[Terrapreta] First Hello & General Background

[Greg and April]

You will have to pass this post on to biochar-ontario at googlegroups.com as I'm not a member.


Many people already add dry molasses to soils that have a sluggish microorganism population - in fact this was one of my first exploratory steps into the area of organic plant production - 5 yrs ago a 50 lb bag of dry molasses ( animal feed additive ) set me back all of $6 from the local Seed and Feed store.

Greg H.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lloyd Helferty 
  To: 'Greg and April' ; 'Terra Preta' 
  Cc: 'Laepple' ; 'Jp Warren' ; biochar-ontario at googlegroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 20:41
  Subject: RE: [Terrapreta] First Hello & General Background


    This reminds me of the idea of creating 'seed balls' to help spread and re-seed, especially in hard-to-plant areas.  One makes 'seed balls' by mixing the seed for each season's crop with (usually) clay, compost or manure, which are then formed into small balls and dried. Much less seed is used than in conventional growing, resulting in fewer plants which are smaller but stronger with a higher yield. It is an ancient technique that was re-introduced by Masanobu Fukuoka.
  There was some talk on the Biochar list of using Biochar instead of or in conjunction with the clay/compost/manure to re-seed.
  See, for instance, http://permaculturetokyo.blogspot.com/2006/10/seed-balls.html
    I've also read that seed balls are one of the best methods for re-naturalizing areas if a mixture of multiple native plant seeds are used when making the seed balls.  Not all of the seeds will germinate, but depending on the particular micro-habitat of the individual sites where the seed balls are spread, some of them likely will be able to survive and propagate.
  The addition of sugars or starches to the mix may be an interesting idea if it becomes 'a food source for microorganisms' that will inhabit the soils.  I would suspect that the cheapest [$$] organic binder would probably be the most appropriate from the list provided below.

      Lloyd Helferty
      Thornhill
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