Re: South Texas Jatropha Farms initiates its first attempts at Terra Preta

hi Folks,

from the wonderful discussions here, including such notables as ESPR2Mike, Froggy, Natescape, Voltaire, EBZTZ (hope i got that right) and the rest. I have decided to start, on a VERY small scale, creating terra preta. I'll provide it to the farmers in South Texas who wish to try it out on small plots.

From what I've learned, a person can use 6 bags, about 50-75 lbs each (i've only seen one bag, it looked to be 1/4th full) and that will cover an acre.

Im going to let the State of Texas and the University of Texas have first crack at a few bags, then I'll let the general public take some very small bags for thier gardens and such.

Commercial growers can expect some as well. (I dont know why i keep taking on new tasks, but as long as i can watch the cowboys on sundays I guess im doing fine).

 

so for those of you interested. Im not shipping any, that would cost me money and im not currently going to charge for the terra preta, if you happen to head south to Mexico for fun or whatever, drop by corpus, give me a email before you start and I'll see if i cant set aside some for you.

at ANY rate, if you sink it 30 inches (again from what i've read), you'll be making a small carbon sink and helping out in the tiniest fraction possible combating global warming, who knows? it might even help your gardens, or if you grow crops for biodiesel, it might increase your yield.

just please report back to me via here (preferably so everyone can see) or via email so i can consider whether to maintain, stop, or increase production.

Hey Froggy,

I planted 8 seeds in regular topsoil/sand 50/50 mix. i included terra preta in the 1 gallon containers.

I just took some of them up to East Texas and transferred them to the land we have up there.

So, I put just a tiny handful of the terra preta in each container, when i transferred them to the land about 2 weeks later. the entire bottom half of the soil mix in the planter was black, rich, looked like it would be providing incredible nutrients for the plants. and spreading or leaching or whatever you may call it, incredibly fast. (I'd read it grows about an eight of an inch per year, this had grown 2 inches in 2 weeks. maybe it's just the coloration)

so far, they seemed to be doing about the same if not a little better than seeds I'd planted about a month ago. same size and everything.

so, thanks so much for leading me to the thought of terra preta, its incredibly fun to check out how things are going with it.

 

Good luck, ccheek! Keep us updated on your valuable efforts.

Thanks Nate,

here's the plan so far.

22.75 acres just north of Tyler, Texas. We're going to plant JC (among other things such as blackberry, and a huge variety of peppers and chilis). Im going to use the JC as a fence around the property, along with setting aside either 5 or 10 acres exclusively for JC.

We're both looking for jobs in that part of Texas so we can move up there and do the farming full time. I've already checked for some biodiesel enthusiasts but will keep looking. Its a very christian and conservative part of the country so I dont think I'll have much trouble finding people who wish to go as organic as possible.

So, while it's a bit cooler during the winters than I had hoped for, a little extra care and maintenance should be able to mitigate the differences. I'm pretty excited about it all. I hope to make my own terra preta on site for a few weeks before I start planting, and get it integrated into the soil first for the entire almost 23 acres. guess I'll be looking for a grader soon ha-ha.

Hi CC,

I am from Texas , my mom lives near Athens Texas. You may have gone through there on your way to Tyler.

I live in Vermont now.

Anyway, just wondering about your success with Terra Preta.

I am just learning about it and gathering materials to create my own.

I have some Charcoal and Soil based micro organisms Called Inner Garden.

It is my understanding that the micro organism and Fungi make up of the soil is important in the re creating of terra preta.

Also that, non has been self replicating like the original unless it is inoculated with some of the original material.

?

Do  these bags you have contain some of the original TP soil Organisms for seeding your own soil charcoal mix?

Thanks, and

good luck

 

It is my opinion that TP soil formation is going to be a viable solution to some of the ill's of Modern Humans. But... because its really dark down there (soil science joke), its really hard to know what is going on. Let me try and shed a few patches of light on the subject.

rickysphone

  I have some Charcoal and Soil based micro organisms Called Inner Garden.

It is my understanding that the micro organism and Fungi make up of the soil is important in the re creating of terra preta. 

It is my opinion that most innoculants are useless. There are many examples as to where this is not true such as legume and N2 fixers. But typically the cases where the innoc is a long term benefit is when its of the local genotype innoc spp in the area and you are just hyper populating the spp. There are many innocs for to targeting a specific spp, like Soy, for annual production. But general, starter innoc quickly get taken over by the native ecosystem of soil flora (and fauna that have flora in them). I talked with 2 soil scientists that do lab testing and they told me the same thing and have proof that most are completely gone within 30 days, Radiocarbon data even.

It is my opinion that the native flora is always good enough. 'If you build it, they will come', I promise. this is much more true in the real world than in a corn field for dead baseball players.

2 other points here. Just as you shouldnt take plants, seeds, live rabbits, frogs, fish, emerald ash borer from one place to another, neither should you take soils from one place to another for the very same reasons. And even if you did, what makes you think that there is anything special about the flora that will; a) make it live anywhere on the planet but TP soils in the amazon because of clime and abiotic conditions and b) will offer a benefit anywhere but TP soils in the amazon?

rickysphone

Also that, non has been self replicating like the original unless it is inoculated with some of the original material.  

  There has been 1 report of this and frankly, I dont buy it. This seems highly unlikely and just the sort of thing that someone who 'sells' TP would say. IMO, this is Native Brazillian form of PR hype. I am perfectly willing to hear out someones scientific explaination but Im not interested in PR rational.

There are plenty of 'outside of the Amazon' tests plots that show remarkable enough results to conclude that its not the soil flora of the Amazon but the carbon itself that offers the majic. IMO, the explaination is simple. Everyone knows that compost is black gold in the garden. Compost is biologically mineralized biomass carbon. This is also how I would define biochar, mineralized biomass carbon, just not done thru biological methods but thru pyrolysis.

Thus, for proper input into the soil, make sure to 'dope' or 'charge' your biochar with ~ the same % (or more) of nuts and minerals as compost has for best results.

Thanks for the input Froggy. They say TP was decades in the making. So i guess as you say we will have to build it and let them come, and I suppose pray. The soil can only improve with this amount of care.

Have you built yours yet?

Do you think it would be best to layer the different elements, such as biochar at 6 ft then compost etc. or just try and mix all together to the desired depth.

Do you have any other recommendations or lessons learned?

Blessings