[Terrapreta] Charcoal is hydrophobic

[Michael Bailes]

This could not be correct activated charcoal is ofetn used in aslurry for
pesticide spills etc
All the reseach i have read says it holds water

Brown Coal from Victoria is almost pure humic acid. the complaint about
using it as a fuel is that it is so wet.
The article reference you give does not refer to charcoal

> Three organic acids were applied to the turf as watering solutions
> delivered through an irrigation system. The organic acids consisted of a
> pure leonardite humic acid (Sigma-Aldrich), a tannic acid (J.T. Baker
> Chemical Co.) and citric acid (Mallinckrodt Chemicals) applied at normalized
> carbon rates of 250 milligrams per liter. The amount of material applied is
> about 100 times higher than rates used in the field. The organics were
> evaluated against a control treatment of water and replicated three times.


. . .
>


Humic acid did increase root depth in the greenhouse experiment, which might
> have been in response to the decreased water in the profile rather than an
> effect of the humic acid treatment.



I can show you research on the Australian Equivalent of Leoardite (zeolite)
which contradicts this research.

On 03/11/2007, Brian Hans <bhans at earthmimic.com> wrote:
>
> Hi group,
>
> Say... Something that has been bothering me for a while now. Humic acid
> and charcoal are both hydrophobic. Yet, I am constantly reading about how
> humic acid (and charcoal) holds soil moisture.
>
> Here is a study<http://www.turfgrasstrends.com/turfgrasstrends/Soil/Do-Humic-Substances-Bolster-Water-and-Nutrient-Ava/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/420498?contextCategoryId=1413>talking about this aspect of humic acid. I was not able to find a study that
> specifically talks about charcoal but I am assuming that the same hold. This
> actually makes alot of sense from a chemistry point of view.
>
> I personally have not conducted a formal study for myself but have handled
> enough charcoal and humic acids to believe that adding charcoal/humic acid
> to a soil will actually decrease the water holding capacity of the soil.
>
> Im looking for some comments...
>
> Brian Hans
>
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-- 
Michael the Archangel

"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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