[Terrapreta] VM composition

[John G. Flottvik]

Rich.

If it helps, the char you got was made at 600C. 

Regards
John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Haard" <richrd at nas.com>
To: "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com>
Cc: <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2007 4:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] VM composition


> Thank you Tom
> 
> This is some confusion for me quite a while now. As I have endeavored  
> to create an experiment that at least parallels Steiners plot studies  
> here in the PNW feedback on this forum has lead me to believe I  
> should be using charcoals that are produced at the low end of the  
> temperature spectrum. As we have no way to measure, accurately these  
> temperatures hopefully proximate analysis will inform us what I have  
> going into my 2 year trials at 4CN.
> 
> In any case this entire effort has a very good educational write-off  
> for me as I have been working our farm soils pretty much seat-of- 
> pants and now after taking an analytical approach have come to  
> realize our soil fertility management practices have been pretty  
> good. This then takes me back to the original question when I started  
> my research on charcoal here that do these effects known in the moist  
> tropics apply to our moist temperate climate? The new question  
> unfolding for me is : Where there are no particular problems in soil  
> fertility and organic matter levels will a positive effect be shown  
> by charcoal additions to soil. Coincidentally this is how our local  
> Soil Conservation District person was wondering why we should treat  
> the soil when there is no apparent problem in contrast to problems in  
> farming oxysols in the moist tropics.
> 
> The only problem in our sandy loam soil is maintaining available  
> nitrogen levels. Hence my studies this year and next I will be  
> looking very closely at the differences in nitrogen between my  
> treatment sets.
> 
> In addition, I have become interested as a line of inquiry whether  
> the porous structure of hardwood charcoal is a habitat for free  
> living nitrogen fixing bacteria as Ogawa indicated. I have saved half  
> of our charcoal we prepared for this purpose and it and charcoal  
> donated by John Flotvik is currently aging in a mixed deciduous  
> forest under-story.
> 
> In my study for next year I would like to look more closely at our  
> forest soil here that are mycorrhizial fungus dominated,highly  
> leached, and have abundant annual organic matter input from leaf/ 
> needle litter and woody debris. What role might charcoal play in such  
> a place?
> 
> Rich H
> On Jun 9, 2007, at 4:55 PM, Tom Miles wrote:
> 
>> Richard,
>>
>> I reviewed charcoal compositions recording volatile matter for several
>> studies. I don't yet see a correlation between VM and plant  
>> response. The
>> trials reported by Ogawa and others, and recently by Julie Major at  
>> IAI and
>> the slash and char tests by Christoph Steiner appear to be made with
>> conventional charcoals that probably vary from 10-30% VM.
>>
>> The mechanism and impact of condensed tars or pyroligneous acids (wood
>> vinegar) seems to be different. Char and tar are different products  
>> made at
>> different stages of pyrolysis. Rather than try to make them all in one
>> package it might be useful to identify how they are used by organisms
>> individually. A related question is whether processes that purport to
>> combine char and tars in one products have them in forms useful to  
>> plants
>> and organisms.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Haard [mailto:richrd at nas.com]
>> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 6:39 AM
>> To: Tom Miles
>> Cc: Kevin Chisholm; Michael J. Antal Jr.;  
>> terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
>> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] VM composition
>>
>> hi
>>
>> Still waiting for the results to come in on our tests. It's only
>> money and is darned interesting. Will report for your comments.
>>
>> I'm wondering now what good charcoal is in terms of VM and use in
>> soil. My understanding that the slash and char strategy in moist
>> tropics was low temperature of formation and that this embedded VM
>> could be considered substrate for colonizing organisms? In addition,
>> reading articles on the beneficial properties for plants of wood
>> vinegar - apparently a water soluble component of smoke that
>> smoldering combustion included this material and perhaps we should be
>> pretreating our char with this before use.
>>
>> Rich H
>> On Jun 7, 2007, at 8:30 PM, Tom Miles wrote:
>>
>>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Terrapreta mailing list
> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
> http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>