need for pesticides and fertilisers. Moreover, excessive NPK leaches out of the soil and into our water systems, causing ecological imbalances and pollution. These two problems are clearly identified in a recent publication "Growing for Good" published in October 2004 by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and reinforced on a global scale by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment published in early 2005.