[Terrapreta] Fwd: PHOTOS ABOUT CATTAIL

[chris braun]

Hello,

I read that the rhizomes of typha (i.e. cattail) may be eaten by  
people and have even a high nutritional value...Does any of you has  
actually knowledge and/or experience about this use of typha ?

Sincerely yours,
Christelle


On May 20, 2008, at 11:50 PM, Kevin Chisholm wrote:

> Dear Richard
>
> Richard Haard wrote:
>> There are some other realities.
>>
>> Seasonally dry fields can be only of marginal use for agriculture
>> there may be a period when field is accessible
>> we grow cattails at our nursery as 1 and 2-0 plants.
>
> I don't know thew terminology, but I presume this is for 1 and two
> plants in separate clumps. If so, then this would be very much  
> easire to
> hargest than would be a tangled mat.
>> Starch accumulates well in fall roots. Does this also happen in wild
>> populations?
>
> I am not sure, but I believe it does; the plants store energy and
> nutrients so that tehy can come back to life after teh dormancy  
> season.
>
>> Equipment can be adapted. I have suggested a lifter-shaker as is used
>> in our bare root nursery, there is also potato digger which in the
>> nearby skagit valley works in very mucky soils during winter
>
> Certainly, equipment can be adapted. In teh case where teh land has a
> "dry season" where it can be traversed, or in teh case where there  
> is a
> "hard bottom, beyond which teh machine won't sink, harvesting should  
> not
> be overly difficult.
>>
>> lastly floating harvester/dredge can be adapted from system used by
>> clam diggers.
>
> The problem here would be the forces involved. Big forces = big  
> buoyancy
> requirements = big machinery, or the need for a hard bottom, to  
> support
> "spuds" that will take the digging load.
>>
>> Basics on real usefulness of 'wild stands' and mitigating env impacts
>> needs to be studied. Strictly biomass for methane production? or
>> capturing starch for ETOH ? the former would only require mowing like
>> pasture and not digging.
>
> As I understand it, the starch is stored in the root system, and the
> "above ground" growth is mainly cellulostic. There are probably  
> cheaper
> sources of cellulostic biomass in areas where cattail biomass grows.
>>
>> It may be best to set up cultivated stands with plants of uniform age
>> at least after initial harvest.
>
> I get very discouraged at the potential for Cattail Harvest when I see
> the entanglement in local bogs with deep soft bottoms. However, there
> may very well be an opportunity for "Cattail Plantations" that are  
> laid
> out in ways to permit easy harvesting, and perhaps they can be
> harvested  in a manner that makes regrowth and subsequent  harvesting
> easier. For example,  perhaps a  "strip harvest pattern" would make it
> easy for subsequent harvests.... the strips to be harvested would have
> "weak strips" on both sides, and they may be much more readily  
> harvested.
>
> Perhaps "wild cattail harvesting" is a loser, but that a Cattail
> Plantation that was part of a municipal sewage treatment system could
> make enormous good sense, both environmentally and economically. From
> what I understand, a Cattail Plantation could make an excellent  
> Tertiary
> Sewage Treatment Plant.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Kevin
>>
>> On May 20, 2008, at 11:21 AM, Kevin Chisholm wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Brian
>>>
>>> Brian Hans wrote:
>>>> I frequent Thailand quite often and live in Wisconsin. /T.
>>>> angustifolia/  is in both places, thick. Cattails represent a
>>>> tremendous annual C and NPK... source that is virtually 100%
>>>> recycled into CO2 and worse, CH4 and loss of Nutrients down stream
>>>> (Ocean dead zones). Human fix more N than biology does, and all  
>>>> that
>>>> P, K digging doesnt just evaporate... there is far too much C and
>>>> NPK being pumped into our environment.
>>>> I vote that we develop the ability to harvest cattail marshes. I
>>>> think (as an ecologist) that we can do this with more benefit than
>>>> damage. A invasive spp. monoculture marsh doesnt offer a whole lot
>>>> of biodiversity and ecology anyhow except as a kidney. And by
