Science Forums 2

[Taildragerdriver]

RBlack:

Our detailed study plans have not been developed yet but I will describe the general concepts of each below:

Operational Study:

Our operational study is proposed to be mostly a baseline study. We would divide the 7.5 acre pasture into three treatments. One with hardwood charcoal, one with no charcoal, and one with conifer charcoal. The only treatment would be monitor pH on all and modify it if needed. We will plant alfalfa on all treatments since this is a pasture environment and we also want to see what happens with the nitrogen fixing.

We will get a pre-treatment soil test on the three areas. We plan to install wells to test runoff for nutrients lost during irrigation. We will describe our methods for incorporating large amounts of charcoal into soil on an operational scale. We will measure production on a clip plot scale and total acre production in bails for each treatment. We will also monitor soil moisture on each treatment to document if possible reduced need for irrigation. We also plan to get annual soil tests on the treatments.

We will measure and weigh and test moisture on wood going into and measure and weigh charcoal coming out of the charcoal making process. We will monitor and describe our charcoal making process but due to our need to produce an estimated 50 tons of charcoal we probably will use a primitive method to start with. If we get some good proof of the value of charcoal we feel we can build a better plant and utilize all the byproducts, and also control our production much better.

Greenhouse Study:

In the greenhouse study we will select a variety of major soil types, charcoal amounts, NPK variation, probably a range of farm plants, and different watering and microbial ideas. These various tests would be the initial calibration of the computer program to provide to farmers who might be interested in using terra preta the best estimate of what to do.

This will be a much more complex study plan but will develop the basis for estimates for what to do on a larger range of conditions.

We hope through these studies to look at some of the second order effects like irrigation (water as you know is a pretty big issue in much of the world), leaching (off farm pollution is a huge issue) and other second order issues but it will take time to look at third order effects.

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So you identify very clearly that we will establish a very basic foundation with the results of these studies and program them into this soil modeling program. In my job I do lots of modeling and the way this works is you start with the best model you can build and apply it. Then you do further studies to see if the predicted results are correct if they are not you figure out why and improve the model. That is what we plan to do and work with the State Agricultural Research Stations to improve these predictions. We will do this over and over to move from art to science but we will probably always be somewhere on the continuum. In reality farming is kind of the same thing much of an art and science mix.

So we sure will not be able to answer many of these questions that you mention immediately. They are all very relevant but it will take many years to answer them and some may never be answered because of the complexity of the interactions. If we can, through this effort establish proof of the value of terra preta, in operational settings and demonstrate the cost effectiveness of these treatments to farmers we feel much of the rest will follow.

Thanks

Taildragerdriver