Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerrit
Regarding soil chemistry, Dr Van Zwieten said agrichar raised soil pH at about one-third the rate of lime, lifted calcium levels and reduced aluminium toxicity on the red ferrosol soils of the trial.
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Similar results in this paper by christopher steiner in germany
Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn | Terra Preta
Quote:
Conclusions
Charcoal is influencing soil quality in manifold ways, most importantly by reducing available Al and reducing acidity. Furthermore, charcoal adds K to the soil and has the potential to reduce N leaching. Charcoal amendments increased the reproduction rate of the microbial population after substrate addition whether the plot was fertilized or not. The effects of charcoal on soil biological, chemical and physical properties are complex, making it difficult to isolate single significant charcoal effects, but added up they caused significantly increased
plant growth and crop production.
More information is needed on the agronomic potential of charcoal, the potential to use alternative biomass sources, and the production of by-products to evaluate the opportunities for adopting a slash and char system. The access to a global C trade mechanism would facilitate charcoal use for soil amelioration and thus would increase C sequestration and create a strong incentive to prevent further deforestation. Both of these actions would help
to mitigate global climate change.
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Personally I have had trouble putting char on to acid loving plants like camellias, magnolias, gardenias and even aquilegias (pH 4-8). I do tend to be a bit heavy handed with applying char.
The aquilegias in a small pot strangely almost died,
quickly recovered to their previous glory then looked ill again
. It was as if the pH initially wet up dramatically, then down, then up slightly again. Now they are on their way to recovery again.
I intend to use my pH testing kit a bit more in future.A little precission measuremnet may have helped with some useful info.- I recommend it to you.
I am a bit haphazard in my approach; the science being overtaken with the enthusiasm of adding a "magic ingredient"
to my plants.
Yet there is continuing long term Japanese research programme putting 100g of char per meter, per Tea (camellia) Tree, per year, over the last 4-5 years with (40%?) enhanced growth observed. (They intend to run the research programme for 10 years.)
I wonder if an equivalent amount of lime or dolomite added would archive the same result?
