[Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 15, Issue 14

[Sean K. Barry]

Dear All,

Is understanding the true origins of Terra Preta de Indio absolutely necessary in order to form Terra Preta Nova?

If we examine known sites containing Terra Preta now, what clues can we take from the sites as to what is there that is working and then how can we export that effect to other sites.  What happens to TP soil that is mined and sold to be put onto another site or in pots?  Does that soil retain or grow its properties on the new site?

I don't think finding the root mechanism for the buildup of Terra Preta formations 4500 years ago is really necessary to do this.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: MFH<mailto:mfh01 at bigpond.net.au> 
  To: 'Nikolaus Foidl'<mailto:nfoidl at desa.com.bo> ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:44 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 15, Issue 14


  Well said Nikolaus.

  I've lived in Papua New Guinea for 40 years and understand your reasoning.
  To the surprise of many, 'formal' agriculture can be traced back at least
  8000 years in the Wahgi Valley of PNG.

  I tend to favour the argument that the TP soils are not the result of
  deliberate and planned char production and distribution. 

  Max Henderson

  -----Original Message-----
  From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org>
  [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Nikolaus Foidl
  Sent: Monday, 7 April 2008 11:33 AM
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 15, Issue 14


  Dear All¨

  I live in Bolivia on a farm and next to our farm are several small
  indigenous villages or house gatherings where the original people still live
  as they did hundreds of years ago. They have, as we have a certain need to
  clean the houses from trash and the main place and the surroundings of the
  houses. Everything starting with rests of fruits and gardening as well rests
  of food and cooking is thrown into a pit in the backyard. Nowadays some have
  chicken and pigs so part of those thrown away organic materials are still
  taken as food from those animals what did not happen before the Spanish
  arrived because they had no chicken and pigs before. The fires which burn
  all day and long into the night to spook the mosquitoes away produce huge
  amounts of badly burned rests and ashes. The simple pottery they use are a
  short life pottery, they fall down, the dogs or pigs or children brake it,
  the pottery is not very heat resistant so brake easily when put into fire
  with something cooking in it etc. so there is a good amount of broken
  pottery a day in the village which as well is thrown into the trash pit in
  the backyard. The defecation as well is done next to the pit and thrown into
  it, to clean their ass, leaves and corncobs are the most used items which as
  well end up in the pit. So if you have a closer look at the content of the
  pit then you see that's an accumulation of a lot of minerals like potassium,
  phosphorus, nitrogen, magnesium ,calcium etc. If you do a mass balance over
  100 years or more its a simple mineral dump because with all that rain the
  organics after 3 to 6 weeks are all eaten up by bacteria and fungi and what
  is left is slower degrading bones from animals, lignin and some cellulose.
  After 500 years in such high water and high temperature environments even
  the bones and lignin etc . Are irecognizeable mineralized .
  So there is no meaningful wise man or ethnic which studied how to rise the
  fertility of the soils , no complicated thinking about cationic exchange
  capacity or nitrogen influence in crop production etc. it is as simple as it
  can get it is a series of dumpsters with over time interconnected. Those
  people had and still have several village like compounds which they visit
  regularly what means when the population of eat able animals is down due to
  over hunting they simply move on some kilometers and stay in the next place
  one or two seasons and after several years they come back to always the same
  places and erect again some very primitive housings and the cycle starts
  over again.
  You have to have in mind that under these conditions where you spend 95% of
  your time for surviving and where everybody has the same workload just to
  survive there is not much room for experiments and development. That's the
  reason why they are still 5000 years back in there social and human
  developement.Untill they develope a social network with different functions
  for different social groups in the village they wont have people freed from
  the dally workload of surviving so they can dedicate time for development of
  the same group.
  If somebody will have a look at our dumpsters in some 2000 years from now
  the same esoteric discussion about the deeper meaning of accumulating things
  in the dumpster will happen. What do you think why did the accumulate flat
  glass peaces and half round glass peaces so evenly distributed in the
  surrounding soil? Is it possible that they had a growing system where they
  avoided humidity loss from the soil covering the soil around the plants with
  different types of glasses, did they filter out different damaging light
  waves with different colors? And reality is : its a dumpster where we throw
  our waste in without thinking very much about the consequences.

  That's it , don't interpret things in terra preta which never where there,
  its a dumpster.

  Best regards Nikolaus





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