[Terrapreta] Interesting article on char

[Brian Hans]

Added to this review is the other soil killer - the steel plow. Its the steel plow that turns the soil, destroying the structure and offering more of a 'meal' for the bugs to get at. The article shows how its the bugs finally catching up to primary production to wear out the soil and its the steel plow that allows the kinetics and opportunity of site to allow what this article references. 
   
  Then add economics to the equation and one gets a one-two-three wammy. Plow it up ---> bugs gets at maybe 110% of primary production and the plants love it ---> the farmer is now farming the soil of nutrients because the farmer only puts on what the crop needs because of economics, not what the farmer is really taking away from the soil ---> soil slowly wears out.
   
  So lets add this formula to what the archangel is talking about in the previous thread ' I am reminded of farmer friends near Tarmor in the S W wheat belt of NSW. When settlers first went to the area 150 or so years ago it was covered in grasses higher than a man. Excitedly settlers stared to grow whet in the area. My friends get a crop of wheat probably once every five years;. and that is not when there is the 1in 1,000 year drought we have on now.  Normal rainfall is 8" inches a year. That's in good years. '
   
  Let me make up a scenario that imagines some numbers.  The plow cuts up that beautiful 4:1 root to shoot ratio and fixed carbon biomass in the form of 'rich soil' of the grasslands. The bugs eat 110% of the production y/y so it takes maybe 100yrs to eat it all away depending on conditions. The farmers in the past do well eventho they were not replacing minerals and primary production. Eventually...the grand grand son's have to pay the creditcard bill that their great granddaddies starting charging up without even knowing it. 
   
  IMO...this is where TP comes in. Grow the crop (make $) ---> feed the people/livestock (make $) ---> Brew up the poop (lose $)  into 2 things, fertilzer and char ---> remineralize with fertilizer (make or lose $) ---> burn some char for energy (make $) and bury some char to help add soil structure to replace the ecosystem we have lost (lose $). --->  Create a new equilibrium of production that is sustainable because its based in science AND economics as well as sustainability. This new soil will not be TP de Indio but some new TP (i think some names like Neuvo or others...) soil ecosystem. Just as the plow turned the ecosystem into something new, just as the technique of TP de Indio turned the ecosystem into something new, just as the 'green revolution' turned the ecosystem into something new, this new ethic of soil building thru close cycle systems will provide us for the 21's century and beyond. I can imagine a time when we utilize soil like a hydroponic system more
 than a compost pile. I can also imagine a time when we get solar efficiencies up into the 4% range which would be yields of 40ton/acre corn in a place like Iowa. 
   
  By the way, I mentioned ' Brew up the poop (lose $)  into 2 things, fertilzer and char ---> remineralize with fertilizer (make or lose $) ---> burn some char for energy (make $) and bury some char to help add soil structure to replace the ecosystem we have lost (lose $). '
   
  Let me explain this a bit. To simplify the formula...if corn makes minus soil even if we leave stubble on the field...why leave stubble on the field? Why not collect it, char it, send 99% to the coal e' plant to pay for the whole works and power the vehicles and put 1% back into the soil as well as 100% mineral replacement (the fert part of the brewing of poop) ? We can discuss erosion and other items but I personally prefer this method. 
   
  As to make or lose $ on fert...some places are blessed with excess minerals. In NE Wisconsin for example, we are 'blessed' with high P soils. There is an op. to 'mine' those excesses which could yield $'s. But mostly it just costs $ to recycle the fert's and distribute them evenly and accurately where needed. But as farmers are now realizing with huge fert costs and poor soil that is only getting poor'er ... that credit card is coming due. 
   
  Ok...I'll get off my soapbox.
   
  Brian Hans
  
 
  

Michael Bailes <michaelangelica at gmail.com> wrote:
      An interesting article on carbon which seems somehow to have something to say about the grass/forest/co2 debate.http://abc.net.au/science/features/soilcarbon/ 

  How soil loses carbon  Professor Alex McBratney from the University of Sydney has been studying soil carbon decline in the Namoi Valley, north western NSW. 

  The soils in this area have taken a beating, due largely to intensive cotton farming over the past 30 years. Once pastureland, the conversion to cotton crops has seen soil carbon levels decline from 1.5 to 0.8 per cent, he says. How does this happen? In healthy soils, carbon exists as long, sticky string-like molecules.
  These strings twist around individual soil particles and literally bind them together. Soil micro-organisms tend not to bother consuming these large, unpalatable molecules, preferring fresh or rotted plant matter – the stems, roots and other plant parts which over time become incorporated into the soil.
  But if the soil loses this plant content (because the stubble is burnt or removed), the soil microorganisms have no choice but to make a meal of the carbon molecules. Once the carbon is gone, the structure of the soil breaks down making it difficult to retain water and nutrients.


Trees versus crops. Carbon levels in forest soils are usually much higher than those under agriculture. Pic: Brian Murphy 

-- 
Michael the Archangel 

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