[Terrapreta] do it yourself terra preta kit?

[Michael Bailes]

Home Made Terra Preta (Nova?) Kit
"TP goes way beyond the old saw of "Feed the Soil, Not the plants" to "Feed,
House, and provide water& waste infrastructure to the Soil! "-eric
Great definition erich

I have been mucking around with different potting mixes. with different %s
of the following . I do much of it by "feel" or instinct as i have been
growing plants in pots for 40 years. Always looking for "The Perfect Potting
Mix"

I can't find broken terracotta clay so I use bentonite or attapultite as it
is cheap and readily available.(kitty litter.).
 I am told zeolite would also work well. I do like to use Terracotta Pots
when I can.

Charcoal, very fine, in amounts from 5% to10% (I would use more up to 20% if
I could afford it)

Down the bottom of the pot I put some seaweed, horse manure fine, and fine
chicken manure. I cover this with Very cheap potting mix then I add the clay
and charcoal and more potting mix (I don't want young  plant roots touching
raw manure)
I use also a little slow release fertiliser and Miracle Grow Liquid
fertiliser (small amounts often-the basil seems to especially like this)
Most plants and worms seem to love the "Terra Preta (Nova?)" thus made

Things I am leaving out shells, (have found a small local midden and may try
this soon) fish fertiliser (too expensive), soil (too many weed seeds and
poor PH) , quartz ( too hard) microorganisms.(too mean to buy them)-

The mix is a little heaver than I would like.  Some sand, bigger bits of
charcoal or silica might help. I notice there is a new Kitty Litter on the
market  that looks like silica but I wish they would put the full name of
the product on the packet for Strange Gardening Experiments by Strange
Gardeners. Replicating the pottery shard side of terra preta is difficult.
I am most proud of my one year old Fig tree (from cutting) that is now over
a metre tall and has figs friuts/flowers? coming !

One thing that Terra preta does do for you, is give you a new appreciation
of the complex web of life in the soil
I have a huge compost pile mainly of seaweed, have taken to emptying the
vacuum cleaner bag on plants (As S. American Indians keep home floor
sweepings for the garden) and now keep and grind up egg shells in a M&P for
my 1 lavender plant. Even the ham leg from Christmas I gave to the crabs
down the lake to clean. I have now retrieved it and trying to work out away
of pulverising it!!

I noticed yesterday some locals putting lawn clippings in the council green
waste bin.
I had to control my urge to run over and tell them not to throw away such
good organic matter. It was not easy.
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