[Terrapreta] Kevins TerraPreta questions

[Richard Haard]

Kevin

Christoph Steiners research in Brazil is definitive on this question.

In his experiments he used the classical method of replicated  
treatment blocks in typical agricultural research and his treatments  
were charcoal, charcoal + fertilizer, fertilizer, control. This was a  
single time treatment of the typical soils of the moist tropics that  
have short lived agricultural productivity. The plots were then  
multiple cropped, back to back, for a number of years.

The results were dramatic, charcoal + fertilizer  and presentation of  
his results can be seen in various places including Epidra website  
where they have the proceedings of the conference at University of  
Georgia where I attended, heard Steiner and others  present their  
research.

Definitely worthwhile to look at this research.

At this conference I was also impressed with the presentations of Dr  
Ogawa and his coworkers. It should be recognized up front that Dr  
Ogawa, a fellow mycologist, has been working with charcoal for many  
years as an  independent line of inquiry from those researchers  
involved in the Amazon terra preta rediscovery. At the UGA conference  
he passed out reprints of his research that I copied and sent to a  
few members of the gasification list  shortly after the conference.  
His article in Farming Japan is not available on the internet but is  
very interesting.

What caught my attention is his hypothesis that the carbonized  
vessels and trachieds of hardwood charcoal is  habitat for  
beneficial  microorganisms including the free living nitrogen fixing  
bacterium, Azotobacter and also certain mycorrhizial fungi where he  
presented electron micrography and also his plot  experiments in soil  
and SE Asia forest nursery work, and stressed tree rehabilitation as  
evidence.

A presentation he gave on his literature and soils studies on  
distribution of Azotobacter with latitude lead me to wonder if the  
Terra Preta effect of charcoal on soils is limited to the moist  
tropics or much slower in temperate zones. I have not seen reports of  
research on performance of charcoal in temperate zones other that  
anectdotal and pictorial evidence presented by Dr. Day and the  
classical image on the Epidra website. It would be very interesting  
to me if I could find peer reviewed reports of the terra preta effect  
in the temperate north.

Not that am either soils, of soil microbiology expert. I would love  
to be corrected on any of my comments above or below and even more  
love to exchange information and ideas.

  I am propagation manager of a small native plant nursery in Western  
Washington, a full time farmer. At the UGA conference i was able to  
meet with both Drs Steiner and Ogawa and solicit their kind advice  
for my own research at our bare root nursery. They both recommended  
as well as some Cornell grad students, combining hardwood charcoal  
(not softwood) with fertilizer or rich compost and to let the mix age  
for a period of time.

I am using charcoal at 200lbs/1000sq feet for my work in combination  
with commercial fertilizer or compost and collected natural forest   
surface soil and rotting litter.

In my experiments I have been using Oak - Hickory  lump charcoal  
purchased at local Wal-mart and conifer charcoal donated by John  
Flotvik from his carbonizer project in Abbotsford BC. It should be  
noted that Dr Ogawa uses rice husk charcoal. All however are the low  
temperature type and not the activated charcoal with that result from  
additional processing.

In addition, we have a local terra preta interest group of gardeners  
an permaculture enthusiasts who are participating in a local  
discussion and their own experiments. My friend Larry Williams has  
had some encouraging results in his garden.

For my own work I have not had the truly striking results  witnessed  
in Ogawa and Steiners published research. There are a variety of  
reasons for this and i am not at all discouraged. Most encouraging to  
me is the combination of charcoal with natural innoculum for Alder  
and  other native shrubs on rehabilitating sterilized soil. I'm not  
ready to publish anything yet although I would like to place a series  
of images of my research efforts  at the terra preta  reading list in  
order to encourage others to present their own independent studies on  
these forums.

If and when this use of charcoal comes into the mainstream focus in  
commercial agriculture and gardening  this material could come into  
high demand as a  new soil additive commodity. Its value as a soil  
additive versus as sequestration offset I feel will be much greater,  
after all, the lost civilization of the Amazon Basin had no carbon  
credit s.

Rich Haard


On Feb 11, 2007, at 2:23 PM, Kevin Chisholm wrote:

> Dear List
>
> Is Terra Preta simply the addition of char to soil? If so, what is  
> the weight of char per weight of soil? What size must the char be?  
> Is there anything else we need to know and do, before we can make  
> good Terra Preta?
>
> We hear many good things about Terra Preta. Has anyone seen data  
> that quantifies the benefits? Does it have any detriments or downside?
>
> Kevin
> _______________________________________________
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> Bioenergy at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/bioenergy_listserv.repp.org

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