Terra Preta - The parent thread which started it all

[Michaelangelica]

 

So I know they are here. But I know I am not doing something right. I think the leaves on the patio must have been very easy for them to move around in. That is all I can figure.

You would be amazed how much worms eat. MASSES of organic matter. Collect all the grass clippings and leaves from ALL your neighbours. They like kitchen scaps/peelings but don't like citrus

 

The only other thing I can suggest is that some animal manures especially horse, and I guess, cow and sheep kill worms.

Why? because the farmer worms their animals, and the Worming Mixture is passed out through the manure. Animal Worming Mixtures also kill earthworms.

[davidgmills]

Michaelangelica: No manure of any kind.

[Michaelangelica]

Michaelangelica: No manure of any kind.

 

Go get some!

 

In cold weather worms don't do much (that I've noticed).

[erich]

Here is a 06 study by Duane Pendergast, that ties CO2 management all together , past and future, the roles of ocean, soils , biomass and man:

 

 

Energy, the carbon cycle and greenhouse gas management

 

Abstract

 

Knowledge of energy has allowed humans to flourish in numbers unimaginable to our ancestors. Some are concerned that emissions from the fossil fuels we use will lead to changing climate with possibly disastrous consequences.

 

Many propose that we improve the efficiency of energy use and conserve resources to lessen greenhouse gas emissions and avoid climate catastrophe. It is unlikely such initiatives will have a perceptible effect on atmospheric greenhouse gas content.

 

All life on earth depends on energy and the cycling of carbon. Humans have just recently learned how to recover fossil fuels and are recycling them by burning them in power plants, planes, trains, and automobiles, thus modifying the carbon cycle with additional greenhouse gas emissions.

 

We need to step back from micro management of greenhouse gas emissions to more fully appreciate human influence on the carbon cycle. Potential future human modifications to the cycle as means to manage atmospheric greenhouse gas are considered. It is suggested humans will need to ingeniously exploit even more energy to integrate its use with control of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

 

Keywords: greenhouse gas management, energy, carbon dioxide, carbon cycle, climate change, efficiency

[davidgmills]

A copy of the email I just sent Cowboy Charcoal:

 

I just bought four bags of your Cowboy Charcoal. But not for barbecue. I bought it to make "terra preta".

 

What is terra preta you ask? Terra preta is Portuguese for dark earth. About ten per cent of the Amazon is very fertile (the terra preta) while the other 90% has some of the worst weathered soil on earth. It has been a scientific mystery. Why is a plot of terra preta some of the most fertile soil on earth, but less than ten feet from a terra preta plot, one finds some of the world's poorest soil? We now know why.

 

Scientists have recently discovered the secret to terra preta, a secret that was lost before the Spanish conquered the Amazon. The secret is charcoal.

 

Scientists believe the pre-Columbian aboriginal Amerindians used a slash and char technique rather than a slash and burn technique. Somehow, the slash and char technique was lost, probably due to the eradication of the people who knew the technique, by the spread of European diseases.

 

Scientists believe that the terra preta soils have been in existence now for a minimum of 500 years and many 2000 years or more. Some may be 6000 years old. The amazing thing is that terra preta can be farmed over and over without fertilizer and without depleting the soil. It is simply amazing what the addition of charcoal does to soil.

 

You can learn more about terra preta in this article of Nature:

 

Access to articles : Nature

 

If you cannot use this link because Nature requires you to have a subscription, (you might get to see it once or twice on a trial basis) you can read this article on terra preta instead:

 

Saving The Planet While Saving The Farm: How soil carbonization could save the planet while it makes farming profitable again

 

You can also look up terra preta on Wikipedia.

 

Whether you realize it or not, once people begin to understand the value of charcoal in their gardens, you will probably have a much bigger market in the gardening section of Lowe's than you will ever have in the barbecue section. And whether you realize it or not, you will have a much bigger impact on the planet.

 

Briquettes, which are coal based will not work. It takes real charcoal.

 

Some of the terra preta is six feet deep; on average it is about about a foot and a half , but by volume it is about 30% charcoal. That is a lot of charcoal for even a small garden. That is a huge market. My four bags barely made a dent in my 100 square foot plot. And we can't use slash and char techniques in the cities to make our own.

