[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah from what i read in that other forum acid loving plants may struggle in terra preta... isnt the charcoal inert? I ph tested some water that was sitting in the charcoal and noticed no drastic change in ph.

What does this mean for dolomite lime?

Would the standard 1 tbsp per gallon be too much maybe? I noticed some ill effects to my sativa (maroc/afghani) with a mix of coco, terra preta and dolomite. This was only a short shock and plant recovered no worries in few days... had kinda wrinkled/mishapen leaves... the indica dominant plants were fine...

Hey thats very interesting news Jaykush! What ratio of charoal etc did you use do you know? What ratio do ya reckon is used in Thailand ThaiPhoon??

[ThaiPhoon]

I've made a soil mix of the following stuff a few days ago. I think it will be alright...I've got some seedlings coming up that will be going into this mix in a few weeks time.

by volume
3 parts coco coir
.75 part used coffee grounds
1.50 part rice hulls
1.50 part EWC
1.75 part rice hull charcoal
1 part compost (from different batches of old bokashi compost)
.50 part re-use soil
To that I mixed in a little (less than a tablespoon) of dolomite lime, about 3 TBS of Azomite, 1TBS Thai Bat guano, A few tablespoons of local organic dry ferts.
Moistened that mix with oxygenated fish pond water.

The cuttings sold at the nursery are in 100% rice husk charcoal. I don't know what Ph range those particular plants are at tho..

Here is a small hill of rice husk charcoal. This is the stuff I am using.

I wash the stuff before using it. I think it cleans any excess ash that may be there. Then I soaked it in some ewc/fishpond water before mixing it in.

Thai, I've read where rice hulls have a high silca content making them hard to burn. You seeing this? Any experience? Probably nothing important to our hobby. Just personal info gathering on my part.

[ThaiPhoon]

Old fool, Rice hulls are not hard to burn. There are many places in the area that make the stuff. I think one of the industries that use the stuff is the silica industry in some way. I know they burn heaps of it, and the locals are not putting it in the soil. I just assume they haven't heard of Terra Preta...

[jaykush]

i am doing 4-5 mixes.
ca= castings ch=charcoal(natural from nature i gathered it up from about 4 different species and mixed equal parts) ach=activated charcoal pe=perlite ss=sterile soil
(these are estimates i do not measure)

1.10%ca/40%ss/20%ch/30%pe
2.10%ca/40%ss/30%ch/20%pe
3.20%ca/30%ss/30%ch/20%pe
4.10%ca/40%ss/30%ach/20%pe

hey its from some left over soil from i think mix #2 or #1, just real surprised how fast it rooted. time to try some different plants see what happens.

[jaykush]

found this, i think we can use it to make small amounts of different char for soil test mixes on clones or whatever. im wondering if it depends on the source of char, or if multiple sources helps. anyways its small and easy as hell to make and use hopefully it works well. im going to make one today.

https://www.instructables.com/id/mini-charcoal-maker/

Fine links people. I'm 20 of 27 web pages through the solar parabola thread...

So far it looks like you need lots of area (hard to make portable to do volume) or fresnel lenses look very promising.

Still reading....

My pepper in TP (tera preta) is much bigger than the Pepper in AP (Aquaponics). It has also coped with overheating (forgot to turn on fan), and drying out (forgot to water) yet still is winning the race handily.

The two wee clones are also doing very well. They didn't seem to like the mix when very small, seemed a bit hot, probably the use of AP water when not thinking one day.

But now they've grown a wee bit, - they're very healthy plants and growing fast. I have them in soil outdoors now, 50 litre holes with
10 litres original tera preta (from pots they grew in)
40 litres compost from bin (black earth full of worms)
Couple handfuls larger tera preta chunks in bottom of hole before adding soil.

This is a site that only gets half the days sun. They look as healthy as Suby's wee plants do!

Also giving them neem every 4-5 days.

My AP is NOT growing as fast as these but it's problematic and not tuned in lately. The clones and pepper have all left the competition behind. Go TP!

