Hi All,

I've been doing more research on charcoal due to the conflicting evidence as to the leaching of soluble carbon from said charcoal.

There is more and more evidence that it depends on the type of wood being charred, as in, not all charcoal is created equal.

This would seem logical to me, tree species I believe char at different rates, there is also the question of green burning and seasoned burning. I also believe that soft wood and hard wood charcoals leach soluble carbon at differing rates.

Then you have the difference between twigs, branches and trunks. However if you mix as many different types and sizes of wood you end up with charcoal which leaches soluble carbon at different rates.

The bottom line is that soluble carbon will always be available over thousands of years, this is the reason why I believe that VAM's have such great longevity within a Terra Preta soil.

The rate of soluble carbon leaching, is I think directly related to the mass, density and water content of the wood being charred.

It is also useful to note that the trees of the Amazon delta store most of their nutrient in the spongy bark of said trees. If this nutrient were sent down to the roots it would be lost to the nutrient deficient soil. This I believe is one to the reasons why the bark of these trees became a source of food and medicine to these ancient natives.

I never fail to be amazed by the incredible intelligence at work within the world of Mother nature. Each and every life form has purpose, the fact that we humans don't see it is due to our having detached ourselves from Mother nature and the natural world which gives us life.

These are just my thoughts

PS:- I will be bowing out from this site for a while, however I will keep posting on Allotments UK for those of you who wish to be kept informed of what is happening on this quest for a better soil.

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Uriel

The mind is like a parachute, its totally useless unless its open[/quote]

Hi All,

Forgot to add this to the above posting, the topic is "The Terra Preta Experiment and can be found in the Topics for 2011 section.


Apologies

uriel13

The mind is like a parachute, its totally useless unless its open