[Terrapreta] Forestland management

[MFH]

Greg, some comments on your aim to convert sand into soil. Pardon me if you
already know most of this.

 

Bear in mind that I don't know where you are or what materials may be
available within reasonable distance, or at what cost.

 

a)       you don't need soil to grow plants, as proved by hydroponics.
However I believe that food grown in active soil is far more beneficial than
artificially-grown

b)       first step is a soil test - maybe all essential elements are
deficient, but maybe some are there in reasonable quantities. 

c)       this will also give you a pH result and pH is critical. Sea water
is moderately alkaline but I'd assume even your low rainfall has leached
this out

d)       If your land slopes, consider swales to concentrate moisture and
nutrients

e)       if you don't have any surface water (e.g. creeks), look at a
storage pond at the end of the swales, with plastic liners or clay or
diatomaceous earth. Anything to capture the 3" of rain if and when it
happens

f)         the single best additive is clay - will help to bind the sand and
add to water retention

g)       equally good is compost. If you're near a town you may be able to
encourage restaurants to keep their food scraps separate, for example

h)       any animal manure is a great additive to the compost pile, e.g.
from a dairy

i)         even un-composted, animal manure is a good additive straight on
to the plot

j)         if you're near a coast and seaweed is available, pile it on

k)       avoid woody waste, e.g. sawdust and shavings - they suck N out of
the soil

l)         pumice is also a great additive and has some properties similar
to charcoal. Its available in some parts of the US

m)     char will be of enormous benefit but for quick results you'll need to
add an NPK fertiliser. Test information indicates that char is great at
storing nutrients but if they are not there in the first place this may take
a very long time

n)       probably better for your situation not to grind the char to fine,
so as to maximise moisture retention

o)       use zero-till practices. This helps to retain moisture.
Unfortunately ZT is best when herbicides are used and if you're aiming to be
organic this is difficult.

p)       avoid fire like the plague

q)       start a serious worm farm, using composting worms, particularly if
you have an economical nearby source for food scraps, animal manure, or even
carcasses like from a broiler farm

r)        don't waste your own poo - use composting worms to convert. They
will remove all pathogens. Asians have used human waste for thousands of
years. I believe that this hasn't had any detrimental side effects because
the soil has remained active and not been killed by fertilisers, herbicides,
pesticides and fungicides

s)       For an area that you don't want to grow food on for a while, cover
with old carpet (preferably wool or cotton), cardboard cartons etc. All
sorts of activity starts to happen in the moist layer under

t)        Use "green" soaps and keep all your grey water to irrigate with.
Keep your wee separate and mix with the grey water

u)       Plant legumes - cover crop, shrubs and trees

v)        If you have rabbits and chickens and pigs and whatever, have night
houses for them to concentrate their wastes

w)      If you end up with water storage use sub-surface trickle irrigation

 

If you can let me have some more specific information I'd love to be able to
offer more specific advice. Certainly you can achieve great results. The
Israeli's in particular are amongst the best at making deserts bloom.

 

Max H

 

 

  _____  

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Greg and April
Sent: Sunday, 20 April 2008 3:09 PM
To: Sean K. Barry; Terra Preta
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Forestland management

 

I'm currently facing having to buy land, in what was ancient seabed that is
now uplifted, and as such, the soil ( if there is any at all ), is thin
sandy stuff with little organic matter and nutrients.    I was here for 3
years before I saw my first worm, that's how dry and organic poor the soil
is.    

 

Most of the water shows up for about 3-4 weeks in the mid summer monsoons (
if you can call them that ) - even then it's usually less than 20 inches for
the year, so I have to take a number of moisture saving steps, until I can
build up a thick enough natural mulch.

 

If you know what western short grass prairie is ( in some cases little more
than some hard pack sand ) that's exactly what I'm facing, trying to make it
more useful than just grazing a few cows on.

 

While I doubt that I would be able to change it all.    Changing strips of
it, even small areas at a time, I figure that I can eventually change enough
to take care of my family - I'm not asking any more than that - trying to
will be asking for trouble.    

 

I see char as an important part of the plan, in order to hold nutrients,
rather then have them wash away in the sandy ground during a storm that
dumps 3 inches of rain in 40 mins or less.    

 

I have seen what I can do in my backyard with bunch of rabbits and the ashes
from the fireplace ( including the char ) in a 4x8 garden and the backyard
in general.

 

 

Now that you know what I'm facing, do you see why I believe that char will
be an important part of the plan, now that I have learned about it?    

 

As for where I'm going to get the char, I'm going to have to make every lb
of it - but I will not be able to do that until I have the land - as to
where I'm going to get the wood, to start off with - let's just say that at
this time, I have identified a seasonal source - free for the hauling.

 

 

Greg H.

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Sean K. Barry <mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>  

To: Terra Preta <mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>  ; Greg
<mailto:gregandapril at earthlink.net>  and April 

Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 21:08

Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Forestland management

 

 

So what do you hope to achieve or learn by putting charcoal on your soil?

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080420/7b8c41b9/attachment.html