 

I have made my own charcoal. I know good charcoal when I see it and when I hear it -- it tinkles like wind chimes. Yours is very good charcoal. And I think it is perfect for terra preta.

 

Besides making an extremely fertile soil that does not need the continued addition of fertilizers, there is one more huge potential benefit to putting charcoal in the ground. It stores carbon for centuries. About 40% of the carbon in a piece of wood, if it is turned to charcoal, and put in the soil, will stay in the ground for centuries, probably for millenia before it breaks down. What that means, is that turning biomass to charcoal instead of burning it or letting it decompose, could be the first real solution to global warming.

 

Charcoaling biomass prevents as much as forty percent of the biomass turning into carbon dioxide; this in turn prevents the release of all that carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the cause of global warming. It is a win-win-win solution. Much better soil for crops, at a much lower cost (no cost of fertilizer after the initial start up), and reduces global warming CO2.

 

So please try your charcoal waste in your own gardens. Actually the waste is perfect, because the more pulverized the charcoal the better.

 

Maybe you can both educate the public by putting something about terra preta on your bags and at the same time market it for a dual purpose. Or put something about terra preta on your website or a link to terra preta.

 

I have as a personal goal to put one ton of charcoal in the ground before I die. If enough of us had that goal and achieved it, we might solve global warming and there might be bumper crops everywhere and maybe even the ability to use biomass for all our fuel needs.

 

While I would love to use your charcoal to barbecue with, it would be a waste to convert it to ash. Mine is in my garden where it will stay there for centuries. There will be many more bags to come. Maybe I will see something about terra preta on them soon.

 

David G. Mills

Memphis, Tn.

[davidgmills]

Here's a good article from solartoday:

 

http://www.solartoday.org/2006/nov_dec06/Chairs_CornerND06.pdf

 

More and more people are catching on.

[chrisbrandow]

david,

 

how are you pulverizing the charcoal?

I had already bought a bunch of cheap lump charcoal, but I am waiting to put it in the ground until I can think of a relatively efficient way to go about crushing it.

 

Chris Brandow

[InfiniteNow]

ut I am waiting to put it in the ground until I can think of a relatively efficient way to go about crushing it.

I might suggest you find a metal drum or some sort of barrel, get it on a spinning mechanism (think rotisserie chicken), put in your charcoal along with several heavy square bricks and round stones... spin and repeat. Voila, coal dust...

[erich]

In another forum a guy said that running over it did a fine job, it reminded me of doing this to bust open Black Wallnuts as a kid.

[davidgmills]

Chris Brandow:

 

I know that terra preta's charcoal is ground to smithereens. But was it done that way by the aboriginals? I have serious doubts about that. That seems like way too much work. It seems to me that most of this charcoal started out in good sized chunks and nature broke it down. How long did that take? I have no idea.

 

So I just dumped mine on the garden. A shovel will easily break these lumps into small pieces. As I continue to turn the soil, I break up the bigger pieces. Do I get them to dust? No. But I am basically experimenting to see how long it takes nature to do the job and how well this works even without small particles of charcoal. Obviously on large farm, if farmers make their own charcoal, they are going to have a problem turning the charcoal to dust. So I guess I am experiementing. On the epreda website, the eureka moment was when the owner was told large parsnips were growing in a charcoal pile. It seemed to me that there had been no attempt at all to particlize this charcoal. So that tells me the process works even without particlizing it.

[Taildragerdriver]

David:

 

I think on a large farming operation most everybody will pretty easily turn the charcoal to dust pretty fast. I my case I plan to use a rotovater to till it into the soil. That is just a big rototiller and it basically turns almost everything to dust in the first foot of soil.

 

Even if farmers don't use these same methods. In most cases I can think of, if they want to use charcoal they will have to do a least a single major tilling operation to incorporate the charcoal into the soils. This at least entails plowing and disking which would pretty much turn the top layer to dust. After that no till farming fits best with charcoal in my mind for row corp type uses. In fact one of my concerns is how to not grind it too much and have the charcoal sifted to the top and be susecptable to wind in the first year before the planted cover protects it.

 

I hope after tilling gets it incorporated initially the charcoal affinity to water will keep it bound to the soil particles and reduce any loss if the field is well irrigated.

 

I think carcoal can work even if not well ground up but the particle surface is not as great so the best condition to present maximum surface area would be all ground up. If I understand this process it takes time to develop so I think it should not be critical either way.

