[Terrapreta] charcoal research at 4CN

Sat Aug 25 18:48:21 EDT 2007

On Aug 25, 2007, at 9:01 AM, Sean K. Barry wrote:

> Hi Richard,
>
> This sounds like a thorough research effort and you are having  
> fun.  I like the wide coverage, with spectrometry analysis of so  
> many elements.  Is Swiss Chard known at all as a nitrogen fixer?

No, although VA mycorrhizial. I picked the chard because it was heavy  
yielding and with 2 cuttings would be a draw on soil nutrition. It is  
the Lonicera that I sent off for testing . It is one of our regular  
crop plants and the info would be most useful to us. I had trouble  
sampling the yield on the chard and put down   1 x 4 foot plots for  
yield estimates taking my sample where the growth looked best in each  
plot.. Not sure how good the results are because I was a bit  
overwhelmed with the volume.

In addition, my soil analysis in this 500 foot  long set of test  
plots showed quite variable nutrient levels from one end to the  
other. It makes things much more complicated and my only chance to  
get some results we can understand is to compare the soil nutrition  
in each 17 foot plot from year to year.

It's all been very interesting and educational so far and I am eager  
to continue.
> Will the Lonicera and native aster be tested similarly?

The foliar analysis tests cost $20 each so I combined the  
replications into 8 samples. This is a first for us and we are mainly  
interested to see if we can detect differences in the shrub leaves  
that reflects our soil management practices.   ie compost, compost  
plus fertilizer, etc. So far there have been no above ground  
indications of benefits from the charcoal.

It might be too early to expect differences and I am presuming soil  
analysis over the next 2 years will answer the question of charcoal  
effects in our relatively nutrient  rich sandy loam soil.
> Is either of those a more woody shrub?

The Lonicera is a shrub and Aster a perennial. Both are wetland  
plants that are indicators of nitrogen rich soil hence will demand  
high nitrogen uptake from the soil with their rank growth. What  
interests me is if the charcoal ammended soils wind up with more  
nitrogen and or phosphorus than control or compost/fertilized plots  
over the next 2 years.

Interesting to me  is that my first soil analysis taken some weeks  
after setting up the experiment  showed higher organic matter when  
charcoal was added than the  unemended soils. Is this because of  
microbial activity or is it an artifact of the Umass testing lab  
procedure? I have not posed this question to them yet.

> It might be interesting to cycle any of that biomass into charcoal,  
> if possible.

As I said in my posting I am going to lift the plants in November  
with our nursery bare root harvester. I will be able to examine the  
roots, weigh the biomass and look at the charcoal chunks for root/ 
charcoal interaction. Would be nice to save some samples in fixative  
for staining as we are getting our microscopes this winter.
> I read, probably in something you wrote or maybe from Tom Miles,  
> that you have property with Willow (Salix).  Is this a large enough  
> and dense enough planting, that it could be coppice managed?  I  
> suppose you have considered making charcoal from that willow?

Oh yes, Willows are my favorite native plant. Here in PNW and at your  
turf in Minnesota willows are  a well adapted  pioneer species that  
enrich the soil and has wildlife and fisheries benefits when grown in  
the riparian zone. Willows are a species that are both ecto and  
endomycorrhizial hence they enrich their habitat. If you wait for the  
leaves to drop before harvest then nutrients will be recycled.

I have been propagating 6 to 10 species of willow from seed for our  
nursery markets and we currently have small coppiced groves of 4  
species we harvest annually for live stakes. Growth rates are  
phenomenal and I have made selections of scouler willow that are  
superior. I have been waiting for us to expand our production to 30  
acres at a nearby tract. Here for us wood for biomass fuel  and  
charcoal would be a byproduct of our existing stake  market. It is a  
alternative energy and  source of charcoal for soil additive that I  
continue to study.
>
> We have a lot of willow here and I have always considered it a very  
> good natural renewable energy crop, especially when re-grown from  
> coppice cut stumps.  It is a reasonably good feedstock for thermo- 
> chemical conversion in pyrolysis reactors, I think (it's woody  
> biomass, chip-able).
>
> I bought Dr. Johannes Lehman's very expensive book, "Amazonian Dark  
> Earths".  I think it is a great investment.  I've only scanned it a  
> bit and read a few pages so far.  It seems an enormous amount of  
> information.  The research is done over many years by many people  
> in all sorts of disciplines and scientific areas.  It is a dense  
> piece of work, this book.  The whole Terra Preta story and the work  
> being done now is dense work, too.  I hardly lift up my head from  
> reading or doing to communicate much, but its good to see you are  
> proceeding.
>
> Good work and good luck with your further 4CN research.  The  
> pictures were great.  It reminded me so much of when I worked on a  
> vineyard in California with Luis Campo Verde and Juan Contreras.   
> They worked very hard in green fields too.
>
> SKB
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Richard Haard
> To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> Cc: Todd Jones ; Kay Oakley ; Nana Paldi
> Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 5:15 PM
> Subject: [Terrapreta] charcoal research at 4CN
>
> Terrapreta listers
>
> Taking data at Fourth Corner Nurseries, charcoal soil additive  
> research.
>
> This time we are taking a set of leaf samples from the native  
> shrub, Lonicera involucrata. The samples will be sent to UMass soil  
> lab for leaf tissue analysis
>
> This is a determination of the Total Tissue P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe,  
> Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo, Pb, Cd, Ni, and Cr. Analysis by ICP Spectrometry  
> of dry-ashed sample in 10% HCl . Also included Total Nitrogen by  
> catalytic combustion.
>
> Next set of measurement will be sometime in November when all  
> plants will be lifted roots and tops with our nursery lifter- 
> shaker. End of season soil analysis will be taken at this time.
>
> We have our plots planted with 3 test subjects, Lonicera, a native  
> aster and Swiss Chard. For the Swiss Chard we selected a sample in  
> each treatment , combined with the replicate and took total wet  
> weight.
>
> In addition, at this time we harvested all of the chard in order to  
> stimulate growth for a second harvest in November. Lots of the  
> leafy green vegetable to distribute to our farm crew, and for  
> myself steamed chard and onions tonight as well as blanching for  
> freezing as winter green vegetables. Yummy.
>
> In this image a typical treatment set just prior to harvest of  
> swiss chard. As expected, the compost plus fertilizer (with or  
> without charcoal) showed the highest yields.
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/1225889624/in/ 
> set-72157594444994347/
>
> Here are our samples of swiss chard at the barn ready for weight  
> measurement. Glancing at the wooden boxes in the truck differences  
> can be seen in the amount of chard in each box.
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/1225889662/in/ 
> set-72157594444994347/
>
> Rich Haard, Propagation Manager
> Fourth Corner Nurseries
> Bellingham, Washington
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