[Terrapreta] growth

[Tom Miles]

The answers to a lot of these archeological questions are well documented in
the many publications listed in the bibliography on the terra preta site.
Start with :

http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/terra_preta/Book/TerraPreta_book_
publication.htm

Amazonian Dark Earths: Origins, Properties, Management Johannes Lehmann,
Dirse C. Kern, Bruno Glaser, William I. Woods

 

Tom Miles 

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Sean K. Barry
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 3:49 PM
To: Robert Klein
Cc: terrapreta
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] growth

 

Hi Robert,

 

You said this again, (and I questioned before whether you meant what you had
posted before) ...

 

"As I posted a while back, the only practical way that
the soils in the Amazon could have been created would
have been in conjunction with the bio charring of corn
stover."

 

Why do you think the Ancient Amazon rainforest had corn, circa 2500 B.C. or
since?  I think, like now, that there is far more "rainforest" fauna in that
biome (i.e. big trees, in a jungle, like American Mahogany trees, etc.),
rather than corn, or maze.  Don't you?  There surely is now.  Is there any
evidence that the charcoal in the Amazon is from corn stover?  The native
soils (without charcoal amendments) in the Amazon rain basin are Antisol and
Oxisol soils.  These are high in Aluminum Silicates (clays), low in carbon,
and very low in organic material (humus) or plant nutrients.  Corn will
hardly grow in this kind of soil.  It's kind of a chicken or the egg thing.
Corn can't grow well until you plant it in "Terra Preta" soil - "Terra
Preta" soil is made by amending soil with charcoal made from lots of corn?!

 

Do you have any evidence for your conjecture?  Or, are you supposing that
corn stover must be the only or main source of biomass used to make the
charcoal in the original "Terra Preta" soils of the Ancient Amazon?  Why do
you suppose this?

 

Regards,

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Robert Klein <mailto:arclein at yahoo.com>  

To: Richard <mailto:richrd at nas.com>  Haard 

Cc: terra preta <mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>  

Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 1:00 PM

Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] growth

 

Hi Richard

One of the great delights of doing science, is that
every experiment introduces new areas of study.

As I posted a while back, the only practical way that
the soils in the Amazon could have been created would
have been in conjunction with the bio charring of corn
stover.

Running test plots with such a biochar perhaps
produced at several temperatures in conjunction with
wood charcoal comparibles would be very informative.

The question, of course, is there any obvious
difference?

Certainly wood charcoal needs to be taken to a high
temperatue to provide crushable charcoal, whereas
stover is far less fussy and much more forgiving

Bob Klein

http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com


--- Richard Haard <richrd at nas.com> wrote:

> Some results from the 28 - 17 foot planting block
> experiment with  
> charcoal, compost, fertilizer and permutations. at
> Fourth Corner  
> Nurseries with swiss chard, a native aster and a
> woody shrub,  
> Lonicera involucrata.
> 
> Spent a few hours at the research plots today.
> Picked swiss chard and  
> squash for dinner and farm crew.
> 
> Above ground results so far (July 29) are as
> expected. Best is  
> compost plus fertilizer with or without charcoal,
> next fertilizer  
> with or without charcoal, next compost with or
> without charcoal and  
> last control with or without charcoal. The only
> measurable  
> differences in these sets is with the swiss chard.
> 
> I decided to omit the urea treatment as soil
> analysis showed adequate  
> nitrogen levels in both compost and  fertilizer
> treatment sets.  
> Growth is very rapid now and I plan next week to
> harvest and blanch  
> November.
> 
> A first look at the soil analysis on samples
> collected end of June .  
> Next samples will be taken for soil testing in
> November just before  
> harvest. This set of samples is essentially at the
> beginning of the  
> experiment about 6 weeks after plots were set up. 23
> months to go  
> before the experiment is finished.
> 
> Total = 24 plots All OM= 5.04 (.72)  All N=14.7
> (9.4)
> 
> Total =  2 plots control OM = 4.6 (1.7)  N= 2.5
> (.71)
> Total =  6 plots charcoal and control OM = 4.73
> (.79)  N=5 (5.1)
> Total =  4 plots charcoal  OM = 4.8 (.27)  N= 6.25
> (6.1)
> 
> 
> Total =   2 plots compost OM=5  (.57) N=10 (2.8)
> Total =   4 plots compost and charcoal OM=5.78 
> (.60) N=12.75 (3.4)
> Total =   4 plots compost and fertilizer and
> charcoal OM=5.5 (.34)  
> N=19.25 (7.3)
> Total =   2 plots compost and fertilizer OM=5  (.42)
> N=34 (2.8)
> 
> Total =  2 plots fertilizer OM= 4.65 (.77) N=20
> (11.3)
> Total =  4 plots fertilizer and charcoal OM= 4.53
> (.64)  N=16.75 (2.6)
> 
> Key
>          OM= organic matter %
>          N= nitrate ppm
>          bracketed (__) = standard deviation (a
> statistical measure  
> of variation between the set of samples)
> 
> Considerable variation is noted in soil analysis
> numbers at either  
> ends of test row hence an explanation of large
> variability seen in  
> some sets.
> 
> It is interesting to see the effect of compost
> ,fertilizer and  
> charcoal additions on soil om and nitrate. Have not
> looked at this  
> set of data yet on some of the other items of
> interest as CEC, and %  
> base saturation.  There is essentially no difference
> between the  
> treatments  in pH and buffer pH.
> 
> 
> 
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