[Terrapreta] Bogus

[Jim Joyner]

I'm sorry, the linked article is bogus or at least badly misguided. I can't personally vouch for the benefits of charcoal in the soil  but the problem in Colorado is that they have too little calcium in the soil. It is the potassium that accounts for the high pH. If a soil is chemically unbalanced, not charcoal nor any humate can help much. Nothing but calcium and, possibly, magnesium will help.

But let me tell you a true story that I think fits.

I have a friend who has a nursery; he grows scrubs. USDA Extension
convinced him to use muriate of potassium  to correct for a low pH in his soil. The pH went to neutral the first year and he got a good
growth response. By the 4th year of applying the potassium (he didn't understand that they meant to do it only once), nothing would grow.  He checked the pH and it
was 8.5. Extension told him to apply sulfur. 

But we happened to met this
consultant
from Ohio. He recommended limestone, about 30 tons to the acre (based
on the CEC requirement). The
Extension agent told my friend that the consultant was obviously
insane. The consultant said, well, lets just run some test beds. One
with enough sulfur to neutralize pH, one with the lime he recommended
and a control. 

Everything died in the control, almost immediately. It
took about 9 months for everything in the sulfured bed to die.
Everything prospered in the limed bed beyond anything my friend had ever seen.



What was interesting, when we applied the limestone, the pH dropped to
7.2
after the first hard rain. The calcium apparently displaced the potassium and the pH dropped. The following year with no amendments applied, the pH went to 6.8.

The moral of this story is, don't put much stock in the use of pH. Plants require a balanced soil and proper nutrient. pH is not a nutrient, just a concept, a poor, sometimes misleading one. Charcoal, like other organic matter, may help buffer some of the problems in an imbalanced soil, but the chemical balance in the soil is determined almost completely by having the proper amount of calcium and magnesium. 

Jim

----- Original Message ----
From: Gerald Van Koeverden <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>


Charcoal is Not a Good Soil Amendment in Colorado



from      http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Soil/charcoal.htm







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