 

Thanks

 

Taildragerdriver

[davidgmills]

Experimenting today with grinding up lump charcoal, I found that using a pair of pliers worked the best. I don't think putting a brick in a large sealed can and rolling it will work (rotisserie fashion) unless you are willing to rotate the can a long time. I tried dropping a sledge on the charcoal in the bottom of the 2 and 1/2 gallon popcorn can and that didn't work well at all.

 

Of course using pliers is tedious and I was just making potting soil for potted plants. Pliers do get most of the lumps down to 1/4 inch size with lots of powder produced in the process.

 

But it takes some pretty good pressure in the right spot to get some of this to break down.

 

Running over it with a car tire on the asphalt sounds like a good idea but I don't know what I would put it in that wouldn't break.

[Michaelangelica]

Experimenting today with grinding up lump charcoal, I found that using a pair of pliers worked the best..

That sounds like hard work.

The BBQ charcoal I buy, I bash with a brick while it is in the bag.

It breaks up fairly well. For finer particles I use a mortar and pestle.

 

I visited Stephen Joseph , a lovely man at Best Energies, yesterday and he gave me a big bag of fine char. I am like a kid with a new toy running around putting it in different spots/pots.

 

He also gave me lots of articles/information to read- including some of the Japanese stuff I had found hard to access

As I go though them I will post any salient points here

 

It looks like all the Terra preta gurus will be here for the Terrigal Conference

[Michaelangelica]

QUOTE=davidgmills;151903]Chris Brandow:

 

I know that terra preta's charcoal is ground to smithereens. But was it done that way by the aboriginals?

I imagine it being done as grain is powdered. Have you seen pictures of Native peoples using a long thick tree pole and slamming it up and down into a big high walled container -a little like a huge mortar and pestle?

 

Our government (The Land of Oz) just gave $60M to Chevron Mobil to sequester CO2 gas underground! I read the UK is contemplating a similar scheme

 

I can't understand how anyone can contemplate this technology.

How do you know if the gas will stay there?

How would you know if it left?

Will it stay for a day, a month a year, a 100 years?

Charcoal in soil has been shown to be stable for thousands of years and make soil more fertile and productive.

(O yes, we get rid of waste, make bio-gas and electricty into the bargain).

What is the problem with governments?

Terra preta is the way to go. It is a 'No-brainer'

--

michael

 

PS

can anyone translate this and see if there is anything interesting?

terra preta

SOLOS DE TERRA PRETA PODEM SER SOLUÇÃO PARA A AGRICULTURA NA AMAZÔNIA

 

Pesquisadores de vários países correm contra o tempo para descobrir como se formou um dos solos mais férteis do mundo: a Terra Preta Arqueológica

[Michaelangelica]

A FEW LINKS ON MAKING CHARCOAL

Charcoal Retort

 

Discovery Online, The Skinny On ... Charcoal

 

Renewable Energy Generation » Making Charcoal from Sugar Cane Leaves - Renewable Energy News

 

Making Charcoal

 

Top Five Things to Do With Oil Barrels When There’s No More Oil To Fill Them - #1. Make Charcoal. » Transition Culture

 

Charcoal photos

 

English Charcoal, environment, history and woodmanship

 

 

Yet another link:-

ruminations from the distant hills: Terra Preta

[Michaelangelica]

HOME

 

An anti TP article

Notes on the debate over sustainability of pyrolization of biomass ...

If you wish to add in other factors, along with the charcoal, then the discussion will be very different. Charcoal, by itself, as an addition to soil,

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ik=55addf353c&view=cv&search=inbox&th=1100559733581a5b&ww=1043&lvp=22&cvp=18&qt=&zx=j14bp7fe183x.

 

Occasional Randomness: Saving the World, Destroying the Rainforest

 

the addition of carbon decreased root size, nodule number and nodule size.

SpringerLink - Journal Article

 

The Ergosphere: Sustainability, energy independence and agricultural policy

Paying farmers to take carbon out of the air and put it in the ground, out of reach (e.g. as charcoal mixed with earth) could be the ultimate price backstop for anything they grew. The risk of price collapses due to bumper harvests would be a thing of the past; sequestration would be the ultimate backup "market" able to absorb anything beyond marketable quantities.

