[Terrapreta] Charcoal Injector

[rukurt at westnet.com.au]

Hi folkes,

I think Tom's response highlights a problem, in this place and also in 
others, the Oil from Algae one for instance. We are still at a "suck it 
and see" stage with terrapreta in non tropical areas, and, truth to 
tell, in todays tropics as well. We need some practical experience in 
what happens if you add charcoal to any sort of soil. Then look at what 
you get and theorise from that. Too much intellectual carrying on, 
before any black stuff hits the soil, too much attempted fine tuning, 
before we know what we are tuning, is not going to help a lot.  Whack it 
on and see what happens.

I think the spike unit would work best, without disturbing the grass too 
much, but Jeff is going to have heaps of fun coming up with a successful 
suspension of fine dust charcoal in water. Boil it up with a whole lot 
of cornflour to thicken it into a thin creamy soup? That'd also feed the 
wee beasties a bit of  carbohydrate, which they might appreciate. Of 
course, that *would* obscure the effect of the charcoal alone.

Kurt




Tom Miles wrote:
> Sean, Jeff,
>
>  
>
> Let me ask some fundamental questions like:
>
>  
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> What function would charcoal play to improve growth in switchgrass? Would it
> improve yields? If so how?
>
>  
>
> Where, how much and in what form should charcoal be applied? A simple slot
> injection between "rows" might work if it puts it in the right place. 
>
>  
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> Would charcoal use reduce the amount of fertilizer used for the same yield?
>
>  
>
> Too bad we don't have a budget for the agronomic work in the Chariton Valley
> Biomass Project ( www.iowaswitchgrass.com ) project anymore.   
>
>  
>
> Tom
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>