[Terrapreta] Alkaline Soils test - Use of Charcoal + for treatment

[Saibhaskar Nakka]

Dear Richard Haard / Kevin Chisholm / Tom miles / / all,

> Have you been in contact with Dr. Lucas Van Zwieten in Australia?
No I did not get in contact with Dr. Lucas Van Zwieten

 > You soil report does not show available nitrogen.
Yes what ever the report is presented is the standard report which our
Government department provides to farmers.

>Use rate of urea seems quite high and would not a N source as ammonium
sulphate be better for managing pH? In addition, we apply urea at our farm
in small doses as plants are well rooted into  soil.
Yes Urea would be applied at the time of growth of the plants no during the
preparations / conditioning of the soil.

>Relative to my soils reports your P and K seems quite high already and your
rate of N, P, K  application seems high. Is this amount of fertilizer
necessary in your high pH situation? You are using sand and gypsum i presume
to improve soil texture.

Yes sand and Gypsum are being used to to improve the texture and there is
plenty of very good quality sand is available from near by stream. You could
see the area on Google imagery with one meter resolution and easily clasify
the alkaline soils.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=15&ll=16.703615,78.31295&spn=0.015332,0.029182&om=1&msid=112402491982270899100.00000112422882f6c5388&msa=0/
These soils are heavy black soils with alkalinity. If you thing the dosage
is high for NPK, you could suggest the required dosage from your experience.


>Is this your intent with the charcoal? Do your soils analysis include %base
saturation for Ca, K and P?
I have shown the complete soil analysis details, I dont have any more data.

>What are your crops and how will you be monitoring progress of your
experiment?
Based on the climate variability the crops are as such Cotton, Maize /
Castor will be cutivated. In atleast one field would like to go for
Horticulture crops like Amla (Indian Gooseberry) / Guava and other regular
crops in between. We need to plan the treatment for each pit seperately.

For soils description of this region please see
http://www.ikisan.com/links/ap_soils.shtml#Alkaline%20Soils/


>The Topmost data (10 lines from "Name of Farmer" to "Gypsum" seem to be
a report on existing conditions. The "Recommendations" seem to be
additions that are recommended to be added to improve conditions.

Yes you are right.

>The problem is: The land already seems to have 324 to 440 kG/Acre, and
it is recommended to add an additional 200 kG/Acre.

>Why add more Gypsum, when there apparently is lots of Gypsum already there?
To make the soil neutral

>Another problem is:
* How much Sodium is in the soil per acre, within the soil working depth?
* How much of this is Sodium Carbonate and how much is Sodium Sulphate?

I would like to  get the soils analysed for all the above parameters too.


>I am impressed with your Bio-Treatment Techniques... my first guess is
that they would be futile and a waste of good resources with such a
serious alkali problem in place. It might be better to FIRST get rid of
teh Alkali Problem, and SECOND, only then add the Bio-Treatments.

My only hope is that the Charcoal will become an habitat for them to exist,
eating the vermicompost / farm yard manure provided as food. Let us hope
atleast some of them will survive to bring some change.

>Can you structure a "Soil Leaching Test", to treat a small area to
convert all Na2CO3 to Na2SO4, and leach it out of the soil, and remove
the leach liquid from the site and dispose of it elsewhere?
This option is not possible because we are working in already water starved
area.

(This would be a "soil washing process," where the soil was put in tanks
with water, agitated, and the water was separated by decantation. The
water saturated with Na2SO4 would be sent to shallow plastic lined
ponds, for evaporation, and when evaporated, the solid Na2SO4 would be
removed from the Site.)

>Is there a market for crude Na2SO4 within economic transport distance?
I am not sure

For those who could not access the google spreadsheet.
Please try this link again
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxqBXdOJdD5a3dhB5Qm34fA
or else see the data given in text form given below.

