[Terrapreta] Charcoal properties

[PurNrg at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/2/07 3:31:46 PM, mantal at hawaii.edu writes:


> Tests by my colleague Professor Goro Uehara and his co-workers in CTAHR 
> have
> shown that the addition of some charcoals to the soil can be harmful to
> plant growth.  Our analyses of the properties of this “harmful” charcoal
> indicate that it would have been perfect for barbeque.  This illustrates the
> dangers of working with an uncharacterized charcoal purchased from your
> local grocery store.  Professor Uehara and his co-workers will have more to
> say on this subject in the near future.
> 

Dear Michael,

Thanks for the very informative post about charcoal properties! It definitely 
leads us in the direction of 'gourmet' charcoals which might be available in 
the future. Can't WAIT! 

I think I am probably not alone in wanting more detailed information about 
the negative effects which you mention. I wonder particularly if this was a long 
term thing, or the same sort of temporary 
shortage of nitrogen which can happen if you work sawdust into the soil. In 
other words, something that can be countered by the addition of extra 
fertilizer at the time of application or after the fact.

In any case, I guess I won't be running out for Kingsford briquettes to break 
up for horticultural use!

Warm Regards to all, Peter :-)>

Peter J. Schenk, Jr.
Green Door Gardening Service
42 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301

Home -703 683 3260
Cell - 703 304 2269



**************************************
 AOL now offers free email to everyone. 
 Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070302/34e3bfcb/attachment.html