[Terrapreta] "Keep rotting and rooting" Ah! get dirty first

[Michael Bailes]

It's my very own quote, so please ascribe it correctly :)

I have been mucking about with charcoal in pots for a couple of years now .
I started a couple of experiments but was loath to have a "control group."

So here are some haphazard observations

!. My 2 year old parsley has been eaten by me, and eaten down to the nub by
the bloody possum.
 They are shooting again and I look like getting another crop.
This from a plant that at best is a biannual.
They were one of my first "experiments" I actually left one without char and
two with "x" amount of car and  2 with "y" amount of char.
 Of course I have forgotten which is which now.

2.Trying to save my half dead Hibscus near the pool with char and organic
matter failed. i think the problem is the soil around the pool contains salt

3.TP Pots seem easier to re-wet when they dry out.
 This is a problem with nurseymen who often use automatically timed watering
systems.
If a field of pots is not watered, and drys out, re-wetting can be a
problem. just watering again does not cut it. A sort of 'meniscus' forms on
top of the pot and the water runs down the inside of the pot and out the
drainage holes at the bottom.
I am using a bit of greywater (only in some pots)so that adds another
variable to the mix (soap)

4 The initial impact of putting too much char on acid loving plants can be a
problem. So far lost 3 gardenias and 1 Aquilegia.
The aquiligias were interesting.
I had/have some beautiful looking aquilegias that don't seem to want to
flower.. I put about 20-30g of rice hull char on each pot. they immediatly
all slumped down and looked as if they were about to die. One did Within a
few weeks the others all bounced back looking better than they did before.
(which was very good). Still haven't flowered. I am about to speak to them
sternly.

5. I think I am using too much char.
 The Japanese research paper on Tea Trees used only 100g per tree, per
square meter, per year.
 After 4 years they have 30-40%? more growth.
They plan to carry on the experiment for 10 years.
 So that will be worth watching and waiting for.

6 I grew a 2 metre fig tree, from  a small cutting, with two figs, in 12
months, in a ground up BBQ char, home made, potting mix.
I am very proud of it
1& 1/2 figs for the bloody possum 1/2 fig for me.


There thats all from this scientifically minded shaman.
Enough for a few soil science PhDs?
Any other shaman out there?
.
I will leave you with this from, or apologies to, Michal Plotkin (great book
"Shaman's Apprentice")

"When an Amazonian Shaman dies; it is as if a medieval European Library goes
up in flames"
michael.

On 31/05/07, Larry Williams <lwilliams at nas.com> wrote:
>
> "Keep rotting and rooting"
>
> Michael-------Thanks for the quote. Here is what I am considering.
>
> Amazonian Terra Preta exists, it appears as a complex biological system
> which includes wood products from lightly charred wood to charcoal with some
> ash, for 6,000 years (?).
>



This rich soil includes shards of pottery cookware  modification with buried
> charcoal (and charred wood?). It has also been reported that this soil
> technique predates pottery.
>
> What if we start with the ingredients that the villagers started with? It
> was apparently a limited number of variables with a wild card from the
> shaman's input.
>



 These villagers may have received direction from their shamans to fine tune
> the biological process. We don't have that option. With the work of Geoff
> Lawton in Jordan as an example (see a short movie at the url below),  I
> believe, we can with the best knowledge available to us recreate the process
> as the Amazonian villagers did for the locale here we live.
>
> This is not a suggestion to forgo the scientific method just to recognize
> that the specific to the general has as many limitations as generalizations,
> the general to the specific.
>



 Where did the Amazonian natives work from to achieve their goals? What were
> they thinking? Can this line of thought help us?
>
> I suggest that Geoff Lawton's field work is very fruitful to his situation
> as are the experiences of Dr. A.D. Karve in India. Both are working in
> agricultural fields with their ideas. Let's be careful to not let our
> establish thoughts hid answers from us. Few people break through the barrier
> of established thought and this  is the challenge...for each of us. We do
> not appear to have the luxury of time when we consider global warming. All
> techniques of discovery are open as I see it-------Larry
>
>
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
> Keep rotting and rooting
> michael
> "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . . Most people don't
> know that"
> FROM
> http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Terrapreta mailing list
> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
>
>


-- 
m
"You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . . Most people don't
know that"
FROM
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf
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