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terra preta soils

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Posted by michael2 NSW Central Coast (My Page) on
Sat, Apr 22, 06 at 12:44

I have just watched (on ABC TV).a show about ancient land use in the Amazon.
Archeologists have found pockets of what they call terra preta soils. Rich raiforset soils that seem to have been created by man. For a start they contain a lot of charchol which helps keep in nuturients but secondly, it seems to 'create itself’ somehow. Some bacterial or biological action is suspected.
SEE:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/eldorado.shtml
This is another interesting article:
http://www.bidstrup.com/carbon.htm
It may be possible to enrich garden soil by adding finely ground charchol with perhaps some horticultural clay?
Anyone interested in this?
Michael2

Here is a link that might be useful: The Fragrant Garden

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RE: terra preta soils

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  • Posted by meggs WA Aust (My Page) on
    Mon, Apr 24, 06 at 3:37

I have read both articles. Yes, very interesting. I am going to try to convert some of my organic matter into good quality charcol. The thing is to heat material up to 243C. It would be relatively easy to do it in a home oven, however... not very practical :-). I might try some initial burning in an old barbeque. Later I will have to grind the whole thing, I suppose a garden shredder would not grind it fine enough. An old flour mill stone would be good. I will have to wait for our bulk rubbish collection to find materials to build the solar oven. A few years ago we threw out our pot belly stove. The pipes would have been great for that purpose. Well perhaps some body else will be chucking out some useful material. Micheal tell us more about yourself: gardening interests, soil and climate conditions ect.

I have been improving soil on my block for the last 21 years but still I am not happy despite tonnes of manures, mulches, fish heads and guts (no artificial fertilizers though!)... I always think: oh, it could be better. Therefore any suggestion of soil improvement is taken with gratitude.
cheers m.

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RE: terra preta soils

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Hi Michael2. I read both articles with great interest, and googled for some more, and printed out even more to read later (after I finish this BAS) I did note on a forum where someone made a comment to the effect that there was originally an enormous amount of biological material on those areas of soil, and this amount turned into charcoal would contribute far more to the soil than it would be possible in most areas. Also that the slash and burn techniques currently used to clear amazonian rain forest result in ash rather than charcoal and are thus fairly ineffective.
I can see that there is something in this whole thing, but as far as changing the greenhouse effect, it would be more important to recapture the carbon that is being released into the air. I wonder if this is the action of the particular micro-organism causing the "soil growing" effect?
There are certainly important lessons to be learnt here.
Cheers, Jan

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RE: terra preta soils

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  • Posted by liatris FraserCoast,Qld (My Page) on
    Mon, Apr 24, 06 at 16:47

Bagasse smells bad enough as it is, without heating it! I might have to find something else to turn into charcoal.

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RE: terra preta soils

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  • Posted by puck Vic Aust (My Page) on
    Fri, May 12, 06 at 1:21

The last company I worked for was the only merchant producer of coke in Australia. Coke is very similar to charcoal - they are both relatively pure forms of carbon, one made from wood and the other from coal. At this place we used to produce many tonnes each week of coke fines which were sold to a landscape supply company. They used in making artificial soils. If you live anywhere near Sydney/Wollongong you could probably easily buy some of this material. Anyway - both coke making and charcoal making are highly polluting processes. There would need to be some really amazing advantages to justify making charcoal just for home soil application. Puck

  
 

 

 


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