[Terrapreta] What is TP?

[Max Turunen]

Here is what I have came to comprehend as Terra Preta do Indio:

It is ancient earth modifying technique from very old, to less old,
disappeared (at least mostly) cultures of the Amazon area.

It is used to change frigid soils with no capability to sustain microfauna,
tie moisture into itself, not capable to host mycelias nor sustain
plantlife. The frigid land type that is present widely over the Amazonas
area, under the very thin jungle soil. The same sandland that is now exposed
for desertification and erosion after logging. Terra Preta has been
apparently used to modify those frigid sands into fertile arable land for
cultivation... which still remains long after those farming practicing
cultures themselves have disappeared... though now used by local habitat
ecosystem.

Terra Preta appears to be very simply made and easy to grasp as concept, and
easy to start experimenting with.

Powdered Charcoal + (Fresh type plant- ?) Compost = Terra Preta mixture.
This mixture is spread on frigid sandland.
Rain causes the mixture to flow between the sand particles of sandland.
Charcoal Powder particles prevent the compost nutrients from getting eroded
any deeper by rains, while providing ample convoulted fractalized surface
area for the microfauna to exist upon, amongst the compost nutrients.
Thus the sandland is made into farmable, fertile soil, that is rather
permanent phenomenon, and can be then farmed and further organically
fertilized like other farmlands of sandy soil types.
It seems that in such Terra Preta soils, the charcoal buried to sands for
such modifying purposes 7000 years ago, still remains there.

Wikipedia here has imagery and degree of explanations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
Herein a .pdf about terra preta's charcoal aspects can be found (without any
mentions of the decomposed plant matter component):
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/terra_preta/TerraPretahome.htm

What, to my understanding, is not terra preta:
Adding only charcoal to already fertile soils. Charcoal addinng alone to
soils and lands, seems to be called Biochar, and much research and
considerations about the benefits and potential problems of biochar alone is
currently being researched, and getting much needed focus on this very
mailing list too.

**** Here ends the part of this email that directly relates to the Topic.
Rest is practical links, instructions, speculations and wild Ideas also
about techniques that could complement Terra Preta utilization... many
points about global, rural, and urban food security Do It Yourself
techniques*****



I have been lured by the following lines of thoughts and plannings lately:

DIY Charcoal:
Simple Do It Yourself Charcoal producing methods that utilize pyrolysis
gasses as well.
Here is one that costs 2 (two) US$ to construct:
http://e-avanstove.blogspot.com/
I myself have tested using portable such stove called Anila Stove, also from
India, and it seems to work fine, but that costs 40 US$ to make.

  +

DIY Biogas.
Simple as what. Rotting plant "wastematerials" in a airless space (airtight
bag, or clay chamber will do fine). All the peels and straws, the things
that nowdays go to composts from where they release their apparently highly
dangerous climate change biogas methane directly to the atmosphere. Through
simple waterlock this gas is easily led into container (like old truck or
tractor wheel inner tube) or directly burned as heating gas... resulting in
cooking, house heating and much less harmful gas: CO2, as they do in the
amount of poor households in India... or be Burned as Combined Heat and
Power (CHP in energy jargon) aggregate generators (many are made from self
modified old diesel engines) to generate electricity for the household... or
for the farm and to be sold through the existing grids in the case of farms.
As even small farms seem to be able to generate more than what they need in
energy, while transforming their farming emissions into environmentally much
less dangerous form. What is left from this bacterial fermentation process
after the biogas methane has been produced... is quite nutritious rotted
plant mass. This seems also quite suitable for the Terra Preta mixture's
Compost -component, to be mixed with the ground up, powdered charcoal. Also
the produced CO2 can be tubed / piped / led to greenhouses (and or outdoors
cultivations if greenhouses are not able to utilize it all) to increase
organically the greenhouse plant growth, due to plant's habit of using CO2
to become able to convert (and withstand) more heat (and light ?) into their
growth activities. (Animal feces seems to be more wasteful way...
unneccessary hindrance... rotting plant matter seems to work better. Human
feces from communities can be utilized, but of note are the points that the
remaining slurry is such that it is not advisable to use it for foodcrop
fertilization... also the antibiotics contents hinder, posibly severely, the
anaerobic bacteria effectivity, and hormonal medications emissions seem to
have nasty effects on lifeforms they drift into... I would consider a cycle
or few of some forms of coprophiliac (dung inhabiting) mycelial treatments
possibly useful for metabolizing such human community feces into plant
nutrients for fiberplants. Better than using our WC:s (Water Crappifiers ?)
to burn energy at sewage treatment plants and/or soil the waters from life
we depend on ?)

+

Mycelial farming.
Rather permaculture type... lowtech utilizing local, selected, farmed plant
species symbiotic mycelial species... of course preferrably such mycelia
species which produce additional harvest of their own fruiting bodies
(Biology jargon word for Mushrooms). Local species of mycelias seem to
already have negotiated their arrangements with local ambient current
microfaunas and other mycelias... thus needing no sterile treatments.
Naturally symbiotic species also do not seem to need any hormonal
treatments, or other complicated processes available only to a fraction of
farms. Trees and Bushes seem easiest in general to find such symbiotic
species. (for example, syrups, fibers, and wood, providing birches form,
(and often require) symbioses quite adamantly with their boleate mycelia
life components. Edible and tasty boleates... actually a valued cash crop
too). Also various non-till, less technological, land packing heavy
machinery avoiding, methods of mycelial farming for various grain crops seem
to have been developed.
Much information and instructions on this topic can be found from the quite
important book: Mycelium Running, by Paul Stamets, from Ten Speed press.

