Terra Preta - The parent thread which started it all

[Michaelangelica]

How can we tell them it's not a problem?

We just get all the gardeners in the world on the job!!

FROM:

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1683532.htm

Concerns rise about CO2 burial

Alister Doyle

Reuters

Tuesday, 11 July 2006

smog

 

Hundreds of deaths caused by volcanic leaks of carbon dioxide around the world are worrying experts who are researching how to bury industrial emissions of the gas as part of an assault on global warming.

 

The concerns come as governments and companies investigate trapping carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas released by burning fossil fuels, and entombing it in porous rocks deep below the ground.

 

But they have done little to explain the vast cost and possible risks of projects that advocates say could bury billions of tonnes of gas and do more to slow global warming than a shift to renewable energies like solar or wind power.

 

"There may be massive public resistance, as we've seen with nuclear power" if governments fail to convince voters that storage is safe, says Dr Bert Metz, co-chair of a 2005 United Nations report on carbon sequestration.

[Michaelangelica]

Research on charcoal and banana production

http://www.georgiaitp.org/carbon/PDF%20Files/Abstracts/Session1B.pdf

[Michaelangelica]

Characterization and Performance of Amazonian Dark Earths –Opportunities for Future Soil Management

Johannes Lehmann Johannes Lehmann

Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University

http://www.georgiaitp.org/carbon/PDF%20Files/JLehmann.pdf

 

Look at the graph on page 16. I tried to paste it here but no luck.

There is an enormous amount of charcoal in these soils

At soil depths of

0-40 cm 20% !

60-100cm c10% !

[Michaelangelica]

Getting some funny results in my garden experiments.

This article may help to explain:

" While single bio-char applications 8 and 20 Mg ha-1 did not have a significant effect on maize yield in the first year, maize yields increased on average by 15 and 23 %, respectively, in both the second and third year.

 

Can anyone email me and tell me how to post photos please?

 

Saturday, 15 July 2006

133-12

Bio-Char Applications to a Tropical Oxisol Increase Crop Yield and Modify Water Relations.

Julie Major1, Marco A. Rondon2, and Johannes Lehmann1. (1) Cornell Univ, 918 Bradfield Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, (2) Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical - CIAT, A.A. 6713, Cali, Colombia

 

Bio-char can be obtained from plant biomass through energy-yielding processes, and is a promising soil amendment that could benefit crop production and carbon sequestration.

We report on data obtained from ongoing bio-char amendment studies at a field site on a Colombian Oriental savanna Oxisol.

While single bio-char applications 8 and 20 Mg ha-1 did not have a significant effect on maize yield in the first year, maize yields increased on average by 15 and 23 %, respectively, in both the second and third year relative to the control.

All plots including those not receiving bio-char were fertilized with NPK.

Apart from reported improvements in soil fertility, bio-char may have lead to an increase in crop growth through an alteration of water relations, as measured by field-installed tensiometers and zero-tension lysimeters.

In plots that had received a 20 Mg ha-1 bio-char addition in 2002 and that were cropped to maize in 2005, rain infiltration was slower when compared to the unamended control at all monitored depths of 15, 30, 60, 120 and 200 cm.

Such infiltration and percolation patterns may have implications for nutrient leaching and the export of nutrients from the root zone of crops.

This presentation will focus on hydrological and leaching data collected from this Colombian savanna experiment.

[Turtle]

Getting some funny results in my garden experiments.

This article may help to explain:

" While single bio-char applications 8 and 20 Mg ha-1 did not have a significant effect on maize yield in the first year, maize yields increased on average by 15 and 23 %, respectively, in both the second and third year.

 

Can anyone email me and tell me how to post photos please?

 

My roma tomato test plot of 5 plants using approx. 30% horticultural charcoal by volume soil mix for 3 plants shows no apparent difference in the plants. All have grown to the same size regardless of soil type or the time I put them in the ground from their sprouting pots.

The plants have started flowering & I expect edible fruit in perhaps 10 days. Maybe I will taste or measure some other difference in the fruit.:lol:

PS Check PM for photo info Micha.:D

[Ganoderma]

i dont have much to say, still on page 5....very facinating stuff.

 

farmers here, especially betel nut and coconut farmers seem to always be burning things on their farm. i notice some collect a fair bit of debris (fallen leaves, tree trunks etc) and line them up between the rows of trees. every now and then i see a farmer burning the piss out of their farm. it struck me as weird because pest invertebrates are a HUGE problem for farmers here, and rotting piles of organics brings in a lto of bugs and snails. the soil here is actually pretty crappy, so i assume this could be a way to try and replenish it? its definatly take take take here in farmlands always adding "man-made" fertilizers.

