Science Forums 2

[RBlack]

To All,

I thought we might need a thread on how we use Terra Preta and results.

I took the liberty to put on a couple from other sources.

Mine: I have solid clay - no SOM soil that I am amending. I have made charcoal from pine and biochar from kitchen wastes, pine needles (to lower soil ph- wild idea of mine), and mule manure. About 50% charcoal, 10% kitchen wastes, and 20% both pine needles and manure. I am composting it with regular compost material; kitchen scraps, dead leaves, grass clippings and a fair amount of Bone Meal, about 5 times recommendation for my size of garden (this replaces the fish “residue”, bones, and turtle shells that the Amazonians had in their mix). I don’t have the time to compost this correctly because I got a late start but it will have about 6 weeks before I till it into the clay on April 9 – 11. I will let this sit in the soil until I plant on May 12. This is a VERY experimental mix for my particular soil. I will plant shade tolerate garden crops of which I am still trying to figure out what. Right now absolutely nothing grows there and hasn’t for two years. After all the snow melted it has grown a green slime across the top but I don’t consider this a “crop”. I am very interested to see what weeds I get between April and May as this will show if I have a fertile soil or not.

This was from Make do:
We're using a typical 55 gal drum charcoal maker to produce so far hardwood and softwood charcoal, and plan to try these other sources over 2007; One or more sources may prove to provide biochar suited to northern new England. To date we've been growing wheat and chia as test species, in trays of 75% vermiculite, 25% hardwood charcoal, The controls with no charcoal; both with rainwater and sea solids. Wheat roots grew approximately 50% faster in the biochar-mixed ones than the control ones, The Brix (refractive index, or nutrient density) was about 40% higher in the stems of the charcoaled wheat, but around 50% lower in the roots than the control wheat. Interesting potential for wheat-farming.

This was from Janice Thies posted on the original thread:
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.

Thought I would start with these 3 although I know there were many more from the original thread.

RB