[Terrapreta] Marketing comment for TP. (was volatile matter andchar)

[Greg and April]

If I might be able to add a few comments to think about -

Coir has a problem with being real loose, and slowly washing into the circulating system.    Coir also biologically degrades. 

Pea Gravel has a problem of being very heavy and little porosity.

Expanded clay may or may not have good porosity, and while lighter than pea gravel, it is very expensive.

Marble to pea sized charcoal has a good chance to fill a niche that many people may not realize.

Light weight, good porosity, little to no biological degradation - and if the charcoal can made reasonably cheep it could be just the thing that hydroponics and aquaponic systems could use.

Greg H.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gerald Van Koeverden 
  To: bhans at earthmimic.com 
  Cc: Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 13:54
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Marketing comment for TP. (was volatile matter andchar)


  Brian,


  I definitely think there is some potential in commercial hydroponic vegetable production.  But in this matter, charcoal would be competing against coconut husk (coir) as the main rooting medium which has replaced rock wool in area greenhouses.


  To be fair, you should be comparing the wholesale price of the soil-less mix ($700) to the wholesale price of charcoal - $200/ton.  No?  This makes it a lot more interesting...and feasible.


  Gerrit
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20071226/c1dbfe6a/attachment.html