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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Biochar
  • Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:55:30 -0800 (PST)

Cory,

Perhaps you are right that biochar is a good choice a place like Florida –
especially on sandy soils. I have no experience with that. I do share your
problem of high temperatures, but in my semi-arid climate, I don’t have the
advantage of the huge amounts of biomass that can be produced in the humid
tropics. I think whether or not one uses biochar, in a climate like yours
one should in any case let nature produce as much biomass as possible and
return it to the soil without tilling by “slash and drop” as in the frijol
tapado. The export of European farming methods including deep plowing is in
large part responsible for the destruction of tropical soils and loss of SOM.

Raoul and Annie Francé, two biologists who investigated soils worldwide for
over 40 years in the first half of the last century and who first came up
with the concept of Edaphon for the community of all soil organisms,
considered that the most fertile soils are to be found in the humid tropics.
On page 96 of her final work entitled “A last chance for a future without
penury” she describes swimming gardens maintained by natives in different
parts of Latin America. I post a copy of the German original below because I
don’t have the time to translate the whole. She calls these swimming gardens
“detritus islands” of several meters in depth that where constantly
replenished with all kinds of organic materials including Guano and fish.
She said that this organic detritus would burn in the scorching sun to
produce “ideal humus” which the natives had known to make since ancient
times. The gardens where moored in lakes, rivers or other bodies
of water by poles and cultivated from boats since the ground wasn’t firm
enough to stand on. She also describes how these swimming gardens would
produce one crop after the other of giant corn or vegetables without any
harvest loss whatsoever.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is exactly how tera preta was formed in the
Amazon region.

Dieter

Das Wunderbarste an ähnlich seit Urzeiten ausgenützter Verlandung sind die
Schwimmenden Gärten in Mexiko. Es gab sie früher, ehe der Barbar Pizarro
in das wohlgeordnete Staatswesen der Inkas einbrach, überall im Land, vor
allem am Titicacasee. Heute sieht man sie nur noch in Xochimilko. Sie
schwimmen buchstäblich auf dem stillen Wasser der Kanäle. Es sind
meterhohe Detrituseilande, die immer wieder neu aufgeschüttet und zuweilen
von hohen Pfählen festgehalten werden. In der brütenden Sonne erhitzt sich
der aus Sinkstoffen abgesetzte Schlamm, der landesüblich nur mit ruderförmigen
Spaten bearbeitet wird. Eine unvorstellbare, unschilderbare Lebensfülle
wimmelt in dem feuchten, warmen Grund. Es ist ein Idealhumus,
den, man weiß nicht wann, die Indianer sich so geschaffen haben und den
auch Ureinwohner von Peru, noch weit früher als die Inkas, herzustellen
verstanden. Bei ihnen werden solche schwimmenden Gärten an den kurzen
Küstenflüssen angelegt, und die Frauen, denen diese Arbeit obliegt, fahren in
Kähnen zu ihnen hinaus und säen und ernten oft nur vom Kahn aus, da der
Schlammboden nicht fest genug ist, daß man ihn betreten kann. Obendrein
wird der Grund noch mit sorgfältig gesammeltem Guano gedüngt, außerdem
mit Fischen. (Diese letztere Sitte ist den meisten Indianerstämmen gemein.)
Riesig schießt der Mais mit halbmeterlangen Kolben auf, Bohnen, Gemüse,
Früchte aller Art, die farbenprächtigsten Blumen, alle Faserpflanzen,
Baumwolle, Nesseln, als Einfassung oft Agaven — alles gedeiht in
unbeschreiblicher
Üppigkeit. Die Jahreszeit spielt keine Rolle. Unablässig wird
gesät und geerntet. Mißernten sind unbekannt. Unabhängig vom Regen des
Himmels befruchtet das Wasser von unten den Detritus, der sich in uner
meßlichem Überfluß durch die Pflanzenabfälle von oben stets neu bildet und
nur vom seichten Grund heraufgeholt zu werden braucht.


--- On Fri, 11/18/11, Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Biochar is not indicated for every
> climate and soil and is not a cure all.  I don't see any
> need for it in clay soils, personally.  It works in the
> Amazon and it can work in places like Florida, with sandy
> soils almost devoid of organic material (because it washes
> right thru the soils, or bakes off in the sun, etc). Note
> that "terra preta" is a combination of organic materials,
> minerals and biochar, and they all work together to create
> the end results.The jury is still out, research is still
> being done, but biochar could end up being very useful for
> stabilizing soils in Florida. One can argue that we could
> just plant plants that grow well in sand, and that is true,
> we could, and some people do. Understand that in much of
> Florida, especially near the coasts, the "soil" is actually
> beach sand, with almost nothing else there where it has been
> disturbed at all.   We are having good results with gardens
> by adding copious amounts of organic material that is
> well protected from run off and sunburn.  But if biochar
> can be sustainably produced (which it can, from fast growing
> woody plants rather than trees, and proper pyrolysis), it
> very well could be an important aspect to soil building.  
>
> Cory





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