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

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Michael,

You say, "3.TP <http://3.tp/>Pots seem easier to re-wet when they dry out."  I think charcoal is hydrophillic (attracts and absorbs water).  This may account for that observation.

4. Acid loving plants?  Try to lower the soil pH (pine needles maybe?). See if that helps.

5. Too much char?  Try diluting the soil mixture with more charcoal free soil.

1. and 6.  Some well fed Bloody possum, when shot, gutted, and skinned, might make good stew.  Some American hillbillies swear by it.

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Bailes<mailto:michaelangelica at gmail.com> 
  To: Larry Williams<mailto:lwilliams at nas.com> ; terrapreta<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 11:25 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] "Keep rotting and rooting" Ah! get dirty first


  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 <http://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<mailto: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 <http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf>



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  m
  "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . . Most people don't know that"
  FROM
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