[Terrapreta] charcoal in agriculture

[Greenjack]

Richard,

I am giving a lecture on global warming and the biochar solution. It is called a convient solution and I will be showing, for the first time publicly my small farm biochar production system.  There is $50 million available in the next farm bill specificly for research into this system.  You and all your friends are invited to come.  Please give me a call 503 668-6507 Attached is a flyer with more information.  Thanks Paul Elmore


>From: Richard Haard <richrd at nas.com>
>Date: 2008/01/03 Thu PM 11:28:51 CST
>To: John Flottvik <jflottvik at yahoo.ca>
>Cc: Todd Jones <tjones at nas.com>, Larry Williams <lwilliams at nas.com>, 
	Kay Oakley <kfourthcorner at yahoo.com>, 
	Greenjack <pjelmore at verizon.net>, Tom Miles <tmiles at trmiles.com>, 
	"wildlander knarly at upickers.com" <ken at wildlanders.com>, 
	Terrapreta <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
>Subject: charcoal in agriculture

>Experimental research at Fourth Corner Nurseries
>Greetings
>I just finished over the last few days organizing images and data from my charcoal experimental plots. I am presenting a new set of posters showing root systems of the native shrub, Lonicera involucrataor black twinberry that I used as an experimental subject in these treatment plots this summer.
>This will be the last of a series of piecemeal postings about my findings on the terrapreta reading list.In time, I will prepare a summary of what I have accomplished this year, the shortcomings, what I feel I have learned from this work about using charcoal and my plans for continuing this experiment for 2 or more growing seasons.
>Quick background - my employer,Fourth Corner Nurseriesis a bare root native plant nursery. We grow more than 350 kinds of plants for environmental restoration and landscaping purposes. Our farm is 60 acres in 2 fields. Shownhereis our east field.Formerly,I have been trying charcoal as a soil additive for several years and this season I attempted a controlled experiment. It did not go without a hitch.
>What I established this year was a series of 28 - 17 foot long treatment blocks that are a pair of treatment sets consisting of untreated soil, charcoal only, fertilizer only compost only and combinations of charcoal, compost, fertilizer. In each treatment block 3 kinds of plants were installed: a native shrub, Lonicera; a native perennial - Aster subspicatus;and a vegetable - swiss Chard. All were selected for their heavy nitrogen consumers and all production was removed from the plots, roots and tops, then the plots replanted and cropped again without further fertilizer, compost or charcoal.
>The most detailed measurements accomplished this year is 2 sets of soil chemical analysis completed at a University laboratory. Plant response measurements this year, for several reasons was only visual observation. This set of posters I am presenting today shows subtile but interesting and positive additive effects of compost and charcoal. Further analysis will be presented at a later date.
>How it went. Early April while the plants were still dormant I took 2 year old bareroot Lonicera seedlingstrimmed tops and roots and planted in peat/perlite mix in4X4 inch containers. At these same time I planted sprigs of Asterin the same manor. After the plants had firmly rooted into the containers and our field soil had warmed, I prepared a growing bed in our normal propagation field ( Field 13, row 8). The growing bed is about 4 feet wide and 500 feet long. I divided this into 17 foot beds with separate treatments in a systematic way.Hereis charcoal 1, a fine powder that was donated by JF Waste energy systems.Hereis charcoal 2 a lump and powder mix that Larry Williams and Imade with a top draft earth coveredmound. I am using the lump charcoal because I can observe microbe utilization over time asLarry has been studyingfor several years.
>Hereare the charcoal test beds are they appeared before rototilling. In this image furthest is compost only, then compost/charcoal1,then compost/charcoal2,then compost/charcoal 1/fertilizer and so on in a systematic pattern repeating again in a second duplicate set on the north end of the field. In discussing these tests I sometimes discuss each set separately, are are called south set and north set.Here arethe plots immediately after rototilling. Note that the charcoal does not appear to be uniformly dispersed.After harvest with the lifter-shaker charcoal is better mixed in the soil.Each bed received about 30 gallons of charcoal. Fertilizer and Compost were applied at rates normal for our farming practices.
>We planted the plots in mid May and by late June they looked likethisandthisandthis. By the end of August theSwiss Chard had maturedand we had our firstharvest. Yields were impressive but no trends specific to treatments were noticed. Hereyou can see our plot method for measuring yields of swiss chard and also how the separate treatments, Lonicera, Aster and swiss chard have grown together making assessment of total production rather difficult.
>In late October I conducted a survey of the Lonicera component of the research plots. It was the end of the growing season but before the frost defoliated the plants. Here is how the plotslooked.My first look at the data that showed a subtile but encouraging trend of improvement from the use of charcoal 1. In this set of imagesnotice that the treatments with compost when combined with charcoal tended to be larger. The same trend is also noticed in the compost/fertilizer/charcoal combinations. By mid November we were ready to lift all the plant material from the plots,examinethe roots and fall replant with a single species crop for next year. Here we have ourlifter shaker harvestingthe plants, Lonicera with charcoal staining roots and Renapicking up the plants. Later we replanted with our4 row seederand reseeding with another native shrub species, Oemleria cerasiformis, chosen because it too is an agressive nitrogen consumer.
>Finally the posters I have prepared to compare top growth and root growth in each of the treatment sets. I have organized the images according to groups of treatments as follows: The links are to the larger size images for better viewing. Edit note root images were created 11/15 not 10/25
>First Groups 1 and 2 the control sets that received no treatment or had charcoal onlyRootsField ViewNext Groups 3 and 4 fertilizer sets Edit Roots is labeled as Groups 1 and 2RootsField ViewNext Group 5 South end plots compost setRootsField ViewNext Group 6 North end plots compost setRootsField View
>I think these findings will be encouraging information for John Flotvik and many thanks for his donation of charcoal from his pyrolyser and thanks again to Larry Williams , his thoughtful work and helping when it is most needed.
>I am looking forward to another season of data from this set of test plots. Comments, ideas, criticism, discussion whatever are appreciated as I am now preparing my season end report.
>Richard Haard, Fourth Corner Nurseries, Bellingham, Washington.
>copyright January 3, 2008Permission for distribution of these materials and images is granted for entire text and images only so long as the author and initial place of publication <http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/>is cited. Individual images may be used by permission only from author.