[Terrapreta] charcoal research at 4CN
Larry Williams
lwilliams at nas.com
Sat Aug 25 22:39:12 EDT 2007
Sean-------I also like to hold and read dense reading material,
especially, when it has a timeless quality to it. So, if you could
make comments about what you like in Lehman's book it would be
appreciated. Until I obtain a copy, you can fire my imagination with
snippets from "Amazonian Dark Earths".
I have not used my 3 cu ft retort for a month and expect to fire it
up tomorrow. I live in the city and the fire department looks very
unkindly at smoky endeavors. There is value in this size retort since
I can easily move it, loaded, between locations and it is easily
restarted with a propane torch and wood. I still have not resolved
the transfer of heat through the metal skin of the retort. I can be
more efficient I believe. To date, a small amount of wood vinegar and
wood tars have been collected in an open bucket and, now, the wood
vinegar evaporated. What can I do with the toxic wood tars?
You know, speed or quickness in reaching a result loses the flavor of
an extended experience. I have, in my own way, been trying to
recreate a local version of terra preta. For example, with the
earthen mound production of charcoal we had a high volatile organic
content which is seen in the Webber grill as surface explosions
(popping) when starting the charcoal with a propane torch and as
smoke before and as the chicken is grilled, produces a different
product, I believe, than smoldering fire pits used by the Amazonian
natives. Pieces of Alder wood are placed on the edges of the started
"mound" charcoal to flavor the chicken and to produce more charcoal.
In trying to relate, even if I am inaccurate in my techniques to the
original producers of terra preta, I get a sense of appropriateness
for the conditions I am operating with.
The garden space where my initial interest in terra preta was piqued
by the size of the Swiss Chard plants (42") has been repeated with
Russian Red Kale plants this year. This year's plants have been
pruned so a height comparison doesn't work. Near-by R. R. kale
plants, planted at the same time, are considerably smaller plants.
Keep in mind that the Webber produced charcoal laid on the ground in
a pile for 8 to 10 months, with an occasional amount of
fertilization, before being placed in the garden. Even with the
little fertilization that took place, the Webber charcoal contained a
very rich human smell. Let us look at how charcoal is produced before
we decide the early results of charcoal plots. This indicates to me
that charcoal which is fertilized prior to incorporation into the
soil has immediate benefits over charcoal that has not been
fertilized prior to placement in the soil. I still believe that
unfertilized charcoal will, in due course, produce benefits for plant
growth.
Rich cooks a delicious piece of salmon in his grill with our
charcoal. You better visit again. Let's savor these times, with the
food that we eat, as our understanding matures-------Larry
--------------------------
On Aug 25, 2007, at 3:48 PM, Richard Haard wrote:
>
> 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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