Terra Preta Group and Blog?

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Last night the ABC had al ittle segment ("filler") lifted from its usually conservative, "Landline" programme about rural issues.
This segment was about a farming family in WA who are 100K from the coast growing seaweed!

It seems that after chopping down all the trees, this area N. of Perth, has a soil salinity problem. Long trenches of salt-water have been built below the drainage? line.
In these and in dams enterprising farmers are growing seaweed.
They have a family picnic & surf at the coast and bring back heaps of seaweed in Eskies that they then seed into their salt water dams and drainage channels.
As the clip was probably from an old show I can't find the segment on the ABC site (which is VAST!)

But a little while ago I mused/speculated that agar might hep 'wee beasties' and 'critters' in the soil; as this was what laboratories grew bacteria on in petrie dishes.
The chemists said "Great idea MikeA but it is too expensive"
Well can farmers produce their own agar + charcoal?

I did find this one reference on the ABC site

Fed Govt backs mid-west seaweed scheme - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

AM - Farmers turn their salinity problems into profit



WA Wheatbelt tries seaweed as cash crop - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Lots of other interesting links if you are REALLY interested
Seaweed linked to possible cancer treatment
13 Oct 2003 - 234 weeks ago

Seaweed-coated insulin offers diabetes treatment hope - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Seaweed spray extends shelf life of apples - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I never thought of adding dried seaweed to my soil mix, around here in the last summer onshore winds can blow in tonnes of Sargassum weed onto the shore. I wonder if it will do the same thing?

[Ahmabeliever]

Hmmm Sargassum, it is used for animal feed so must be nutritionally ok...

Searching... Protected in some areas as is a habitat for marine life....

There t'is! Nutrient content of sargassum is dependant on the environment in which it grew. All good.

You know how to do a brew?

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Ahmabeliever

Hmmm Sargassum, it is used for animal feed so must be nutritionally ok...

Searching... Protected in some areas as is a habitat for marine life....

There t'is! Nutrient content of sargassum is dependant on the environment in which it grew. All good.

You know how to do a brew?

Define brew.

[Ahmabeliever]

Harvest seaweed. Then you wash it all to get salt off, shred and dry in sun to kill bacteria, and then put it in a barrel of water to ferment. Use a portion of this liquid in your regular watering schedule.

Or... Harvest, shred and dry, crush into powder. Use in compost, or directly as a soil amendment.

I don't know how to make a stable liquid concentrate yet, but the info is bound to be out there. I just leave a brew to brew and use as desired, with a lid - it stinks!

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Ahmabeliever

Harvest seaweed. Then you wash it all to get salt off, shred and dry in sun to kill bacteria, and then put it in a barrel of water to ferment. Use a portion of this liquid in your regular watering schedule.

An organic farming friend said not to worry about washing the salt off. She said some plants like brassicas (Cabbage family) liked a little salt and actually became a little "crisper' in texture with seaweed use(?).
She was 100K from coast. I am close to the coast and some of my soil is damaged by salt-water-pool overflow.
(That's a thought I could grow seaweed in the pool!!??)

I recently thought I was very clever by transplanting a bit of grass from the edge of the lake (and often covered in sea water) and planting it, where lawn won't grow, near the pool. It seems to be doing fine.
When I first moved to this garden I lost alot of plants. I found some of the soil is registering 9.pH on my CSIRO test kit.
Would the salt do that?
I am growing a lot of plants in pots now until I can, somehow, fix the soil.

I often pick up a bag of seaweed from the lake edges (heaps of it sometimes- with stinking SO2) and use it for mulch around the garden. It is long 'ribbony' grass-like stuff which takes a long time to break down, even in compost.

[maikeru]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

I never thought of adding dried seaweed to my soil mix, around here in the last summer onshore winds can blow in tonnes of Sargassum weed onto the shore. I wonder if it will do the same thing?

It's been one of the staples of my terra preta mixes, and it works very well. Seaweeds are generally rich in major and minor nutrients and minerals. Major nutrients you can expect from seaweeds include nitrogen, potassium, calcium, iron, iodide, etc. Minor things will include selenium and other important trace elements. The agar and other gummy stuff in seaweeds help to glue the soil together into little, loose clumps and makes it more workable and overall porous. I figure having so many nutrients at the disposal of plants, fungi, microbes, and everything else in the soil can only help the diversity and improvement of the soil ecosystem as a whole. Feed the plants and feed the microbes too. I'd recommend trying to wash off salt if you're adding it to a closed container or system, where watering or rain cannot gradually desalinize the soil.

Another addition I've found very useful to terra preta is blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and small mosses. Cyanobacteria, mosses, etc. provide very fine ground cover and habitat for tiny critters and may help to add more organic material over time. I got mine by poking toothpicks into existing pots with a little green fuzz or scum on top of the soil and poked my terra preta to inoculate them. A couple weeks later the top of the terra preta would be green, and the plants in the pots seemed to grow faster and more vigorous. You can buy specific strains of dried blue-green algae, some for nitrogen fixation for example, if you wanted to have more control over the microbial flora. I wouldn't be surprised if nitrogen fixing, added organic matter (coming from dead bacteria/moss), and nutrients from the cyanobacteria and mosses were being added and recycled in the terra preta more quickly and given to the plants. Or if perhaps they provided more microenvironments and diversity for the soil ecosystem in the long run, and that provided for more productivity. The faster and better nutrients can be recycled and made available, the more productive the entire system.

[Michaelangelica]

I met a nice guy at the IAI Conference from NZ Agriculture.
His name would probably be listed in the IAI Conference participants at Terigal Australia last year.

There has also been a post ( in news?) about TP reserch at a NZ University)

[Ahmabeliever]

Yes I saw two NZ grants go through recently, not sure if TP but definately char related.

I got the wee moss cover after two days in the first TP pots I made up. I thought it looked really wet and I brushed some back it was dry. Fastest ground cover I ever saw.

[nutronjon]

Excuse me, about the charcol Can I buy a bag of the charcol used for barbecuing and break it up with a hammer and throw it into my soil mix, or buy the much more expensive activate charcol used in aquariums? Or look for a forest fire?

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by nutronjon

Excuse me, about the charcol Can I buy a bag of the charcol used for barbecuing and break it up with a hammer and throw it into my soil mix, or buy the much more expensive activate charcol used in aquariums? Or look for a forest fire?

You can use charcoal briquettes, but they are not pure char as they have to add binders (ie glue) to make the form. Do not waste your money on activated charcoal. It could cost you a fortune! You can scavenge pieces from a fire, but I recommend making it yourself or finding a source for natural wood charcoal. Check with home depot or lowes for a brand called "cowboy charcoal". I also recommend checking Mexican/hispanic grocery stores (if you have a Mexican/hispanic population where you live).