[Terrapreta] Terra Preta - not just about charcoal in soil

[Jon C. Frank]

Sean,

What you are describing is basically the same as what I posted earlier.
Charcoal is long-term storage of carbon.  To have a truly healthy soil we
must also have short-term carbon storage in the form of biology protoplasm,
crop residue, organic matter, and humus.  The shorter-term carbon storage is
important to provide a steady source of CO2 release to the underside of
plants and a steady supply of nutrients being released from carbon sources
breaking down.  In addition to carbons the soil also needs soil amendments
such as limestone and gypsum.  One nutrient of primary importance is
nitrogen.  No nitrogen leads to no crop.  Nitrogen can come in many forms
but the best form is from N-fixing bacteria, also good is legume crops,
animal manures, liquid fish, and selective commercial fertilizers.

A healthy soil with have a strong electro-magnetic field.  In other words
the soil is attracted to itself.  On a windy day you can take a healthy soil
and toss it into the air.  It will all come right back down.  Creating an
electro-magnetic field in soil is about getting the right combination of
soil microbes, soil carbons, and available minerals.  An important component
to providing a strong electro-magnetic field is the use of soft rock
phosphate and limestone.  Soil Remineralization plays a role in providing
the broad spectrum trace minerals.

Best to all,

Jon C. Frank
www.aglabs.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org]On Behalf Of Sean K. Barry
  Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 2:44 PM
  To: terrapreta
  Cc: Christoph Steiner; Johannes Lehmann
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Terra Preta - not just about charcoal in soil


  Hello 'terrapreta' List,

  I am writing today to this group about what I am learning from reading
some more parts of the book "Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin, Properties,
Management", edited and compiled by another of our colleagues on this list,
Johannes Lehmann.  I believe there are some very crucial understandings that
we all need to have, in order to achieve what we want to with "Terra Preta"
Nova".

  The agricultural miracle that is being sought by forming Terra Preta soils
anew, is NOT just about putting charcoal in soil.  Charcoal is a tool, one
which allows the concentration and storage of plant nutrients in soil, where
they would otherwise be lost to seasonal harvests, run-off, and/or leaching.
It is thought (and being researched for more confirmation) that charcoal in
soil can improve the environment for soil microorganisms, because its porous
nature retains water and provides a haven for the growth of soil microbes.
Increasing the populations of soil microbes will not occur just because
there is charcoal in the soil, however.

  Soil microbes need energy to grow.  Then, they can do the chemical
breakdown of other matter in soil, making more of the plant nutrients in
those materials available to plants growing roots into the soil and shoots
above the soil.  Usually microbes get this energy from undigested
carbohydrates in and on the soil (soil organic matter).  They also get this
energy from carbohydrate exudates that the plants themselves provide to
supply the soil microbes with energy they need.  These symbiotic
relationships between plants and soil microorganisms are as old as life on
land.

  The carbon that is in charcoal is NOT a FERTILIZER.  Most charcoals do
contain some plant nutrients, though, and these will increase the stock of
plant nutrients in soil once fresh charcoal has been put into soil.  This
part of charcoal IS A FERTILIZER.  The stock of nutrients in the soil will
not increase further, however, as a result of its presence in the soil.  If
the soil is used for agricultural purposes, then plant nutrients will
deplete as harvests occur, even if the soil contains charcoal.  Making
charcoal from those plant wastes that are left after harvest also WILL NOT
improve the stock of nutrients.

  Making charcoal amendments alone, especially just from the plant wastes
that remain in an agricultural field after harvesting WILL NOT improve the
fertility of that field.  It may improve the ability of the soil in that
field to HOLD ON TO what fertility is does have better, but the nutrients do
not just appear.  The nutrients have to be input for the fertility of the
soil to be improved.

  In the formation by humans of the Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE) (a.k.a Terra
Preta soils), what occurred was that the people were able to make inputs of
plant nutrients exceed losses.  They were greatly aided in doing this by
incorporating charcoal into the soil.  But, it was NOT CHARCOAL ALONE and it
was not charcoal from only the plant wastes in their fields that made this
increased fertility in ADE soils.

  They made native soil into more fertile patches of soil (ADE sites) by
incorporating all of these things; their wastes from food production, at
harvest and post harvest, human and animal digestion products (night soil
and manures), pottery sherds, and charcoal made from plants covering a wider
area than where they made Terra Preta soils.  The valuable and necessary
aspect of ALL of these inputs into the ADE sites was that they all served to
increase the stock of nutrients on the site over time, limit the losses, or
retain the stocks of nutrients in the soil.

  It is a completely different way of practicing husbandry of the land, that
modern agriculture is not focused upon.  Making Terra Preta is about giving
more to the land than we take from the land.  It is not just about making it
black with charcoal.


  Regards,

  SKB



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