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  • From: venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] mycorrhizae thread | [SANET-MG] Fwd: Re: Soil fertility....
  • Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:19:55 -0400


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Fwd: Re: Soil fertility....
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 08:23:03 -0000
From: Lion Kuntz <lionkuntz@YAHOO.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

I am forwarding some comments I made to another list where the subject
of adding charcoal dust to the soil has generated a wave of unmerited
excitement...


The presence of Carbon is the definition of "organic chemistry".
Carbon exists in three known forms (1) amorphous, graphite, (2)
diamond, and (3) Bucky nano structures.

To make charcoal you oxidize carbon under starved atmosphere
conditions. That makes it amorphous. All the minerals are present as
they were in life. Some of the N is volitized away. The water is
driven out. It is basically the same mineralogy as mulch, minus the
water contents.

Charcoal does granulate to a fine dust. The smaller the particles, the
more surface-to-volume ratio, the faster it is metabolized and gone
from the mix. For much the same reason, clays add valuable functions
to soil, with their small particles. Rock dust from granite quarries
are also praised for adding soil fertility properties for just the
same reason, that is many habitats for microbes to mine the
necessities of life as the base of the food chains.

There are not many carbon eaters. Carbon generally enters the food
chains through plants, whom extract it predominently from the air.
Some portion may be injested as CO2 dissolved in water as weak
carbonic acid. A small subset of microbes has use for elemental
carbon, being anaerobes, and needing to be walled off from oxygen
means they are also walled off from atmospheric CO2, they obtain
carbon more directly from elemental (amorphous) form.

Therefore, carbonizing organic material loses some volume to
combustion, costs energy, work, and adds nothing which wasn't
previously in the raw materials. Adding enough organic material to
make the soil black means that a LOT of organic material was added.

If you add lots of compost your soil will turn almost black too.

Life relies heavily on the most common elements, low on the periodic
table of the elements: H2O, C, N, P, K, Ca, S. AS you go up the table
the elements are only small traces. Bodies of all sizes tend to have
similar ratios of common elements, which is why we can all eat each
other for nourishment.

Too bad the TV show didn't bring microbiologists instead of soil
geologists. They would have received a better explanation of what is
going on. The microbiologist could have explained the complex soil
food webs made possible by all that organic material being provided in
fine granular form, tiny time release capsules of soil nutrition.

People are surprised to find out not all this information is so shiny
new. Way back in 1931 Albert Howard was publishing his Indore Compost
method. To reduce crop wastes to small particles he put it on the
paths so carts, animals and people ground it to small bits.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.asp?bookcode=010104
Howard, Sir Albert and Yeshwant D. Wad. The Waste Products Of
Agriculture: Their Utilisation As Humus. London: Oxford University
Press, 1931.

Probably Howard's most important scientific publication, detailing
the nature, practice and significance of Indore composting, especially
to Indian agriculture. OUT OF PRINT.


http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.asp?bookcode=010108
Howard, Sir Albert. Farming And Gardening For Health Or Disease.
London: Faber and Faber, 1945.

This book is also known by the title it was given by Rodale Press
in its American version--The Soil and Health. It chronicles Howard's
life history and outlines the complete breadth of his contribution.
OUT OF PRINT



It has not been any secret that returning organic matter to the soil
is a beneficial treatment. The Chinese have known that while aryans
were still learning how to wear clothing. What were your ancestors
doing 4,000 years ago? The mummified Alpsman was wearing furs 4,000
years ago.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010122king/ffc.html
King, F.H. Farmers of Forty Centuries: or Traditional Agriculture in
China, Korea and Japan. 1911.

A famous classic in holistic agricultural literature. King was a
masterful observer of farming; this is, if nothing else, a great
travel book. To accelerate downloading this book is reproduced here
without its many illustrations. PUBLIC DOMAIN



Really, 40 centuries is a long time to farm the same plots of land,
and nobody can ever accuse the Chinese of being ignorant about fertility.


While there is some intentional malignant deception in circulation
that increases in carbon dioxide will stimulate global plant growth,
the metabolic respiration of aerobes generates plenty of soil CO2.
Measurements of 50 times the atmospheric density of CO2 in living soil
is common. It partly explains why plants CO2 intake ports, stomata,
are usually on the underside of the leaves, ideally situated to
collect the CO2 exhales of the symbiots in the soil.

CO2 in the soil water is converted to weak carbonic acid which adds to
the weathering of minerals to release fresh layers of elements
dissolved from rock faces. Humus is the carbonaceous residues of
indigestable molecules left after the banquets of the decomposers. It
has bazillions of binding sites to hold minerals from being leached
away by water runoff until plants require them. It serves as myriads
of habitat niches. Humic acids are a stew of various digestive acids
from countless unnamed microherd species.

Charcoal dust soil additives will never improve on billions of years
of life's adaptive interactions. It takes more work for absolutely
nothing gained to turn your organic matter to charcoal dust. Pay the
soil workers their wages and leave the fertility to experts who knew
more about raising fine crops already way back when humans were hairy
tree dwellers millions and millions of years ago than the best
academics in ivy towers of today understand.

In fact, expert soil geologists of our modern era don't even know
enough to honestly say "call in the microbiologist's -- they're the
ones you really need to explain this". That just shows you how little
soil geologists know about biology and botany. I guess all you have to
do is flash any old sheepskin in front of some people and they sit at
the lotus feet of the master "expert" without actually realizing he
don't know much more than you do. When the blind lead the blind they
all fall in the ditch.

--- lion kuntz

--- In cricaIC@yahoogroups.com, kwoodsict@a... wrote:
One never knows where they will come across a gem of information.... I
stumbled across this this a.m.....

http://www.bidstrup.com/carbon.htm
http://www.bidstrup.com/carbon.htm

For those of you who already have a place in Costa Rica, this would
be easy enough to test on a small garden plot. Knowing how much organic
matter improves soil, but how quickly the carbon disappears in it as it
decomposes and produces CO2 in the process, to me, it makes a lot of
sense. Elemental carbon would remain in the soil a lot longer.
The wood gas produced in making carbon on a large scale could be
used as fuel for cooking, industry, or to fuel the process itself.
Using nitrogen fixing, quick growing trees as a source of
the carbon material would further improve the soil.
Does anyone know any more about this idea? Considered testing it?
Thanks for all the ideas and opinions that have been shared on here!
Ken
--- End forwarded message ---




  • Re: [permaculture] mycorrhizae thread | [SANET-MG] Fwd: Re: Soil fertility...., venaurafarm, 03/23/2013

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