[Terrapreta] What is Terra Preta? Was: Increase of TP soils in the Amazon.

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Mary et al

What is Terra Preta? What is NOT Terra Preta?

One definition is: "Terra Preta is a Portuguese word for a black soil made by the Indians of Brazil, in which is found charcoal and pottery shards."

If I mixed charcoal with sand, would that be Terra Preta? How about if I mixed charcoal with earth and added some pottery shards? What about if I took some black goop from the bottom of an anaerobic pond and mixed it with soil, and threw in some charcoal and broken pottery just to "fit" the Archaeological description?

Is the charcoal in Terra Preta really necessary, or will any "black carbon" suffice?

How do we know that Terra Preta was a fertile and high yielding soil? Has anyone made Terra Preta the way that the Brazilian Indians made it 400 to 4000 years ago? What were the results

Does anyone in the World have a "formula" or "specification" for Terra Preta?

Can we reasonably duplicate the purported successes of Terra Preta using charcoal and man-made fertilizers?

Are pottery shards necessary to have Terra Preta? If we wish to make Terra Preta, what would be a specification for the pottery shards?

What would be acceptable specifications for the black carbon content of Terra Preta? What kinds of "black carbon" would be unacceptable for use in Terra Preta?

How important are soil micro-organisms to the definition of Terra Preta?

Would you think it would be advantageous if we had a rigorous definition of what Terra Preta is, and what it isn't?

If so, how would you suggest that one be attained?

Best wishes,

Kevin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mary Lehmann 
To: lou gold ; Terra Preta 
Cc: michael J Lurvey ; Jody Slagle 
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Increase of TP soils in the Amazon.


Dear Lou-


 Kevin says "Didn't you [Lou] post an article on your Blogsite showing how Terra Preta actually "grows"? The article was about Brazilians who harvest TP for sale elsewhere. The article clearly noted that they find that vegetation that falls into depressions and low lying areas is converted to TP for harvesting about 20 years later."  


>From other reading I gathered that the soil next to the terra preta turned into terra preta after 20 years.  I think the people to consult as to what really happens are the people who have collected Terra Preta over the years.  Do scientists have any data on this?  Could there be such a thing as spontaneous charring, either due to a strange property of plants or microbes in a particular environment?


That research should continue, but for practical reasons, developing a list of people experienced in charring that collects the byproducts to recycle for fuel, and getting those people setting up and keeping continuous projects going, like cities' charring their waste, should be the first order of business.   Be guided by the fact that we are in a fight against Time.  We should be getting governments at all levels to learn about, to finance, and to develop charring operations as soon as we can.  We'll have to learn as we go.


LATER:  It occurs to me that if the energy crisis is met by making changes in our culture that are basic enough, like having free but limited energy rationing per capita -as M.K. Hubbert suggested and Britain is now considering, people will want to cut energy consumption  and develop small scale charring for their vegetable gardens just to survive.  Should we  be giving more attention to explaining to people how they may experience greater hardships to come, and the value of Terra Preta then?


 Meanwhile, is the structure of this list still simple or divided into topics?  
Mary Lehmann
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