[Terrapreta] Pottery Shards and Terra Preta

[Greg and April]

Actually, unless a ceramic is glazed, it will take up and hold moisture.

Even the cheap terracotta planting pots will do this.

An easy experiment to show this would be to take a terracotta pot, stick it in the over for an hour at about 250* to make sure it is totally dry then weigh it.    After it has cooled, then place it in a container and cover it with water.

It's quite likely that you will actually see tiny bubbles forming on the side of the pot or even rising to the surface of the water for a few hours.

After being in the water for a day, take it out and dry off the surface moisture of the pot with a towel, then weigh it again.    The difference in weight, is the water that has been adsorbed into the fired clay.

Greg H.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Bailes 
  To: Terrapreta 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 17:08
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Pottery Shards and Terra Preta







    http://www.firstrays.com/PrimeAgra/compare.htm 

    Greg H.


   
  FROM Above link
  "All of the media are capable of absorbing a significant amount of water within their structures."


  This is one of the clays I am playing with.(along with old roof tiles and zeolite).

  I purchased it from a hydroponic supplier



  None of them look like they would ad or ab sorb anything!

  I don't think a lot of research has been done on clays in soil except by the people who sell it.(see zeolite site) 
  There is someone from Cornell doing some work on TP clays;
  perhaps you can track him down on their site.
  M





  -- 
  Michael the Archangel

  "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . . 
  Most people don't know that"
  FROM
  http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf 


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