[maikeru]

I've been playing with my old home-made terra preta again for potted plants (fig and banana trees), and I've been wondering what some of the tricks Hypographers and terra-preta lovers used to get their "wee beasties" off to a good start. We know that half the magic of terra preta lies in its smallest inhabitants, who truly bring the soil to life and help with the recycling and storage of nutrients and litter in the soil.

Things that I've used in the past are chopped/blended seaweed (to add macro- and micronutrients to the charcoal), chemical fertilizer (which I regret using, but is instant nitrogen and doesn't require time to decompose), leftover milk from the milk bottle, and spent coffee grounds. I notice the coffee grounds usually become fuzzy with fungus after a few days, so long as they're wet, and that's usually a good sign that some microbial action and decomposition is underway. I've also thought about, but not had the chance to try things like a weak sugar solution (to feed bacteria and fungi), cheap beer, or compost tea from a compost pile.

[Michaelangelica]

All sounds good
There is some suggestion that high nitrogen solutions may kill nitrogen fixing bacteria, so maybe keep any N solutions weak.
I would add ( a weak solution) of molasses or brown sugar to your list.

[Philip Small]

I am going to try jumpstarting char with Activated Compost Tea. You make simple compost tea and then juice it up and aerate it for a bit to get a much higher population.

Activated compost tea uses compost as a microbial medium, extracts the microorganisms into water, and promotes the rapid reproduction of bacteria and fungi by feeding a nutrient mix. Then the water is aerated for 12-24 hours (depending on the size of the brew) to make sure that the microbes in the compost have available oxygen and remains aerobic as the organisms reproduce. A nutrient mix acts as a food for the growing microbes and a crucial ingredient to tea. Our selection of nutrient mix will influence the type of organism we want to select for. For instance, if we want to feed bacteria we emphasize sugars, a protein source, and provide extra minerals. If we want to create an environment suitable for fungi we add more complex foods including fish hydrolosate, soluble kelp, and protein meals such as feather meal or whey.

Compost tea has a very short shelf life and it is important that once you are done brewing the tea that you spray it onto the soil [char] within four hours. If you wait too long, the increased population of microbes may consume all the remaining oxygen in the mix and making the tea anaerobic, and therefore, potentially harmful to the soil.

[greenkira]

What about treating the charcoal with a mycorrhizal inoculant like mycogrow? It seems that charcoal's main agricultural use is as a home for mycorrhizal fungi, so might as well just spray it down with some liquid mix at the beginning.

Note: I haven't tried this, just been looking at a lot of gardening websites and sort of putting together different ideas. I just moved and have a total of one plant right now so am not in much of a position to actually be testing things, unfortunately.

Good luck!

Kira
kirahagen.com

[Michaelangelica]

The only thing that worries me about all this is that we don't know realy very much about what is in the soil in the first place

For example, where I live there is a lot of urban (suburban) development-on the outskirts of Sydney). Many developers are required to collect seeds of native plants before development and re-plant with these after everything is broken up into "little boxes"

I see little evidence of this actually happening.

But what about native 'soil beasties'. They may have taken 100,000 years to develop in that soil.
How do we know what's there?

Then inoculating with 'store-bought' super bugs is not going to help their survival.

[maikeru]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

The only thing that worries me about all this is that we don't know realy very much about what is in the soil in the first place

For example, where I live there is a lot of urban (suburban) development-on the outskirts of Sydney). Many developers are required to collect seeds of native plants before development and re-plant with these after everything is broken up into "little boxes"

I see little evidence of this actually happening.

Soil and aquatic microorganisms are probably some of the least characterized and cared about, even though I cannot overstate how important they are--so many forms of life and critical processes depend on them. Recycling of biomass and detritus to nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere for plants. You name it, they do it. It's the pathogenic organisms that get the most research and funding for study, although they make up the extreme minority of microbes out there. Some oceanic microbes are being studied by Craig Venter (famous for the Human Genome Project), but he's ahead of the game as usual.

Craig Venter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But what about native 'soil beasties'. They may have taken 100,000 years to develop in that soil.
How do we know what's there?

Then inoculating with 'store-bought' super bugs is not going to help their survival.

From what I remember, mycorrhyzae are also spread via spores in the air, so it should be possible to inoculate homemade terra preta by leaving pots or mix outside for a few days, and you should get some of the mycorrhyzae native to the area. This'd be good if you wanted to avoid some or maybe many soil pathogens, which might be spread by contaminated soil or water. Of course if you want the entire microbial and soil ecosystem cocktail, you just add a bit of native or garden soil to your mix. I bet there's always a party going on underneath our feet, and we just don't know it.

[Michaelangelica]

Amen brother.

But Australia is such a unique environment.
It has been isolated for millions of years from the rest of the planet and the soils are VERY old and weathered.

[greenkira]

Maybe you could cultivate and spread the "wee beasties" in a way similar to how gardeners get moss to grow on statues? They take a bit of moss, mix it up with a cup of buttermilk and tablespoon of honey (in a blender), if I recall correctly, and then paint it onto whatever they want covered in moss.

Perhaps if you got a cup or so of healthy native humus and gave it the same treatment, then dripped it onto the charcoal? I've heard adding a bit of forest topsoil to a compost pile helps it develop more quickly and healthily; this would be about the same thing.

[soil]

hey this is my first post in the terra preta forum. and really my second here. ive been organic gardening for some time now, ive been into terra preta like soils for at least a year or so. ive done some testing and i love my "wee beasties" i like to incorporate charcoal to my composting process, then into the soil where it will stay and do its job. ive noticed many benefits from composting first then with plants, as opposed to charcoal straight into the soil. i add old broken clay pots as well sometimes.

greenkira- i dont think the blender is a good idea. that will surely kill a lot if not all of the sensitive beneficial microbes you wish to collect. honey is also antibacterial.

also when i was testing in pots i added liquid extracts made of yarrow, nettles, dandelion, oak bark and valerian. to add benefical organisms as well as a full supply of nutrients.

hope to learn a good way for me to make charcoal myself, i live in high fire danger country though so most options are no good.

[greenkira]

Originally Posted by soil

greenkira- i dont think the blender is a good idea. that will surely kill a lot if not all of the sensitive beneficial microbes you wish to collect. honey is also antibacterial.

Well, I haven't tried this myself, as I mentioned, but if moss can survive it I suspect fungal spores would as well. Blending is a purely mechanical action, after all, and you're more or less putting it right into fertilizer (the buttermilk). Honey is only antibacterial when concentrated - I say this as a mead brewer. Add water and it will support yeasts/ bacteria just fine.

The compost tea you mention would likely be a better carrier than buttermilk, though.