 

this stuff with carbon, pottery and such seems liek an excellent method of providing good aeration. good aeration usually means far more micro organisms. also i would think it woul dhelp prevent water loggin gin heavy rains which cut down aeration quite a bit. incredibly interesting reading!!!

[Ganoderma]

Someone mentioned about the aboriginals in WA had a form of terra pretta like soil. I lived in BC Canada for 20 years spending much of that time in the mountains. I am curious if people have done studies in places such as that. In use it seems much the same as amazonia, although not as old. Places there have been logged literally to the dirt, some places 4 or 5 times. They still grow back fiercely (except on steep mountain slopes where rains does away with much of the soil). I find it interesting because in many areas the organic content is incredibly high and sometimes at depths of 10 feet. These clear cuts are similar to that of slash and burn, just a little less burn. Often there are large piles of branches and waste wood left to burn. What I have been wondering lately is underground burning. They say they want lower temps, and smoke is useful. What happens in a forest fire? The roots burn underground. Forest fires can happen easily underground without any trace of smoke. I am wondering if perhaps this could be a useful tool. In BC I have seen where fire (apparently) started on a dead tree and worked its way down under. Because the substrate is really quite organic and sometimes only partially decomposed it would act like a large furnace. like a big grass heap in the sun. The smoke is captured above many times so not much is put back into the atmosphere.

 

Just another thought....could it be possible that these people started underground fires on purpose? Perhaps pottery, among other things, is a good way of spreading heat and trying to heat the soil up as a whole to get a nice big 400 acre "eco oven"? I don’t think that anything has one use, although it may have initially been meant only for one purpose.

 

Lastly about forest fires. I notice that after the past couple years forest fires in BC things grew back very quickly, despite relatively low water. Could this have something to do with it? Perhaps species that benefit from fire such as pines and morel mushrooms could lend some hints.

[Michaelangelica]

Someone mentioned about the aboriginals in WA had a form of terra pretta like soil.

As far as we know, Aust. Aborigines used fire to make grassland available for kangaroos etc that they could hunt. Of couse the women could also get to collect the grass seeds (the fun job). Its probably not farming as we know it but I think there was plenty to go around. So there was no need to develop farming. Some estimate that Aborigines spent 2-3 hours aday getting food.

There is apparently a lot of charcoal in Aust. soils as a result of this practice over 40,000-60,000? years. I posted gentleman's remarks from the CSIRO who said Aust soils were poor because of this.(on this thread) In all my gardening I have never seen any evidence of it. Soils are generally low in organic matter.

Just another thought....could it be possible that these people started underground fires on purpose? Perhaps pottery, among other things, is a good way of spreading heat and trying to heat the soil up as a whole to get a nice big 400 acre "eco oven"? I don’t think that anything has one use, although it may have initially been meant only for one purpose.

Your guess is as good as anyone else as the Terra Preta Civilisation mostly died shortly after Spanish contact.

 

Lastly about forest fires. I notice that after the past couple years forest fires in BC things grew back very quickly, despite relatively low water. Could this have something to do with it? Perhaps species that benefit from fire such as pines and morel mushrooms could lend some hints.

From my experiments, and from the research, it seems charcoal certainly helps retain moisture (17% more according to research.). Most Australian natives cannot now re-produce without fire of some kind.

[Ganoderma]

you mean plants, right? B)

[Michaelangelica]

you mean plants, right? :eek_big:

"que?"

(Manuel, Faulty Towers)

[Ganoderma]

"Most Australian natives cannot now re-produce without fire of some kind."

 

annnnnyway.....:D

 

wood is not as plentiful here as it was in Canada, so I am trying with burnt bamboo :) I got myself a bunch of worms the other day to feed some bugs so I thought I would spare them, temporarily anyway, and place them in the compost (the heavy rains here keep killing them in my un-drained compost buckets :( )

 

Those eco ovens sound pretty interesting! With temp sup into the high 30s here I think this may be a fun experiment. I would like to hear how you peoples contraptions are going.

[Michaelangelica]

"Most Australian natives cannot now re-produce without fire of some kind."

O!

O dear!

LOL

 

annnnnyway.....:D

 

wood is not as plentiful here as it was in Canada, so I am trying with burnt bamboo :)

The charcoal I am using comes from Malaysia. I am certain it is made from bamboo It is "redhead" brand and too expensive at $6.95 for 3.5 kilo

I still have to work up the courage to ask for the (charcoal) scraps at my local Charcoal Chicken Shop

[Michaelangelica]

Yet another article

http://www.anthonares.net/2006/07/terra-preta-de-indio-an-amazonian-lesson-in-sustainability.html

From this knowledge, researchers have begun to speculate as to what fraction of the Amazon basin is truly wilderness. Their results, though highly speculative, are startling. One widely-cited estimate is that 11.8 percent of the non-flooded Amazon forest is man-made. In other words, about an eighth of the dryland Amazon is orchard.

