[Terrapreta] Terrapreta Questions

[rukurt at westnet.com.au]

Sean said:

Hi again, Kurt,
 
Did you have any valid input to any of the recent discussions about 
Terra Preta? 
 
I thought maybe that the list members might discuss the topics list that 
Kevin Chisholm and Edward Someus presented ...
 
# Where to get the right charcoal

A good question. When I was messing around making charcoal in Queensland 
I was using bamboo, because I had a large supply of it and because 
japanese work suggested it was good stuff. Additionally I tried making 
some from Lantana scrub, a bad weed, of which I also had entirely too much.
What I've read about Terrapreta suggests that the Indios used hardwood 
from the forests in which they gardened. Yes, I know that trees are 
difficult to cut down with stone axes, but the people of New Guinea told 
me that it was entirely possible and I quite believe them, having seen 
them do it. They much prefer steel axes though.

Now that I'm in Tasmania, I'm thinking of using Gorse and Blackberries, 
both weeds of which there are rather a lot. In addition, there seem to 
be large supplies of Hawthorn in hedge rows around the place. 
Additionally, there are now lots of Blue Gum plantations destined for 
this new pulpmill that is causing a lot of argument around the place. 
Who knows what the future will bring, perhaps ther influence of "peak 
oil" will have unforseen effects on the paper pulp industry and a lot of 
that timber will become available for other uses.

# What qualities to look for

Blowed if I know

# What are reasonable costs

Practically free would be nice and enabling farmers to clear the weeds 
with a beneficial influence on their land would be nice.

# How much per acre

Who knows, enough to make a difference I guess. Time will, hopefully, tell.

# How to incorporate it into soil

A light discing, perhaps, so as not to disturb the natural soil 
structure--- as little tilling as possible.


# How to modify conventional fertilizer practices

No idea at this point.

# How to manage for the long-term

No idea

# How to assure effective microbial inoculation

There's a company up in Queensland in a little town called Eumundi that 
deals in microbes and various microbe feed etc etc substances. I have 
their catalogue and did a course with them. At the moment all that is 
hidden somewhere in a removal carton. When I locate it and am ready to 
use it, I'll look into that


# *What are the national permit and legislation aspects*
# *What are the application follow up control practices*
# *What are the comprehensive environmental and human health safety 
aspects* (life cycle analyses

None that I know of. Someone mentioned that flaring off the smoke from 
"make it in a drum" charcoal systems ignored the great danger from 
particulates. Where I live at the moment practically every house has 
wood fired heating and or cooking appliances, they all send smore into 
the atmosphere.  While I type this, in mid New South Wales, they are 
figjhting bushfires that are putting hundreds (maybe thousands) of tons 
of smoke and particulates into the atmosphere. Such particulates may be 
a problem in LA, or the San Joachim valley or most of Europe, but we 
haven't yet reached the point of having large amounts of legislation on 
those sorts of things. Here in Tassie people live too far apart to be 
troubled. To be perfectly fair though, Launceston has a problem with 
wood smoke--- fine, Paradise where I will be living is way out in the 
country.

So there you are Sean, what with the sale of my place in Queensland, 
packing up and triaging 30 years of accumulated stuff, moving down here 
to Tassie, settling into temp rental accommodation here, searching for a 
new place, quite a bit smaller than the last one, finding and buying it 
and moving into it and getting settled there quite a bit of time is 
elapsing. At least another 6 to 8 weeks before I'll be ready to do 
anything more on Terrapreta.  But--- I've worked my way through some 400 
messages here, plus another thousand or so on other, in some cases 
totally unrelated subjects, and I'm up to date on Terrapreta anyhow.

regards all,

Kurt
who will be living (hopefully) in Paradise.