[Terrapreta] Fwd: negative effects of charcoal, no instantaneousness, and

[Michael Bailes]

Wow a  lot a stuff to digest and reply to at once Francoise.

The first article seems mainly positive except in very high doses.
Also it is a bit hard to isolate the effects of the char alone as three
treatments were being used at once. so as far as giving us answers, rather
than clues, to char action *alone* it is a fairly useless bit of research

The second article was discussed  at length recently. The discussion will be
in the archives.
It seems charcoal does increase turnover of SOM. this may be a problem in
old SOM poor soils such as parts of  Australia.(less than 3%SOM) But TP
gardening/farming always used lots of SOM + bones fish etc
NO2 emissions don't seem to increase and  most probably overall Carbon
levels in soil will increase due to more micro/fauna/flora and the Char
itself. Methane em missions *may *drop.

However it would be nice to see a study that controls *all
variables*including plant (tree= wood=carbon) growth.

The Uni of Western Sydney has a great little experiment going growing Gum
Trees in "space capsules", measuring all inputs and out- puts.
it would be nice to see someone do this for charcoal soul amendments.

I will get to the rest of your post tomorrow.
Tonight is my British 'Who-dun-it' and 'Spy/spooks' TV night
Thank you for your stimulating post.
michael

2008/5/30 francoise precy <f.precy at hotmail.co.uk>:

>
> Hi Ruy, Sean, Kevin, Lou and all,
>
> googling *charcoal negative effects on plant growth*, find loads. Ex.:
>
>
> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TC3-4CC7W6R-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=91e5dd3a50a8ef16a2d3d278727a5710
> :
> *Effects of charcoal with pyroligneous acid and barnyard manure on bedding
> plants: ... mixture of charcoal with barnyard manure (MCB) to improve the
> medium for bedding plants was evaluated. ... (with) MCP ... the plant height
> of French marigold decreased, and the plant height and plant spread of
> scarlet sage decreased with the 30% treatment. ....* (otherwise generally
> positive)
>
> http://www.slu.se/?ID=704&Nyheter_id=8497
> *Limitations of charcoal as an effective carbon sink: ...when charcoal was
> mixed into humus, there was a substantial increase in soil microorganisms
> (bacteria and fungi). These microbes carry out decomposition of organic
> matter (carbon) in the soil, and consistent with this, they found that
> charcoal caused greatly increased losses of native soil organic matter, and
> soil carbon, for each of the three forest stands. Much of this lost soil
> carbon would be released as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Therefore,
> while it is true that charcoal represents a long term sink of carbon because
> of its persistence, this effect is at least partially offset by the capacity
> of charcoal to greatly promote the loss of that carbon already present in
> the soil.*
> etc


Michael the Archangel
"Politicians will never solve The Problem;
because they don't realise they are The Problem.".
-Robert ( Bob ) Parsons 1995
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