[Terrapreta] First Hello & General Background

[MFH]

Greg, I've added a weak molasses/water solution to some of my trial plots
for the same reason. Unfortunately there is evidence from last weekend that
some of the worms got blind drunk on some fermenting liquid and didn't do a
decent days work until Wednesday.

 

M

 

 

  _____  

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Greg and April
Sent: Saturday, 21 June 2008 5:12 AM
To: Lloyd Helferty; 'Terra Preta'
Cc: 'Laepple'; 'Jp Warren'
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] First Hello & General Background

 

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 <mailto:lhelferty at sympatico.ca>  Helferty 

To: 'Greg <mailto:gregandapril at earthlink.net>  and April' ; 'Terra Preta'
<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>  

Cc: 'Laepple' <mailto:laepple at golden.net>  ; 'Jp Warren'
<mailto:jpwarren at interlog.com>  ; 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
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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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