Posted on 05/26/2022 7:57:51 PM PDT by Jonty30
It might seem counterintuitive, but tropical forest soils are, almost universally, terrible for farming. That’s due primarily to the insanely dense amount of life in these environments: In less alive forests, dead plant and animal matter has time to decompose and leach its nutrients into the soil. But in the tropical forest, huge numbers of insects, fungi, and bacteria devour any decomposing matter before it has a chance to enrich the soil.
But people around the world live in tropical forests, and have had to figure out some way to make the soil actually productive. (The effects of the destruction of these forests on the eco-system notwithstanding.) One of the oldest techniques, long documented in the Amazon rainforest, is what’s known as “black earths” or “terra preta.” For hundreds of years, rainforest farmers have figured out that you can enrich soil with biochar: charcoal, basically. Wet vegetation is burned, producing little bits of charcoal, which are ground into the soil. Eventually, this creates an incredibly rich, fertile soil.
(Excerpt) Read more at modernfarmer.com ...
What’s old is new again.
THAT is a perfect way to do it! I want to get chickens again; Beau stole my spot for a coop (he did offer, but I wasn’t ready for them yet) and he built more kennel runs instead. (We raise Treeing Walker Coon Hounds and Plott Hounds for fun and little profit.)
All of the dirty straw from raising our last steer has been cleared from the barn and added to the BIG compost pile.
That’s going to be Black Gold, Baby! :)
I remember trying to garden in my old city backyard, and how a couple of neighbors came over to see how I was doing. One was the local bubblehead liberal schoolteacher, who told the other neighbor, someone who grew up somewhere in Latin America where slash and burn is still practice, how the highly productive activity of her rural homeland was a disaster. Thanks Jonty30.
Funny. I never have any problem with striped spill chuck.
Charcoal briquettes have too many additives.
Natural charcoal works best. And because it needs time for microbes to colonize it, I suggest adding it to the compost bin rather than directly into the soil.
I have seen charcoal sold specifically as a soil amendment. I think Jung’s carries it.
If you decide to make your own, you can use any organic materials, not just wood. You can even use materials that shouldn’t otherwise be composted. Diseased or infested plant materials, dog or cat feces, etc, up to and including “waste”. There’s a sawdust toilet on my farm that’s made using a steel bucket, just so I can burn the contents into charcoal without having to transfer containers. I haven’t had to do that yet, but I wanted a backup plan in place in case plumbing isn’t an option. The process of burning stuff into charcoal will kill off anything that might be lurking inside.
It can’t be barbeque charcoal.
What you can do is put all your biomaterial, like uneaten vegetables or whatever you cut when you’re cooking. Put it into a compost or put it where it can dry out completely.
Burn it to an ash and then work it into the soil.
On a video I saw, a guy took left over meats and rotten eggs, along with plant material. He would burn to an ash and cover it with clay that was mixed with water and turned into a slurry. He would throw it on top before he throught the surface dirt to cover it all up.
So, every spring you can do that. Take your bio material and and clay and throw it on the garden and roto till it thoroughly, Then plant your garden.
From what I’ve been able to find out, leaving a share fallowed every year has imporance as well. So, you can section off your garden and leave a portion unused for a growing season so it can recover.
Paul Stamets is not just an author. He is the formulator of the erstwhile New Chapter “Host Defense”.
When NC was bought, and the formula was changed, Stamets withdrew authorization, and started his own company in order to control quality.
Host Defense is now the name of the entire line. The former product by that name - now the flagship product - is called “MyCommunity”; it is a broad-spectrum blended formula instead of a targeted single mycomedicinal product.
Works good in sandy tropical soils, not so much in temperate heavy soils.
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How is it for sandy temperate soils that are acidic? Actual soil is thin, as well.
I live just south of the Great North Woods on Old Glacial Lake Wisconsin. We have a fire pit and a supply of oak and pine deadfall.
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