Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

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

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: jedd <jedd@progsoc.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Wood Ashes as a soil amendment
  • Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:50:30 +1100

On Sunday 17 December 2006 9:40 am, Allan Balliett wrote:
] Jedd - Can you point me to some 'good press' for terra preta? Yes, I

I haven't found any really useful sites on specifics yet - how you
make it on a small scale, ideal ratios for different types of soils,
other recommended amendments, etc. I'm guessing you've gone to
WP? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta ) -- Wikipedia's
my usual first port of call for things these days.

Everyone who mentions TP tends to point to the Nature article
about black being the new green (costs $'s at nature.com, but
a few other people seem to have reproduced it).

I've asked on the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soilandhealth
list, but surprisingly very few people on there seem to be actively
experimenting with this stuff. I'm similarly surprised that more
permies aren't getting stuck into it, too, given the promises made
by proponents.

] think that ash doesn't count for the 'terra preta' effect because it
] has been subjected to too high of heat and has lost structure and
] (some tell me) 'sugars.'

Hmm, charcoal does seem to be the key word - but I don't know
enough of the science of charcoal .v. ash (other than the former is
far from fully combusted - starved of Oxygen during the heat, rather
than burn process).

Jedd.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page