Quote:
Originally Posted by SoilWatcher
Many of you are finding supplies of charcoal. Back in the early part of this whole thread, one of the critical things was that it should be low temperature charcoal, thereby leaving resins which fed the microbes.
Does any of this commercially available charcoal fit the bill?
|
Excellent question
How can you tell?
This also fits with the post
I'd like to know how the researchers knew it was carbon was from resinous material 10,000 to 100,000 years old.
I have tried to buy charcoal from farmers making it the traditional way which I hope will be a lower temperature (c400C) than activated charcoal. They also tell me they are using rain forest trees.
So far my search has been in vain; and I have ended up with Commercial BBQ charcoal made (I think) from coconuts.
Charcoal seems to be much more readily available in UK nurseries; where the ancient art of
Coppicing still seems to survive.
Who knows if charcoal made from Temperate Climate Trees have the same or similar resins as in the Amazon???
The Japanese may have done some work on this if you can somehow access their research papers
It would be nice to know more about the role of resins in this Terra preta mix.
--
michael
