[Terrapreta] Fwd: Charcoal--- what sort?

[code suidae]

On 6/3/07, rukurt at westnet.com.au <rukurt at westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
> From what I've read, the charcoal in TP is hardwood charcoal.
> Micrographs of even the finely divided lumps shows the typical hardwood
> structure maintained in the charcoal. We believe that this structure is
> responsible for the porosity of the charcoal and it's special properties.
> Will softwood charcoal have a similar structure? Not necessarily.


Just speculating here. If it is the particular micro-structure of the wood
used to produced the char for TP it does not necessarily follow that the
structure of hardwood char is the only or the optimal structure for biochar
soil amendments. Nor is it necessarily true that the biomass used to produce
the charcoal irrevocably sets the final micro-structure of the charcoal.
Further processing of the charcoal could alter the structure to improve it's
suitability for soil amendments. It might even be necessary to customize the
structure to optimize it for the particular microflora that works best in a
given region. The wee beasties that make TP so successful in the Amazon
probably won't like North Dakota, for example, and the beasties that like
North Dakota may prefer different charcoal from the beasties that live in
Amazonian TP.

DOK
-- 
"Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know." - M. King
Hubbert

-- 
"Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know." - M. King
Hubbert
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