I came across an interesting article "New direction in black carbon organic geochemistry" by C.A. Masiello.
It gets pretty technical in parts but what I liked best is that it talks about a "combustion continuum" from Slightly Charred Biomass - Char - Charcoal - Soot - Graphitic Black Carbon, the differences between them, and the problems inherent in using any one measurement means to asses the types of black carbon. Masiello also talks about standardizing the study of black carbon so we can have results that are meaningful across that combustion continuum.
All the variables of that "combustion continuum" are also expressed in Michaelangelica post:
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We also need to know how to use different types of charcoal. Chicken shit charcoal has a pH of 9 but has lots of available calcium and fertilizer. How do you use that differently from paper-mill-slurry char? or rice hull char?(lots of silicon) or sea weed char (lots of trace elements?) or wood char??
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and the above post from Janice Thies (all of it good reading!)
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Lastly, from my personal gardening experiences, I use spent charcoal from the filters of the 14 aquaria I maintain for my viewing pleasure. I combine it as about 5% of my mix with 65% peat moss, 10% vermicompost (from my worm bin in my basement where I compost all my household kitchen waste - aged and stabilized, not fresh!), 5-10% leaf mulch (composted on my leafy property in NY), 5-7% perlite to increase drainage, decrease bulk density and improve water retention and percolation, and some bone meal and blood meal (to taste :-) ). This makes an excellent potting mix for my indoor 'forest'. I am very much still playing around with this.
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Both which bring to the front the uncertainties in making charcoal and using it in Terra Preta. In particular I like Thies designer mix of charcoal and other ingredients and Michaelangelicas idea of getting as many people as we can using Terra Preta and sharing ideas.
A good example of sharing ideas was malcolmf's post:
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Suggest you read this post in another forum from a guy who unknowingly created something that behaves like TP by a combination of keeping chickens and periodic burning.
I can imagine an early Amerindian discussing something similar with his mates. "All I did was burn our smelly stuff there for a few months, and now look at it ..."
I'm beginning to wonder if terra preta implies a total rethink of household waste separation and collection as it is done today in so-called developed countries. Even recycling seems too stupid now, and household chemicals more of a problem than I thought.
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Two things I took out of that is if you can link to his post from an Australian guy is in using partially burnt sticks as a base for his paths. I thought what about using that material as a base for raised garden patches? Help with drainage and aeration? And provide charcoal?
The second part about rethinking our household waste is excellent. I am partially charring all of my kitchen scraps (low end of the above "combustion continuum") and have a perfectly whole charred tomato and I think if you can char a tomato you can char just about anything. This spring my designer mix for an almost 100% clay soil with no SOM will be a mixture of pine charcoal, charred pine needles, partially charred kitchen waste, green manure, charred manure, and some fresh uncharred kitchen waste. Compost this for month than till it in and from here on use no till methods. Will it work? I don't know but it sure is fun playing mad soil scientist!
I am sure you all got the post on making Terra Preta its own sub-forum and maybe we can have a section where we compare "recipes" and our successes, failures and ideas.
“Making Terra Preta is not science. It is Art.”
RB
