[Terrapreta] Charcoal, Earthworms and Switchgrass

[Tom Miles]

A technique suggested today by folks in the Southern Iowa is to apply
biochar on switchgrass in the late winter and let the snow and rain work it
in. Wind is clearly a problem. 

There was interest in the idea of using bio-char as a soil amendment to
bring up the productivity of areas of poor quality, hard clay. So you may
not treat the whole field but just the areas that need it. They're applying
about 35-40 lbs N/acre as urea applied with the herbicides.

A side comment was that the heavy use of anhydrous ammonia on these fields
in earlier years of intensive corn and soybean killed off much of the large
earthworm population. From what I have seen bio-char seems to be a good way
of restoring the earthworm population which obviously would have positive
effects on soil texture. 

Tom Miles
      

-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Davis
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 4:25 PM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal, Earthworms and Switchgrass


Kurt wrote:
> 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.

I would use water for the charcoal binder, lot easyer than clay. And, yes,
water is a binder.


Jeff




-- 
Jeff Davis

Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA

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