[Ganoderma]

i dont have any numbers to back it up so maybe i shouldnt speak but i dont think that 11.8% is too much relative to other countries. from travelling i would say that taiwan is probably triple that in just farms. i would bet that half the country is developed...

 

the worse part is those dont count animal land. i am sure many countries, asian, aus, american, african would be an extremely high percent in farms. but we got to eat. with terra pretta i dont know how bad a thing that many orchardes would be there....aside from less of a carbon sink.

[Michaelangelica]

i dont have any numbers to back it up so maybe i shouldnt speak but i dont think that 11.8% is too much relative to other countries. from travelling i would say that taiwan is probably triple that in just farms. i would bet that half the country is developed...

 

the worse part is those dont count animal land. i am sure many countries, asian, aus, american, african would be an extremely high percent in farms. but we got to eat. with terra pretta i dont know how bad a thing that many orchardes would be there....aside from less of a carbon sink.

 

I think the idea was that the Amazon was thought of as an "untouched 'wilderness' ".

It is only archeology has shown that this may not be the case (in pre 1500 societies)

see:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/eldoradotrans.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/eldoradotrans.shtml which started the whole conversation going !

[Michaelangelica]

http://www.newfarm.org/columns/research_paul/2006/0106/charcoal.shtml

Dr. Paul's Research Perspectives

Soil erosion, energy scarcity, excess greenhouse gas

all answered through regenerative carbon management

Compost is great, but new bio-based process yields hydrogen and super-stable carbon as charcoal soil booster.

 

By Paul Hepperly

 

editors' NOTE:

 

As New Farm Research and Training Manager at The Rodale Institute®, Dr. Paul Hepperly has been a regular contributor to NewFarm.org for some time, providing research updates, op-ed pieces, and white papers on topics like carbon sequestration in organic farming systems.

Dr. Paul Hepperly

None of those venues do full justice to the range of Paul's experience, however. Paul grew up on a family farm in Illinois and holds a Ph.D. in plant pathology, an M.S. in agronomy and a B.S. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

He has worked for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, in academia, and for a number of private seed companies, including Asgrow, Pioneer, and DeKalb. He has overseen research in Hawaii, Iowa, Puerto Rico, and Chile, and investigated such diverse crops as soybeans, corn, sorghum, sunflowers, ginger, and papaya.

He has witnessed the move toward biotech among the traditional plant breeding community and the move toward organics among new wave of upcoming young farmers. Beford coming to the Rodale Institute Paul worked with hill farmers in India to help them overcome problems with ginger root rot in collaboration with Winrock International.

 

Now we've decided to give Paul his own column, in which he can report on agricultural research from around the world and reflect on its relevance to The Rodale Institute's research program and to the progress of sustainable agriculture more generally in light of his own broad perspective. Enjoy.

 

 

Posted January 12, 2006: According to the humorist Will Rogers during the heart of the great depression and dust bowl

“We keep makin’ people but we ain’t makin’ any new dirt!”

In the intervening 70 years we’ve gained more people and lost more “dirt,” despite improvement in soil conservation. Now comes word that we may be on the verge of finally being able to do what Rogers thought was impossible.

 

The Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial® (FST), a long-term study comparing different farming systems, shows that we can gain about 1,000 pounds of carbon per acre per year with cover cropping and crop rotation under organic management.

This is about twice the sustained carbon gain from standard no-till planting for corn or soybeans. FST shows insignificant amounts of carbon are deposited in our conventional tillage corn and soybean rotations with chemical fertilizer and pesticide inputs.

biomass-based system can reach sufficient scale and scope, farms and farmers can be our next energy providers while gaining the materials which will regenerate the soil while growing more crops.

 

Recent research1 shows the process produced three times the hydrogen it consumes, making it a net energy producer.

Further it yielded a nitrogen-enriched char-type fertilizer. This material is highly resistant to microbiological decomposition while also acting as a biological stimulant by providing the “house” for microbial life.

[erich]

I love how searchable this Blackwell Synergy site is,

 

here are the results from "Terra Preta soils" search:

 

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/doSearch?searchText=Terra+Preta+soils&journal=ter&filter=all&journalCode=ter&volume=18&issue=4&searchbutton.x=45&searchbutton.y=12

 

And Their Home page: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/

 

Erich