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Hi All,

I am now going back over my collection of data files again, this I have felt enables me to understand what my experiments have produced in the way of increased crop potential. It also allows me to assess what I have learned and how it relates to what has been written about TP.

At this time I am encouraged by the results so far achieved.

However the more you learn about this soil, the greater the need to recap as to what you thought, and how it worked for you. Firstly I am very happy with the crops harvested given that only handfuls of inoculated charcoal and sprinklings of VAM's were used.

There was no sign of disease as far as I can ascertain, however there was damage to a small number of potatoes from wireworm. As always it was the larger tubers which received the damage, Slug damage was minimal, this I think may have been due to my having simmered a couple batches of spent coffee grounds for about half an hour and watered the liquid onto the soil. I did not see any slugs surface and die as was said to have happened in the link which I put up, but I am happy with the results.

On the method used to re-create a TP type soil I see an obvious discrepancy as to how these native people created TP and how we are trying to achieve the same results.

This I feel is due to the climatic zone in which TP evolved, there was no loss of heat in the Amazon delta soil at any time and their only consideration was the long rainy season.

They did not require to inoculate the charcoal, this was achieved without their knowledge due to a hot and humid climate, which was and is still at this time stable.

We on the other hand have found it necessary to inoculate charcoal, however the results seem to point to the fact that charcoal is a bio-accumulator of nutrient.

I believe that the charcoal added to our soils must be inoculated with organic nutrient, this will prevent the leeching of nutrient from the parent soil by un-inoculated charcoal, and will therefore be available to our crops for increased growth.

The inoculation of a TP type charcoal is essential, we can postulate on methodology, but the truth it would seem is, that we require to inoculate charcoal in a zone 6 to 8 environment at first to achieve results. I say at first because a lot depends on the next steps we take and the methodology we use. There are several ways in which this project could proceed, and as yet I am keeping my options open.

My first thoughts regarding EM's were that their high acidity would prevent VAM's from achieving their allotted task,if EM's were added to the soil.

However this thought was found to be inaccurate!

EM's when brewed have a pH of approximately 3.1 very acidic, but once removed from their anaerobic environment quickly adapt to their new environment and the high acidity is quickly depleted once in an aerobic environment. This I believe removes any barrier to their forming symbiotic relationships with VAM's within the soil.

What we need to realise is that these life forms have been in existence for over 400 thousand years and have the ability to form mutual symbiotic relationships with other micro-organisms and yeasts in all climatic conditions.

EM's and all other micro-organisms are also supremely adept at transforming themselves to suit the environment in which they find themselves. Its almost like a chameleon effect where they are able to change form to survive.

This I believe is how Mother nature works at this level of existence!!

Now I had thought that my alliums would produce the best results as they are said to have a greater affinity with VAM's. This was not however the case, it was my potato crop which gave the best results.

To be honest I was perplexed by this result, however on thinking about this, it is my findings which really count in my experiment!

For the most part many of the findings in print did not use inoculated charcoal, and then there were those who used chemical fertilisers to inoculate the charcoal and wondered why their yields were lower than anticipated!

So there is a lot of information out there which is less than helpful as to how I am progressing. Chemical crop production kills the micro-organisms whose main task it is to regulate the soil and what grows in it.

This recap is still ongoing as I believe that it is necessary to my quest that I delve into every aspect of what has been achieved and how to understand what has been learned.

However I am fast getting to the stage where I may discontinue recapping on flawed science simply because it is owned by multi-national companies whose only consideration is greater profit margins for their products!!

I am feeling that I can no longer trust a lot of the information presented to me on the Internet. There are to be honest a very few sites which are green and use no chemicals. But big business is casting its jaundiced eye on Terra preta projects and does not like what it see's. This is understandable, were the TP code to be cracked, they would all be out of business!!

I have always been hopefully true to the concept that Mother nature provides us with all that we will ever need to survive on the earth.

However we modern humans seem to think that we know better!!!!!!

PS;-

It was difficult to ascertain whether my last season crops gained any advantage in growth from the use of diluted EM's. The reason being that I was also infecting said crops with VAM's. However there was no sign of crop disease on any of my crops!

Having said that there was a small row of peas which I had not included in the experiment which was beginning to show powdery mildew.

This is the only crop disease which most commonly besets my cultivation efforts, I sprayed them once a week with a dilute solution of EM's and the mildew was arrested, they were mildew free. So from that aspect it would seem that EM's have a definite role to play in disease prevention.The peas by the way, only had ordinary compost added to the soil before they were sown.


These are just my thoughts, but hopefully they will strike a chord with you.