[Terrapreta] Black soil

[Richard Haard]

Very interesting story Max, thank you

Have you done a mineral nutrient profile of the pumice parent material?

I'm not a soil scientist but what I understand is the Amazon Oxysols   
are highly weathered, leached iron rich soils. Organic matter does not  
accumulate and nutrients are easily lost by means of leaching. In  
natural vegetation it is only biomass capture that retains these  
nutrients, recycling as leaves fall during the dry season.

Are you certain this is a parallel situation?

Rich
On Jun 3, 2008, at 8:27 PM, MFH wrote:

> There must be areas of the Amazon with a similar climate, and with  
> similar inert base soils. It seems that the Amazonians chose to  
> improve their soils by adding char whereas the PNG’s basically let  
> nature take its course. Irrespective they both had an apparent  
> understanding of the benefits of living soil, a fact that seems to  
> have escaped many industrial farmers.
>
> Max H

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