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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Soil and fertility
  • Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:22:07 EST



> >Have any of you read anything on the internet about "terra preta" soils ?

'Terra preta' is of course Portuguese for 'black earth' and the super fertile
areas in the Amazon basin where it occurs the black has been identified as
charcoal. Using typical agribusiness thinking, gardeners here rushed to dump
powdered charcoal on their gardens in hopes of producing terra preta. Turns
out, it seems, that the charcoal is incidental. The archeology of the
patches
show that they were intensively gardened continuously for 3000 years and
that's
why they are permanently fertile. Soooo ... in just a mere 3000 years, you
too can have terra preta.

The soil here is inhospitable yellow and blue clay. It is a good pottery
clay, but it is hostile to tillage. Red clay is an asset, but not yellow or
blue
clay. It still grew a thick fescue sod, which didn't help matters either.
Now, 20 years later, the garden beds resemble coffee grounds. Time lapse
photography of the gardens would show a continuous parade of organic material
all
that time.

Good start. Check back in 100 years, ought to be about mimimally broken in
by that time.


James




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