Terra Preta - Dark Soil - Experiment

[Mr.Botanical]

ampersand, I watched a video about the discovery of civilization in that part of the world by the spanish explorer, and how his memoirs of a vast civilization were verified in modern times due to the presence of our favourite soil, terra preta.

That same video also contained an experiment by a Finnish, or Danish scientist where he compared yields among a species of plant grown seperately in simple soil, soil with fertilizers, and terra preta. The plant species in the terra preta HIGHLY outperformed the other soil types PUT TOGETHER! It was astonishing.

I will try to find the video for you if you are interested, and I will post the link.

The actual trick of terra preta is the presence of specific microorganisms similar to mycorrizhal fungi, which use the vast amounts of carbon from the charcoal as their carbon source for survival and extreme rates of growth, which are beneficial to the plants.

And there is plenty of terra preta left. The brazilians do sell it to people who are looking for it, but they also take precautions and measures to make sure that it grows back.

As for the charcoal, it is produced by slow, low-termperature burning. In other words, it is burned in a smothered fire. The important thing in making the proper charcoal is to try to get as much oil inside the coals as possible.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yes you are right that this isnt the true Terra Preta found in the Amazon basin. I have made my own mix with charcoal soaked in kelp, fish emulsion and bat guano. I also have azomite and other goodies in the mix.

I am making a small charcaol retort to evenly and slowly burn my wood.

The idea of this thread is to compare the growth of plants in two mediums i am familiar with vs two new ones.

If you follow the links in the previous pages you will find a mammoth amount of info on the topic.

 

[Mr.Botanical]

I hope I didn't offend you by saying your soil wasn't true terra preta, Silversurfer. I know some people are sensitive to comments about their methods of cultivation. I was just sharing theoretical wisdom.

I am willing to bet that your soil mix would be NOTICABLY more productive and produce even faster growing, healthier plants if you added beneficial bacteria. Your mix would be as close to terra preta as you could get considering the age of your mix.

 

[Smurf]

Great looking blooms there SS, especially since they're growing in the Antarctica !! hehe

Don't ya luv it when the cola leaves are growing vertically.

I've been meaning to ask, what's with the broccoli boxes?,, Insulation?

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

No offense taken Mr.Botanical.

I have been using bacterial/fungal innoculants and Life-force Stimulate (kelp and fulvic acid) and Liquid humus from Nutri-Tech Solutions. I highly recommend them if you live in Australia or are willing to pay shipping.

I have also been putting raw fish scraps, bones, shells, charcoal, urine and broken pottery into my compost pile.

I would love to get some real Terra Preta for sure. Would be highly illegal to ship any in to Oz though i reckon.

Hey Smurf. Yeah thanks, it was very warm here today! Then it just pissed down for a few hours so no watering can tonight

I have em in the boxes so that when i water i can leave em a small reservoir in the bottom. This is very good for the plants in coco cos they dry out very fast. It allows me 2-3 days between watering.

 

[ThaiPhoon]

Your plants look great SS!

I've got a few little Reclining Buddah's going here now.

Have you tried using EM to make bokashi? Bokashi has loads of different microbes. It is basically a different way to compost - by fermenting stuff - including MEAT! I use this bokashi along with my rice hull charcoal to make my 'Terra Preta'...There're loads of good bokashi websites.

 

[jaykush]

hey good stuff SS_og, i like the charcoal amended plants, they look to be real bushy and doing well.

All the plants looks great, folks. However, it's not true terra preta unless it has the special property found in the original terra preta in Brasil. That special property is the ability for the terra preta to actually grow, just like a living organism, x amount per year.

Indeed, the soil actually self-regenerates. Also, the wood used for the charcoal has to be burned a certain way to increase oils within the coals. A regular old raging fire just wont do. I'm not sure if this was already covered in the original article, but it's important enough to repeat.

Proper and true terra preta has been shown in scientific studies to increases growth rates an yield up to 800% over vegetation grown in regular soil.

n we are only at the beggining of figuring this out, a few of us have been experimenting with TP for only a few months tops. we know its not TRUE tp but were aiming to get as close as we can with diy materials.

i agree with the oils in the wood, ive read several articles talking about it.

I hope I didn't offend you by saying your soil wasn't true terra preta, Silversurfer. I know some people are sensitive to comments about their methods of cultivation. I was just sharing theoretical wisdom.