 

SANET-MG Archives -- September 2006 (#65)

 

Back

Carbon negative energy to reverse global warming

 

 

Back

Dr. Ogawa, from Kansai Environmental in Japan, a division of Kansai

Power the 2nd largest electric producer in that country, presented

their research on charcoal addition to the soil.

Their work, which has

been ongoing for more than 15 years, has been studying the causes of

the charcoal effect and led to thee Japanese government approving

charcoal as an official land management practice.

The impact of manystudies in Brazil to Thailand to Japan, showing increased crop yields of 20-50% and total biomass yields increasing as much 280%, led Kansai Electric to fund a reforestation research plantation in Australia with Dr. Syd Shea for producing charcoal and returning it to grow more trees and crops in the arid west of that country.

 

Low temperature woody charcoal (not grass or high cellulose) has an

interior layer of bio-oil condensates that microbes consume and is

equal to glucose in its effect on microbial growth (Christoph Steiner,

EACU 2004).

High temp char loses this layer and does not promote soil

fertility very well. Tests by Finnish researcher Janna Pitkien, on

highly porous materials like zeolite, activated carbon and charcoal

show that microbial growth is substantially improved with charcoal

. . .

What we know now is that the properly prepared charcoal can increase

crop yields and sequester carbon for thousands of years (5000 years is

an estimate by Dan Gavin, charcoal dating researcher.(U. of Ill). Its

properties can allow even more carbon to be sequestered with more

biomass growth and soil carbon from microbial-fungi proliferation.

. . .

 

we have the capability to go carbon negative today. As we make

the switch, it will need to be a global effort as positive feedbacks

are kicking in and will likely accelerate.

 

What about areas for use? Considering the 6.1 gigatons of CO2

accumulation, we would need to utilize this land and biomass

production technique on only 10% of the total of biologically

productive and human degraded lands per year to attain carbon negative

status.

If we added desert lands for reclamation the number declines

further. Is is a big number, yes, but it is doable and a culture from

2000 years ago clearly understood its value then. Considering that

the majority of new emissions will come from developing countries,

what ever we choose, needs to be simple and profitable.

 

What can you do? Read up on terra preta

. . .

 

Then tell everyone you know.

[redgreenblue]

Our government (The Land of Oz) just gave $60M to Chevron Mobil to sequester CO2 gas underground! I read the UK is contemplating a similar scheme

 

I can't understand how anyone can contemplate this technology.

How do you know if the gas will stay there?

How would you know if it left?

Will it stay for a day, a month a year, a 100 years?

Charcoal in soil has been shown to be stable for thousands of years and make soil more fertile and productive.

(O yes, we get rid of waste, make bio-gas and electricty into the bargain).

What is the problem with governments?

Terra preta is the way to go. It is a 'No-brainer'

 

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has a ginormous report on sequestering CO2 underground ( (www) ipcc.ch/activity/srccs/index.htm). The executive summary and the summaries at the beginning of each chapter do a really good job of concisely presenting the current knowledge related to this technology. These are the same folks who get a lot of media attention when they put out their comprehensive climate change reports.

 

The general consensus is that this technology is safe and the gas will stay down there for millions of years. The CO2 is monitored through methods such as seismic surveys and long term predictions are done through computer simulations. Both of these techniques have been well developed by oil and gas industries over the past several decades for exploration purposes. Underground storage of natural gas has already been used for over 100 years (even in urban areas), and underground injection of CO2 has already begun in places such as the US, Canada, and Norway.

 

...so... there's a lot of research indicating that this could work... but... you're still basically putting CO2 down a hole in the ground, and the economics aren't that good yet even with CO2 trading. The US and Canada have used CO2 to pressurize oil fields to increase oil recovery, and the Norwegians sequester CO2 near one of their gas fields because the country has a carbon tax. The gas they extract has too high a CO2 concentration for pipeline transport, and they would get taxed heavily for venting it to the air.

 

While Terra Preta could be a much more elegant solution, there still isn't that much awareness about it. I often talk to academics studying environmental issues, and nearly everyone has heard about sequestering CO2 underground, but very few have heard about Terra Preta. If they have heard, then they are either skeptical or don't know what to make of it yet. Research interest is definitely picking up though, which should help remedy this situation.