[Terrapreta] some thoughts on charcoal production andtransportation

[Tom Miles]

Questions for the Cornell contingent on the list:
 
Is terra preta experimentation taking place on experimental farms at
Cornell? Are crop scientists like Julie Major experimenting on New York
soils?
 
Are there cooperating nuseries near Cornell that are experimenting with
charcoal? Nurseries near Cornell are probably similar to those in the
Northwest. 
 
Tom Miles
 
 
 

  _____  

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Richard Haard
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 2:00 PM
To: Sean K. Barry
Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] some thoughts on charcoal production
andtransportation


Hi Sean 


Might as well forward this to the list




On Mar 9, 2007, at 10:20 AM, Sean K. Barry wrote:




Hi Richard,
 
"This looking for differences in growth and size of leaves and root
nodulation has not worked for me."  Maybe the charcoal used in that test
does not have the properties to make it useful as AgChar?  You'll more tests
of charcoal produced under different conditions.  You will need controls in
un-amended soil that a right next to the test plots, just like Steiner did.



My latest round of experiments last summer and the previous season were well
controlled. Between circumstances that happened  and most likely poor design
i did not get the effect I was looking for.


Steiner and Lehmann are my present model for experimental method. This will
involve close monitoring of the soil organic matter and soil chemistry as
well as foliage analysis. I am putting my plan together now  and am today
talking with a lab to see if i can get analysis I need without breaking the
bank. 


Steiners  randomized field study involved a very large tract of land that I
do not have at our little farm. However a paper published by Dr Lehmann -
Lehmann, J, et al Nutrient availability and leaching in an archaeological
Anthrosol and a Ferralsol of the Central Amazon basin: fertilizer, manure
and charcoal amendments, Plant and soil 249:343-357, 2003
This paper seems to be  a precursor of the field study done by Steiner. It
may give some ideas on how to set up our own controlled study using
containers as a method to study.  


If I can get through this next summer to develop an  experimental test to
evaluate our farming practices this will be a big step for us. I would like
to use about 225 large containers and a drip system with timer. I'm
mycologist for sure but not expert in mycorrhizial fungi as I am 40 years
out of graduate school. We have purchased stains and fixatives to do root
examination and we will be learning this as we go along. Our crop is around
500 species of native plants and we are thinking about doing a set of
experiments with a native aster and a  local shrub known as thimbleberry.
Both make prolific growth in one season and we have lots of small starts
from our seedbeds. 


It's a pretty big project and until now I have been fiddling around with
charcoal as supplement myself. Now there are 3 of us to work on this during
the season and am excited to be doing this. I am thinking about 10
treatments with permutations and controls on two species. Hope to launch
about mid May and I will keep the list informed about my planning.


Best Rich Haard




 
So you are a mycologist?  Well, maybe you could do some tests on
reproduction of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi in soil
containing charcoal?  As I understand the function of VAM in soil, it has a
symbiotic  relationship with plants growing in the soil.  It delivers
soluble minerals to the roots of plants, through its "vascular" system of
hyphae, which it grows into the soil, in exchange for sugar from the plants.
Some theorize that charcoal's porous nature provides a habitat for the
growth of VAM in soil amended with it.  I hope you have some insights about
VAM which you might share with our group.
 
Regards,



Sean K. Barry
Principal Engineer/Owner
Troposphere Energy, LLC
11170 142nd St. N.
Stillwater, MN 55082
(651) 351-0711 (Home/Fax)
(651) 285-0904 (Cell)
 <mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> sean.barry at juno.com

----- Original Message -----
From:  <mailto:richrd at nas.com> Richard Haard
To:  <mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> Sean K. Barry
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 1:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] some thoughts on charcoal production and
transportation


Sean 


Thank you very much for this feed back. This is a topic I have wondered much
about as you can probably tell. I enjoy trying to grasp the big picture on
this and am personal friend of a pyrolyser developer just north of here
(John Flottvik). This aspect of charcoal is a topic of conversation with him
to explore just how decentralized biochar production might help to mitigate
global warming.




This Terrapreta reading list has been very helpful to me so far. I really
have nothing personal invested in this other than intellectual pursuit and
getting comments such as yours are just great. I got a special kick out of
the willy-nilly comment that came out after I described my multi-sourcing of
char in my farmer testing. Soon after Michael sent me a pdf of his char
characterization paper. 


John will be supplying my charcoal for my next round of research from both
conifer and hardwood sources. i am excited now that i will have it
characterized and will have good information on pyrolysing conditions. All
of the papers i have poured over the last month offer very little
information about conditions of its creation, I do understand though that
this is good information to have. 


I really did enjoy meeting Dr. Ogawa at the UGA conference in 2004. He is a
fellow mycologist and I appreciate his view of charcoal as habitat, a point
that has directed my research efforts. My last round of field research at
our production intensive nursery has convinced me i need to develop a more
analytical approach as expressed by Steiner and Lehmann. This looking for
differences in growth and size of leaves and root nodulation has not worked
for me.



Best Wishes


Rich Haard










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