[Terrapreta] Charcoal, Earthworms and Switchgrass

[rukurt at westnet.com.au]

Hi Larry,

Yes, those all seem like reasonable ways of getting the stuff into the 
soil, especially letting earthworms do the burying. That's a very 
Permaculture way of doing things as well, their philosophy seems to be 
"let something else do the work". Something I heartily agree with, even 
though I'm only a peripheral Permaculturist.

Personally, I think a mixture of compost with a lot of charcoal would 
probably be the best way, in a gardening context, though that might be a 
little difficult on a broad-acre basis.

The query came from Jeff Davis by the way, I was suggesting experimental 
ideas, which could be useful for preliminary experiments for any of us, 
as we try to find out just what gives with terrapreta in other than 
tropical soils.

Another possible way of preparing the charcoal for adding to the soil 
might be to mix with a bit of clay and form it into little balls, by 
agglomeration, a subject that Jeff is very familiar with from his work 
with fireballs. The biggest problem with powdered charcoal seems to be 
the messiness and easy transport on the wind. The idea of agglomerating 
it into small balls (I visualise leadshot size) is also similar to the 
seed covering ideas one finds in "The Onestraw Revolution" by Fukuofa.

regards

Kurt



Larry Williams wrote:
> Kurt-------If strong winds aren't a problem you could consider leaving 
> the charcoal on the soil's surface for two or more years so that the 
> annual rains and earthworms can transfer the nutrients and critters. 
> With this exception, you might consider: 1) mixing the charcoal with 
> sand and soaking the charcoal in a compost tea of local garden 
> weeds. A mixture of different species of weeds pull a variety of 
> nutrients from the soil. Terra Preta seems to be a process of storing 
> nutrients and some soil fauna on the charcoal's surface or in the 
> chambers of the hardwood charcoal or 2) make a mixed pile of charcoal 
> and weeds (minus serious invasives) or other green vegetation letting 
> the pile set awhile. Wet as necessary for the plant cells to leach 
> their contents to co-mingle with the charcoal and then spread the pile 
> with a manure spreader. You could add sand if it helps the spreading. 
> The latter suggestion might be easier. Ya know, you might just wet the 
> pile with a compost tea. Let your mind wander as to...
>
> Either with a soaking process or just spreading the dry crushed 
> charcoal on the ground (allowing the earthworms to internally carry 
> and impregnate the charcoal with critters)  your test squares your 
> results can be useful to the small farmers and gardeners on this list. 
> I see these test squares as suggesting where further research is 
> needed. I wonder if specific case points to the general case or if the 
> reverse is true. 
>
> I personally prefer using the earthworms. As a general reference, The 
> Earth Moved by Amy Stewart (ISBN 1-56512-337-9) writes about the 
> importance and movement of earthworms via human transport. We would do 
> well to care for earthworms in our fields.
>
> You do have earthworms, don't you? Is a switchgrass field to dry for 
> earthworms?
>
> Many thanks to the thoughtful comments on this list--------Larry
>
>