[Terrapreta] Clay as binder in Biomass pellets

[Richard Haard]

Oh Yes Rob but allow us to invent our own futures

Nikolaus is referring to an agricultural practice where a band of  
charcoal can be inserted near the seed in a band.

  With a montmorillionite type clay, one that swells on wetting, found  
in arid places, one practice is to take native plant seeds and roll  
them into a slurry into a ball. Dry them and they harden like stones.  
Toss them into a field and they become seed bearing pellets that  
breakup with weathering and crumble into a fertile pile. We call them  
prairie bombs.

Might be worthwhile to include charcoal in this formula as a additive  
to a seed encapsulation strategy.

Another aspect of this idea depends on your seeding method. At our  
farm we do not use a precision seeder, instead we dilute the seed in a  
mix and the seeder drops this mix into discrete bands. using charcoal  
as a part anyway of such a seeding medium would put charcoal in  
contact with germinating seedlings. I have done this with collected  
innoculum, charcoal and seed.

Rich
On May 13, 2008, at 5:07 PM, Robert Flanagan wrote:

> Dear Nikolaus,
>
> Once again, you give them all, and this is the only response!!!
>
> Boys and Girls, when someone of higher leaning speaks, "listen" and  
> "learn" and don't just comment because you want to add without  
> substance!
>
> Nikolaus in your own words during our correspondents, "Terra Preta  
> was formed as a waste management practice, not a soil management  
> practice" So any who claim different, then find fund and send  
> students to South America and prove this otherwise!
>
> Biochar is a start, biochar enhancement is a next step but agri  
> engineering is the real solution!!!
>
> Rob.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Nikolaus Foidl
> To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:03 AM
> Subject: [Terrapreta] Clay as binder in Biomass pellets
>
>
>
> Dear All!
>
> Paul.S. Anders PhD, wrote in the stove list about adding clay dust  
> as a
> binder in biomass pellets. This would be a great idea to form  
> artificial
> terra preta.
>
> Adding some mentionable quantity to the sawdust or milled biomass  
> and then
> heat it in a carbonizer together with wood to guarantee the needed  
> heat and
> after getting the clay- carbon mix, introduce it in a banded way  
> below the
> seeds in the normal mechanical seeding operation.
>
> To know more how to add and which quantities read the stove list  
> article
> from Paul.
>
> Best regards Nikolaus
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080513/5369dec7/attachment.html