[Terrapreta] Where do you get it?

[Greg and April]

100 lbs of dry soil - 

With 4-5% organic matter, is capable of holding 165-195 lbs of water = 4-6 inches of rain in 1 hour.

With 1.5-2% organic matter, is only capable of holding 35-45 lbs of water = .5-1.5 inches of rain in an hour.

If the soil has a high reliance on the organic matter, to hold what water it does get, and the addition of char increases biological activity that reduces that available organic matter, you could have just initiated the process of desertification.

Tell me, how much water will char hold?    What percentage of char will you need to hold the same amount of water?    Is that level of char going to cause harm to organisms ( like worms ) that builds good premium soil?


In the quest to sequester carbon people can not be as irresponsible as those who kill the soil in the first place with repeated applications of petrochemical fertilizers.    If all you want to do, is to sequester carbon, are better ways than causing more ecological damage than there already is.


1st rule of sustainable agriculture is not to do irreversible harm.    


If you increase the biological activity with the use of char with no way to reverse it, you have just created a problem that may not be stopped.


In this regard, it would be foolish just to be thinking about putting char into the soil nillywilly, just to remove carbon from the atmosphere with no regard for the future effects ( both positive AND negative ), on the soil.


Even if the only consideration is carbon sequestering, there is most likely places that char will cause more damage than it necessarily fixes - and that's not in anyway acceptable.    This is why more testing needs to be done before we hail TP as the new "miracle cure" and start spreading over all 4 corners of the globe.  


Do not in anyway get me wrong, I think that TP has allot of potential, but like gasoline, that potential is for both good AND bad if it's not used properly - and putting char in all soils, everywhere just for the sake of sequestering carbon, is not a good thing.    Sure, place where it will improve things, but not where it will cause even more problems.


Greg H.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: folke Günther 
  To: Greg and April 
  Cc: Biopact ; Terra Preta 
  Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 12:31
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Where do you get it?





  2008/6/16 Greg and April <gregandapril at earthlink.net>:

    There is usually a reason that soils are poor, and if that reason is not addressed, then just adding char, may be just a waste of time, money and effort.

  If not, at the end of the day, you consider carbon sequestration being the most important. 


    If the soil is poor because of specific climate issues or specific soil chemistry issues - char is not necessarily the answer.


    Greg H.
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