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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Re Wood Ashes as a soil amendment

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  • From: Allan Balliett <aballiett@frontiernet.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re Wood Ashes as a soil amendment
  • Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:50:18 -0500


How does this compare to applying charcoal (a la terra preta) ?
Presumably TP is both safe and sustainable to soil biota, as they
were doing it for years and ended up with good soil.<SNIP!>

Charcoal is produced at a lower heat than ash is. The charcoal (rather than ash) that is produced by lower heat has a lot of porous structure to it and, apparently, is coated with a carbon that is a sugar food for microbes. In this fashion, charcoal both feeds and shelters a microbial population. Ash just doesn't do that. Even better, charcoal-wise, charcoal has remained an effective soil builder in pt soils for up to 2000 years (actually documented) while ash is consumed in just a few months. Still, my soil science friends tell me that FRESH ash contributed more to the performance of plants than can be predicted by a lab analysis of the ingredients of ash. -Allan




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