>>>> removing C and NPK... from the system, we are very much enhancing
>>>> that filtering capability of the marsh. Farmer gets his C and NPK
>>>> back for a small price.
>>>
>>> Certainly, it would be nice to be able to harvest Cattails, but how
>>> can this be done??? The roots tangle together in a most  
>>> uncooperative
>>> manner, such that they need heavy machinery to deal with them. Some
>>> people feel that Cattail roots are anchored around the Gates of  
>>> Hell.
>>> :-)
>>>
>>> In natural circumstances, they generally seem to grow in bottomless
>>> bogs, that are great places to lose heavy machinery. :-)
>>> What would you suggest as a practical concept for growing and
>>> harvesting Cattails?
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>>
>>> Kevin
>>>> I cant wait for a portable gasifier tractor that can be run like a
>>>> combine... in my lifetime.
>>>> Brian
>>>> */Richard Haard <richrd at nas.com>/* wrote:
>>>>
>>>>   Michael
>>>>   It's a stretch on this list but Ben and I have Been discussing
>>>>   this for over a year in the context of biofuels utilizing the
>>>>   starch in the rhizomes and also reinventing agriculture  by
>>>>   utilizing land considered marginal for purposes of traditional
>>>>   farming and native plants that might become new crops with
>>>>   additional uses for food, fiber and economic endeavor for local
>>>>   farmers. We've been working over this topic on the gasification
>>>>   list but I suppose Ben posted here because we are more oriented  
>>>> to
>>>>   farming/growing plants.
>>>>   For me the link to terra preta is the link to agriculture as is /
>>>>   was practiced by native peoples in different parts of the world.
>>>>   In my part of the world a well known ethnobotanist, Dr Nancy
>>>>   Turner, was editor for a book (conference proceedings)
>>>>   titled keeping it living
>>>>   <http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/DEUKEC.html>   in
>>>>   which the authors countered the popular supposition that the
>>>>   native peoples of the PNW  were simple hunter gathers and instead
>>>>   they were actively cultivating plants long before contact with  
>>>> the
>>>>   Europeans.
>>>>   from the review
>>>>
>>>>    Keeping It Living tells the story of traditional plant
>>>>   cultivation practices found from the Oregon coast to Southeast
>>>>   Alaska. It explores tobacco gardens among the Haida and Tlingit,
>>>>   managed camas plots among the Coast Salish of Puget Sound and the
>>>>   Strait of Georgia, estuarine root gardens along the central coast
>>>>   of British Columbia, wapato maintenance on the Columbia and  
>>>> Fraser
>>>>   Rivers, and tended berry plots up and down the entire coast.
>>>>
>>>>   Especially interesting to me is the fact that the method of
>>>>   cultivation of these native peoples was passive in a natural
>>>>   environment and also that some of the early settlers respected  
>>>> the
>>>>   heritage of these original peoples and as they settled into their
>>>>   places, intermarried, took the effort to learn their methods and
>>>>   uses of native plants. A long time friend of mine now deceased  
>>>> was
>>>>   fourth generation descendant who had kept this knowledge alive.
>>>>   For some time I would interview her on this topic and one story
>>>>   she told me was about her childhood living on San Juan Island
>>>>   during the great depression years and it was their knowledge and
>>>>   use of native plants that kept them alive.
>>>>   Perhaps , just like terra preta there is something here that may
>>>>   show us how we are going to be making our energy and food after
>>>>   the oil is gone.
>>>>   Thanks for the link to NZ Typha species. There are 4 species in
>>>>   Argentina including the ubiquitous Typha latifolia of North  
>>>> America.
>>>>   Rich
>>>>   On May 18, 2008, at 2:24 AM, Michael Bailes wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha 
>>>>> ~orientalis
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha%7Eorientalis 
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattail
>>>>>
>>>>>   Why is it important?
>>>>>   m
>>>>>
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>
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