[Terrapreta] sugar usage

[adkarve]

Dear Dr.Steiner,
thanks for the information. I presume that pyroligneous acid and wood
vinegar would be added to the soil only once, when one applies charcoal to
the soil. I am suggesting that one applies char once, so that it acts as a
place for the micro-organisms to inhabit and then add any high calorie
organic material every year as feed for the micro-organisms.The latter is
what a lot of farmers in India are already doing.
Yours
A.D.Karve
----- Original Message -----
From: Christoph Steiner <Christoph.Steiner at uni-bayreuth.de>
To: <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] sugar usage


> Dear Mr. Karve,
>
> We assessed the influence of charcoal and condensates from smoke
> (pyroligneous acid, wood vinegar) on the microbial activity in a highly
> weathered Amazonian upland soil via measurements of basal respiration
> (BR), substrate induced respiration (SIR), and exponential population
> increase after substrate addition. The extraction of pyrogenous acid and
> its use as fertilizer or pest control is common in Brazil, where
> phosphorus availability and nitrogen leaching are among the most severe
> limitations for agriculture. Microbial immobilization may prevent nitrogen
> losses and the stimulation of endomycorrhizal associations and
> heterotrophic phosphate solubilising bacteria might increase the
> availability of phosphorus. The BR, microbial biomass, population growth
> and the microbe?s efficiency (expressed by the metabolic quotient as CO2
> production per microbial biomass unit) increased linearly and
> significantly with increasing charcoal concentrations (50, 100 and 150 g
> kg-1 soil). Application of pyrogenous acid caused a sharp increase in all
> parameters. We suppose that the condensates from smoke contain easily
> degradable substances (and only small amounts of inhibitory agents) which
> could be utilized by the microbes for their metabolism. I hope the results
> will be published in ?Pedobiologia? soon.
>
> Best,
> Christoph Steiner