+

DIY reclaiming the frigid and desertified lands for cultivation and living
ecosystems.
By utilizing the above methods. For example such Organic farming of food and
energy, could help to restore the fertility and stability of the North
American Midwest. Slash and Burn practicing powerty devastated communities
around amazonas area, might be able to start reclaiming the depleted and
desertified areas with these techniques, instead of doing more of the same.
This, and reliability in all conditions and situtations globally, is why I
consider it important to develope such technologies that can be utilized
also by poorest of communities, from the materials that are locally
available and accessible to them. Disturbances in industrial and trade
infrastructures can create much devastation on such farms and areas, where
food production is dependant on products and services from purchaseable
high-tech and high-processed imports. For example, soil depletion which
seems to have led into serious population debilitation risks, by tightly
packing the soils with heavy agricultural engines... which are dependent on
industrial and trade infrastructure made maintenance and repair parts, as
well as imported expensive fuels... and heavy chemical industry (and even
Energy and Industry heavy Mining !) infrastructure made artificial chemical
fertilizers to grow anything... seems like serious mistake... one that will
lead into serious catastrophe(s) in food production in such areas in a
matter of time. When, not If. For other example the monocultures and
infrastructures of economies that demand maximized short time yields of
produce, with no considerations allowed for longer term... seem a script for
devastation of harvests and food production. In diverse crop and strain,
locally sustainable, farming, a plant plague that wipes out one crop harvest
totally... is a nuisance, not a catastrophe.

Further possible land treatment methods of global interest, seem to be:

Rock Dusts for remineralizing depleted soils. Like this type of thing here:
http://remineralize.org/joomla/

Some Cow Urine + Some raw sugar (potato starch could do well too) into a
barrel of water to ferment (few days in tropics) seems to create efficient
bacterial mix for farmland fertilization in India, where ever the cows are
abundant enough to collect some of their urine for such. This seems cheap,
doable and quite effective fertilizer. Needs cows though... and not cows on
antibiotics, as that seems to hinder or stop the bacterial processes... Asia
and Africa with their local cattle strains and traditions seem possible
areas for implementing this.

Using whatever local fiber and foodplants that currently remain almost
totally marginalized... and actually get poisoned as "weeds". Diversity in
farmed species and strains, and local species that are adapted enough to
grow by themselves without any tinkering from humans and industries, seem
like good candidates to consider for ensuring area and community food
security, as farmable crops.

India -area Step Well technology in arid areas with monsoon type rains
(after soil and earth analysis, to avoid salinizing mistakes). Catches the
monsoon floods with very little work... (low tech, but high science) to be
utilized by whole areas, farming and wildlife included.

Moisture webs, like these here: http://www.fogquest.org/
Those have to be bought though... I wonder if some effective Do It Yourself
method from widely available, scavengable, moisture withstanding materials,
could be developed ?

Solar Salt Water Distillation.
Very low tech. Sun heats black pool/pan of seawater and transparent film
flows it to containers. But mineralizing this water... perhaps by building
low technology earth insulated pools/tanks for that water... seeding that
water pool with few bucketfulls of natural pond water with all sorts of
ambient pondlife microfauna in it... and letting that life to spread and do
it's metabolisms with water, sand minerals, and degree of sunlight... and
then, after a such "seeding" period, the water could be Solar heated in
bottles/containers that are transparent (for 20x ordinary sunlight seems to
have enough UltraViolet to kill most known bacteria and microfauna
lifeforms, in addition to heating's similar effect) heated to about 75
Celsius (as effective as boiling it seems... no point in wasting more power
than needed ?) for some hours... and that should be, or could be, drinkable,
mineralized, nutritious water, for people, animals, and farmed plant and
mycelial lifeforms as well. This should be doable in low tech scavengable
parts as well, as it is.

Make Mycelia not Cars.
Um... for cities food security component: parking halls and houses. Cars
out. Buildings cleaned. High intensity and diverse enough local mushroom
species and strains cultivations... as they like to eat/recycled biomass.
Hanging vertical tube shaped sacks would seem most efficient, as they can
fill space effectively. no need to leave walking spaces between most of
those sacks. also maximized surface area for fruiting bodies. Rapid
harvesting should be possible by pulling a loop of razorwire (widely
available... even scavengable nowdays) along the lenght of the growing sack,
thus causing all the mushroom fruiting bodies to fall into harvesting
container below. Mushrooms do not need much light at all... unlike plants of
possible city gardens. Cellars, attics, unused rooms, empty buildings, all
those could be used too, with very small additions. Low tech again. Can be
done organic as well, depending on what materials are given for mycelias to
feed and metabolize into mushroom fruiting bodies. City gardens provide
different set of nutrients that is possibly hard/not possible to get from
mushrooms.


MaxT

  Many malls and such glass walled buildings with large indoors spaces and
much natural sunlight... seem ideal for greenhouse activities to produce
nutrients and medicines... especially the "living machine" type of
activities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_machines
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