[jaykush]

heres one for thaiphoon. make your own rice charcoal has some info too.

https://www.buddel.de/kft/terra_preta_english.htm

OMG jay that link is the business!

I'm seeing a trend that TP plus compost is netting the best results.

I theorise the compost accelerates the establishment of microherd and provides nutrition for all concerned.

I also see a lot of 'Western Gardeners' experimenting by planting single type crops per plot, and netting minimal results if any.

Biodiversification - permaculture - provides a huge headstart to getting a microherd running. - They're already there and, they're more diverse.

I also notice a lot of 'Western' tilling practises in the experiments. - Dig it all up each season....

This is one reason why microherds are not establishing properly, and these gardeners will never get their TP experiments to run impressively, imo. They are tearing apart the m. fungi network, all the work the worms have done, and more.

imo, TP will net better results over time tilled in once and then no tilling employed. Additional TP can be added mixed with other compost material on top as mulch and as time goes by the soil is built up in this manner. Alternately, a drilling method, like drilling seeds, could be employed to add further additions of TP in grain - pellet sizes.

I was a very good market 'gardener'. I could dig stuff up and pour on ferts till you saw large pretty crops of nutritionally poor vegetables. It was rubbish and I was rubbishing the land I worked on, but that is what I knew.

TP is exciting and all these folk who 'know' how to garden are jumping on the bandwagon, and the more the merrier! But many are poorly educated, or worse, as I was.

We are learning that thousands of years ago people were far better gardeners than we are now. Yet so many experimenters with this 'exciting new discovery' are still missing the point.

Still pouring in chem ferts with their TP, still tearing up their fields each crop, still planting huge fields of one thing then running into the usual pests and diseases associated with this practise.

TP, imo, will shine, as it should, if left alone to develop in the soil.

When we look to nature at most any place rich in growth we see

No tilling, mulch/ground cover (water/heat management, worm food, insect housing, etc) water supply/drainage, and species diversification.

Most of us know this already. It'll help, with this in mind, when sifting through the many experiments 'cropping' up.

You too may see emerging trends, and I hope share the insight here.

Check out where people aren't trying to push natures boundaries, and are following common sense with regards to

Seasons, crop suitability, soil practise.

The better results, imo, know about 'feeding the soil & not the plant'.

If I sound like I'm on my soapbox, tell me off already, and garden smarter!

[jaykush]

I'm seeing a trend that TP plus compost is netting the best results.

I theorise the compost accelerates the establishment of microherd and provides nutrition for all concerned.

well i agree with you but honestly i think mixing compost with soil with charcoal is the very very bottom of how to make TP work well. i think with specialized amending, nutrients, teas, crop rotations, no tilling, and micro cultures will result in the best outcome. and sadly the only tests i see only go so far and some even using synthetic nutrients?...lol

Biodiversification - permaculture - provides a huge headstart to getting a microherd running. - They're already there and, they're more diverse.

I also notice a lot of 'Western' tilling practises in the experiments. - Dig it all up each season....

This is one reason why microherds are not establishing properly, and these gardeners will never get their TP experiments to run impressively, imo. They are tearing apart the m. fungi network, all the work the worms have done, and more.

imo, TP will net better results over time tilled in once and then no tilling employed. Additional TP can be added mixed with other compost material on top as mulch and as time goes by the soil is built up in this manner. Alternately, a drilling method, like drilling seeds, could be employed to add further additions of TP in grain - pellet sizes.

man the whole world has the "till every season" on there brain, i do think it is necessary to till on new gardens that arent established for a year or so, then once things are going you let nature do its work by itself. the unworked soil here is hard as a rock.

though if i remember from somewhere the amazonians took the top layer of TP for thier use all the time and left the bottom and it replenished itself.


now i know this would work piece of cake outdoors but indoors in pots how would this work? would long bed grows be more efficient with a small worm population and no till practice on a small scale.

time to smoke and think about this some more.