Alkaline Soil Testing Report, Kothur village, Midgil Mandal
 1 2 3 4
Name of Farmer Shivaji Janardhan Reddy Narasimha Reddy Venkat Reddy
Survey No.          289
23                       367
Soil type            Neutral       Neutral
Neutral                Neutral
pH                     8.81           8.86                   9.21
                    9.04
E.C.                  0.79           0.83                   0.33
0.33
O.C.                 Low            Low
Low                    High
P (Kg/acre)        17             13.6                   15.3
17
K (Kg/acre)       130            150
125                     145
Znic (Kg/acre)   0.65           0.65                   0.65
                     0.65
Gypsum (Kg/acre) 324         440                    405
344

Recommedations (per acre)
Charcoal                     750 kgs    Throughly Clean in water with out
any traces of ash
Sand                          5 tractor loads
Gypsum                     200 kgs
Vermicompost / FYM (tonnes / acre)         4 tonnes
Urea (N) (Kgs / acre)                                50 kgs
Super Phosphate (P) (Kgs / acre)             70 kgs
Muriate of Potash (K) (Kgs / acre)            10 kgs
Zinc                                                      20 kgs
Biofertilizers / Biopesticides Treatment
Aztobactor (per acre) 1 kg    Mix well with 50 kgs of well Cleaned Charcoal
in water and 50 kgs of FYM / Vermicompost and by packing in Gunny bags cure
it by sprinking water for 10-15 days for spreading it in the field

Tricoderma Viridea (per acre) 1 kg    Mix well with 50 kgs of well Cleaned
Charcoal in water and 50 kgs of FYM / Vermicompost and by packing in Gunny
bags cure it by sprinking water for 10-15 days for spreading it in the field

Azospirillum (per acre) 1 kg    Mix well with 50 kgs of well Cleaned
Charcoal in water and 50 kgs of FYM / Vermicompost and by packing in Gunny
bags cure it by sprinking water for 10-15 days for spreading it in the field

Pseudomonas fluorescence (per acre) 1 kg    Mix well with 50 kgs of well
Cleaned Charcoal in water and 50 kgs of FYM / Vermicompost and by packing in
Gunny bags cure it by sprinking water for 10-15 days for spreading it in the
field

Strain No. for different crops as per
http://dacnet.nic.in/rbdcbangalore/strains.htm
Bangalore Regional Biofertilizer Development Centre-Bangalore
S.No Organisms Strain no. Crop
1 Rhizobium G-1 Moong
2 Rhizobium G-2 Moong,Urd,G.Nut, Cowpea
3 Rhizobium G-3 Black Gram
4 Rhizobium G-4 Arhar
5 Rhizobium G-5 Arhar
6 Rhizobium G-6 Ground Nut
7 Rhizobium G-7 Ground Nut
8 Rhizobium G-8 Soybean
9 Rhizobium G-9 Pea
10 Rhizobium G-10 Chickpea
11 Azotobacter G-11 Maize
12 Azotobacter G-12 Vegetables/Sunflower
13 Azotobacter G-13 Mulberry
14 Acetobacter G-14 Sugarcane
15 Trichoderma vivide G-15 All crops
16 Bacillus thuringenesis. G-16 All crops
17 Zinc solubilizer G-17 All crops
18 Azospirillum K1 Paddy, Vegetables
19 Azospirillum K2 Sugarcane, vegetables
20 Azospirillum K3 Sugarcane, Paddy, Cotton, Vegetables, Tea
21 Bacillus megatherium K-4 All crops
22 Bacillus polymixa K-5 All crops
23 Pseudomonas fluorescence K-6 All crops
24 Coir decomposer K-7 For decompose of coir pith
25 Pseudomonas stratia K-8 All crops
26 Potassium mobilizer K-10 All crops
27 Pseudomonas fluorescence HS-9 All crops
28 Glomus fasiculatum R-1 All crops
29 Glomus mosseae R-2 All crops


http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxqBXdOJdD5a3dhB5Qm34fA

Please also see the blog http://e-alkalinesoilsterrapreta.blogspot.com/ for
further details


Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy
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