I am willing to bet that your soil mix would be NOTICABLY more productive and produce even faster growing, healthier plants if you added beneficial bacteria. Your mix would be as close to terra preta as you could get considering the age of your mix.

no offense, im sure none of us know exactly what were doing with TP so i doubt you can offend our methods. at least not yet.

i dont think were short on micro species, lot of us here have that handled for sure.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

High again folks

My experiment with this batch of plants is almost done and i am very happy with the results so far. Had a fair bit of rain and cold weather down here in the Antarctic... hehe.

Chopped this beautiful lady down yesterday. Shes probs could have gone for another week but didnt want to risk bud rot. Again, this Mexican Sativa has been in coco and perlite.



The other 3 left have a few weeks to go. Hopefully it wont get too wet and miserable but the forecast aint great. They are part Hollands Hope which was bred to take wet Dutch summers so fingers crossed...

Homemade Soil - This plant has a real geranium like smell and is turning purple. Nice plant but not as many buds as others.



Terra Preta - Shorter and denser than others. Real strong skunky smell. Has the largest buds.



Coco, perlite and charcoal - My favourite plant. Its the tallest and has heaps of budsites. Its main cola is getting real fat.



I have abandoned my indoors experiment with TP vs Coco. I killed the plant in TP... it wasnt the healthiest to begin with and i maybe overwatered or the mix was too hot... the one in coco is still going strong. We live and learn.

 

[jaykush]

i was waiting for you to post, was going to ask you for an update but i see we get one. good to hear the results with the tp, cant wait to hear how the smoke is.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

High again folks.

A happy 4/20 to one and all.

To celebrate i am going to chop down these fine looking ladies:

My version of TP. Bushy and stinky buds.


Coco, perlite and charcoal. My favourite! Most buds and lots of resin.


Homemade soil. Strong smell of geranium. Plenty of resin but not so tight buds. More down to genetics i reckon.


Very pleased with how this has turned out. Its my first good grow outdoors and my best plants to date. Reckon i got 5 ounces from the coco one. But its all about the love.

Peace.

 

[ithruxix]

happy 420!

Beaut u got there man, looks great!

 

[jaykush]

looks like an experiment well done. on to the next stage now where it only gets better.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Thanks, glad you liked the show.

I have also had a go at making a mini charcoal retort.
First burn was ok and got some charcoal. Second attempt with full load didnt work out so good.

I didnt get a good seal on the lid which i believe was the problem. I will try a flat piece of metal or maybe some foil next time...

 

[Suby]

Great thread and gorgeous plants SS.

The plants look great, no sign of nutrient problems even in those smallish containers, I flower the same size plant in double that container so the TP is very rich and well balanced from looking at your results.

Peace

S

 

[ThaiMeUp]

This is great stuff! Another thing I must try. Especially with the burnt rice husks, like Thaiphoon mentioned. So many fun things to do with organics it makes growing almost addictive. Or maybe it is addictive? ha hahaaa!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

RE: Charred Rice Hulls

In looking for instructions on how to char rice hulls, I came across a site from Japan which was pretty detailed - if Japanese is one's native language. Not being fluent or even somewhat familiar with the Japanese language I had to rely on the Google translator (or whatever technology is used).

Let's just say that it was an interesting attempt to read this document. About all I got out of it was that it's done in ovens which reach 1450F - 1650F and the rest of it was pretty jumbled. So if you know any professional ceramists with huge kilns you're probably good to go as far as experimenting with roasting/charring these hulls.

Rice hull ash is also used in teas in organic farming in Japan. I haven't been able to find the mixing rations so DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME until you get some viable information.

Please!

CC

 

[jaykush]

^^^ theres a link earlier in the thread for making rice husk charcoal. its actually fairly simple. if thats what ^^ that was all about.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah i wouldnt consider making charcoal too dangerous a job... although it is the main ingredient for gunpowder...

How are your charcoal experiments going jaykush?

 

[jaykush]

Yeah i wouldnt consider making charcoal too dangerous a job... although it is the main ingredient for gunpowder...

How are your charcoal experiments going jaykush?

experiments are going good. still in the soil mix testing stage. trying it on different plants and checking there reaction. some real promising results so far i should have a mix ready soon.

 

[swampdank]

interesting! those plants look deeelicious!