[Terrapreta] Fwd: transect points - Agrichar: In the news May 15th

[Michael Bailes]

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Date: 17-May-2007 16:38
Subject: transect points - Agrichar: In the news May 15th
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*"transect points <http://transectpoints.blogspot.com/>"* - 1 new article

*Agrichar: In the news May
15th<http://transectpoints.blogspot.com/2007/05/agrichar-in-news-may-15th.html>
*

<http://bp3.blogger.com/_eNm730tnGbc/RksqGIeq3_I/AAAAAAAAAIs/uPAJEJTGq2w/s1600-h/367800989_cba0071930.jpg>Two
short articles well worth the read for terra preta enthusiasts:

Carbon project raises
hopes<http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikatotimes/4060544a6415.html>:
Waikato Times, NZ:


...Structural biologist Alfred Harris, process engineer Wolfgang Weinzetll
and two Tauranga entrepreneurs are involved in Ecotechnology Ltd, which is
working to reduce fertiliser use without hampering plant growth. The company
is investigating producing a charcoal product from forestry and other
organic waste which collects unwanted nutrients...

Recent work by Australian researchers showed wheat gained an additional $A96
per hectare in value when charcoal was banded in the soil with mineral
fertilisers.


Is banded C the killerapp for agrichar? I don't know what the charcoal
application rate was, but last I knew, banding equipment had limited
material application capacity, charcoal is low density, and there was
mineral fertilizer in the hopper also. A charcoal application rate in the
neighborhood of about 100 lbs per acre seems reasonable to expect. At
$100/ton for charcoal, material cost would be $5/acre ($A15/hectare). Is the
value in comparison to a no-C comparison? I would surely like to see the
research.

Seeder image source:
Flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/367800989/>by IRRI
Images

Another May 15 article

Special Report: Inspired by Ancient Amazonians, a Plan to Convert Trash into
Environmental Treasure<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40>(by
Scientific American) has a great soil point-counterpoint under the
heading: But is it viable? :

As with all new technologies, many questions about the ultimate utility of
agrichar have yet to be answered. "As of now agrichar is not a uniform
product," explains John Kimble, a retired USDA soil scientist. "And there's
no easy way for farmers to apply it with existing equipment. They also need
to know there is a large enough source of the material. Farmers are driven
by profit, as is everyone, and they need to be shown that it will improve
their bottom line."

Complicating debates about the costs of agrichar is the paucity of data on
the subject. "No one is sure what types of biomass should be used as raw
material," Kimble notes, "or exactly what production methods work best, so
calculating the costs is really an exercise in speculation."

In addition, scientists are finding it hard to replicate the original terra
preta soils. "The secret of the terra preta is not only applying charcoal
and chicken manure—there must be something else," says Bruno Glaser, a soil
scientist at Bayreuth University in Germany. Field trials in Amazonia using
charcoal with compost or chicken manure find that crop yields decline after
the third or fourth harvest. "If you use terra preta you have sustaining
yields more or less constantly year after year," he says.

"I'm skeptical about adding just a pure carbon source," says Stanley Buol, a
professor emeritus from the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina
State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who spent 35
years studying Amazonian soils. "It will be black and look good," but will
it contain enough inorganic ions, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, essential
to plant growth?"

Many of the interactions between the char, the soil and the microorganisms
that develop with time and lend the soil its richness and stability are
still poorly understood. Glaser believes that the key to making agrichar
behave like terra preta lies in the biological behavior of the original
Amazonian dark earths—a difference he attributes to their age. "You would
need 50 or 100 years to get a similar combination between the stable
charcoal and the ingredients," he cautions.

"I think [research into the biological behavior of terra preta] is where the
new frontier will be," Lehmann counters. If he is right, and scientists can
perfect a modern-day recipe for agrichar, then its fans will not need
Richard Branson's $25 million to jump-start their initiative—the annual
demand for fertilizers exceeds 150 million tons worldwide.

There are strong indications that soils amended with high (multiple
tons/acre) rates of biochar need considerable time to reach their optimum.
For setting where return on investment cycles need to be short, lower rates
sustained for long periods of time may make more sense as a strategy for
building soil C.
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