[Terrapreta] Terrapreta Digest, Vol 13, Issue 16

[Nikolaus Foidl]

Dear William!

You have to read the messages carefully to get to correct understanding of
the content. The used formalin is transformed together with solubilized Urea
into a polymer which has nothing to do anymore with the original formalin.
It would be the same if you brake up HCN which is deadly in its gaseous form
into its components and where ever you find now H,C,N in the air you cry out
loud that you will pass because those are the ingredients of Hun's please
recognize that adding a Nitrogen -formalin polymer is not the same as adding
Formaldehyde pure to the soil.
 Second: your comment from 10 to 2000 kg is not correct. Yes they added
Fertilizer specially Nitrogen to the charcoal to get to the 1500 to 2000 kg.
Again read carefully the messages. If I missed to mention that they added
Fertilizer, my apology.
You are right that forest soils are fungi dominated and agro soil is
bacteria dominated. There is no good or worse no plus no minus its different
that's all. We most of the time use terms we have no prove of like "soil
balance", there is no good or bad in nature or the processes ( biological or
mineral or mechanical etc) as well there is no good balance which then is
off balance. What you have in a normal soil, no matter if " undisturbed,
2000 year old forest soil, recent agricultural soil, whatever" is, that you
have a continuous change of everything making up this soil. The mineral
content is shifting the ph is shifting, the cationic and anionic interchange
capacity is shifting etc. Measure the same spot every day during a year and
you see that there is no normal balance which is off or on there is only
change, forward and backward in dependence of the season , weather,
rainfall, temperature and what you add or not. Depending on the soil
chemistry you have different plant species thriving and others dying.

To your thought experiment: We have a yearly production of Beouveria of
around 35 tons, Trichoderma spores about 700 kg ,Metharizium spores about
800 kg and we are as well producing several types of Bacteria like
BT,Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas, next year as well Azospirillum.
100 tons of mychorrhizae infested soil is added every year to our soil.
Where possible we add these livings to our charcoal to enrich and correct
what ever goes in a directions which could harm our production.
So your thought experiment is already praxis.

Best regards Nikolaus



 
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:50:22 -0500
> From: William Carr <Jkirk3279 at qtm.net>
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal in soil
> To: Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> Message-ID: <90C636E1-59DA-4E52-A76D-6E1743C41CC7 at qtm.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
> 
> 
> On Feb 9, 2008, at 8:43 PM, Richard Haard wrote:
> 
>> From Wikipedia  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde>
>> 
>> Formaldehyde preserves or fixes tissue or cells by irreversibly
>> cross-linking primary amino groups in proteins with other nearby
>> nitrogen atoms in protein or DNA through a -CH2- linkage.
>> 
>> Perhaps this is an issue to consider when interpreting your results
>> of charcoal additives in soils.
> 
> 
> OMG !   They are using Formaldehyde ???
> 
> One of the worst poisons known, in Agriculture ?    That blows my
> mind.   Fertilizing with poison.    Why not try fertilizing with
> Depleted Uranium instead ??    >:
> 
> I know they used to use Formaldehyde in making plywood.    Supposedly
> to keep bugs from chewing on it.
> 
> I had asthma as a kid, and later when I visited my older Sister's new
> house as a teenager I kept having these severe asthma attacks although
> I'd had none for years -- and I had no inhaler as I hadn't needed one.
> 
> Almost killed me.
> 
> It turned out to be formaldehyde in the plywood of her new home.
> Using this poison in agriculture is just insane.   No wonder
> respiratory diseases are on the rise.
> 
> Fertilize the crops with formaldehyde, and poison all the beneficial
> insect life, kill all the worms that surface to breed....  um, no.
> I'll pass.
> 
> 
> 
> ************
> 
> 
> As for Terra Preta, nobody yet knows why it works, but it's pretty
> safe to say it does.
> 
> One theory, that I find intriguing, is that it might be a three-way
> interaction between the char, as a bio-catalyst for soil bacteria, and
> somehow also support populations of soil fungi.
> 
> Productive soil is a balance between soil bacteria and soil fungi:
> the more you work the soil the less fungi you have in the soil,
> because tilling breaks up the network of fungi and thus retards it,
> without harming the bacteria at all.
> 
> The bacteria take the edge in the competition and the soil balance
> goes off.    Dumping nitrogen runoff on the top doesn't help matters
> return to normal, really.
> 
> So next year the soil fertility diminishes, and you have to use MORE
> nitrogen to compensate, especially with growing corn.
> 
> 
> Even though most of the N goes to waste because corn can't absorb it
> properly and the soil won't hold it for long.
> 
> 
> *********
> 
> 
> Here's a thought experiment:
> 
> 
> 
> Burn a big pile of wood to char, harvest the large pieces, and spread
> the little bits of it on the ground.
> 
> The ash will kill off some of the millions of species of fungi, and
> some of the soil bacteria will be affected too.   Different species of
> both will crowd in to fill the vacuum.
> 
> But do nothing else, and the soil will try to return to normal.
> Maybe you'll get a short-term boost in phosphorous until the crops
> absorb and concentrate the nutrients, and they get hauled off to market.
> 
> 
> However, re-inoculate the char/soil patch with fresh bacteria from
> manure, and possibly beneficial fungi like the species that grows on
> corn, and you might get something very different.
> 
> An atypical soil, colonized with forms of bacteria and fungi that
> specialize in using the char as a bio-catalyst.
> 
> 
> Forms of both fungi and bacteria that might not thrive too well in
> open competition, but that do rather well within the char's
> microscopic haven.
> 
> Perhaps by using the char's adsorption capability to store and release
> nutrients that the fungi absorb from deep in the soil, and transport
> to the surface where the fungi can use it.
> 
> I'm not a mycologist, and unless Paul Stamets is on this list I
> wouldn't even know who to ask if this is correct.
> 
> 
> 
> But I think that the char itself doesn't DO anything.
> 
> I only have one season experimenting with Terra Preta so far, and the
> only things I added to that test patch was the char, a little OM, and
> some shredded newspaper.
> 
> 
> Result?   Nothing much, yet.    So I intend to proceed on my theory
> and add soil fungi from FungiPerfecti, and see a man I know who keeps
> Rabbits for the other "ingredient".
> 
> 
> 
> BTW, raising corn production from 10kg/Hectare to 2,000kg/Ha  WITHOUT
> adding any nitrogen AT ALL doesn't sound like a failure to ME.
> 
> It sounds like an experiment done only half-way.
> 
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> ------------------------------
> 
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> 
> End of Terrapreta Digest, Vol 13, Issue 16
> ******************************************