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Hi All,

I am putting this up early as those of you down south are at least a month ahead of those of us in the northern territories with regard to planting times. It is not that I want you to follow my example, I expect you to do your own thing. That's what this experiment is all about!!!

I have been thinking about the strategy which I will adopt for this season's cultivation of crops. It is a constant thought in my mind, as in how to eclipse last seasons yields. Obviously I will require to add more inoculated charcoal to the soil. This will be difficult as my finances can only stretch so far, however I will endeavour to do what I can in this respect. The charcoal I will be using is unfortunately not my own as my burner was stolen from my plot, it is probably because it is zinc that it was taken. However life goes on and needs must that I procure some commercial charcoal to continue my work on this project.

However what I can do will be determined by my physical condition, therefore if I fail to post results on specific crops it will be because I did not get round to doing so!

I will also be experimenting with my home made nitrogen supplement. This will be a trial and error process as in how much to use and on what crops to experiment with.

The first thing to be done will be to prepare the soil for sowing and planting, as in weed root removal from the soil.The next will be the watering of the soil with neat EM's then leave it for a fortnight or so for the acidity to die down as I have acidic soil averaging pH 6.6

However those of you with alkaline soil in the range of pH 7.5 to 8.0 or above I think should not require to wait for more than a week before planting out.

When planting my potato tubers I will first apply a goodly amount of chicken manure and EM saturated cow manure all mixed in with inoculated charcoal to the bottom of the trench. Then an inch or two layer of soil followed by the potatoes Then sprinkle VAM's around each seed potato, now in with the backfill I will also spread spent coffee grounds as this the area in which my crop will form.

The coffee grounds will I believe deter slugs from going anywhere near my hopefully abundant crop.

Now I know that I said that cow and horse manure was off limits due to the Aminopyralid decimation of crops on allotments across the UK. However since my cow manure has been inoculated with neat EM's since late November I'm going to take the chance that the EM's have dealt with the problem. I really need to find out if they can cure this problem. In the Dow Co. blurb it states that the new formula breaks down much faster. within the soil. Now if this the case EM's should continue that breakdown process and hopefully neutralise any residual toxins within said manure.

On trawling the internet I also found evidence that spent coffee grounds may also deter wireworm. Now as we all know they are the orange coloured armour plated villains who drill through our root crops. Not only that, there seems no way of stopping them without resorting to chemicals. I am therefore not going to spread coffee grounds on one of my control crop rows. It may cost me, but I feel that this is worthy of a test trial for one of my potato rows.

As to my other crops I feel that for VAM type crops they should be treated as potato with inoculated charcoal,compost, VAM's and coffee grounds. Non-VAM crops such as turnip and beetroot should have coffee grounds dug lightly into the soil before seeding, then spread around the sowing area to ward off any attack. Now this is just a gut feeling , but could used coffee grounds ward off carrot fly, it is an intriguing thought. coffee has a strong smell and may well disorientate said carrot fly, I feel that there are many uses for spent coffee grounds.

This approach has not been verified with regard to either slugs or wireworm and or coffee grounds therefore is to be taken as information only!! However I did have success with simmering spent coffee grounds, allowing the liquid to cool and watering said liquid onto my soil last season. This appeared to work as I saw little evidence of slug damage to my crops.

For Brassica I always use rhubarb stem, cut it one inch long, then split it halfway through and opened out to expose the flesh. This I place at the bottom of the planting hole of each plant to deter clubroot. It has always worked for me and have never suffered clubroot. As I understand it is the oxalic acid content of rhubarb which prevents this disease condition.

Now I know that this is not part of the Terra Preta experiment, but I just thought that I should mention it.

However this season I will leave 1 or 2 Brussels sprouts plants unprotected by rhubarb to gauge the effect of EM's within the soil. Now EM's should provide protection to the Brassica roots given that the soil has been watered with neat EM's at the pre-planting stage. However I need to do this to find out if EM's are effective in preventing this disease.

Now as to the use of EM's we now know that they are not a fertiliser, however they present immense value to the soil. They breakdown our organic compost and manure whereby the nutrition within them is reduced to a molecular state within the soil. The consequence of which is the greater uptake of said nutrition by the roots of our crops.Not only that but they prevent soil borne diseases from affecting, and or, infecting our crops. They also instil balance within the soil, ensuring that regenerative microorganisms are the dominant species within the soil.

Always spray your crops with a dilution of EM's as it provides extra protection to soil borne diseases!

As much as I believe that charcoal and VAM's are what make TP the greatest soil in the world, I also believe that without EM's and yeasts this soil would never have been created. This soil is a rare and wonderful gift of Mother nature. It is tied into symbiotic relationships by the three life forms all of which have differing yet essential tasks. There is balance within its structure when mixed with charcoal and to my knowledge has been in existence for at least 5,000 years.

Most of the scientific community see it as being approximately 2,500 to 1,500 years ago, I read Quite a while ago about a site which was dated to 6,000 years ago.

Why would these ancient Amazonian's have dug charcoal into the soil if not for a purpose 5 or 6,000 years ago. It beggars belief that these ancient natives would have done this without a purpose!! Life at that time was a day to day survival event so there must have been purpose to this task, otherwise why bother!!

This experiment is by no means scientific, I view it as being an attempt to return to the balance of nature within the soil. If and when we return to the cultivation of heirloom crops, and seed save from these crops, just like the Europeans do, only then will we be in control of our soil. Not only that, but I believe that we can get far more out of these heirloom crops in terms of crop yield.

There were some great cropping varieties whose demise was due to lack of disease resistance with the advent of chemical cultivation of the soil. It is my belief that chemical cultivation of the soil caused this to occur!!! These heirloom varieties were dependant on a balanced soil which was full of life. Once this life was gone they were no longer protected by the microorganisms which prevented disease from affecting them!!

These heirloom crops have never been subjected to cultivation using charcoal, VAM's, EM's, yeasts, this will be new ground which we will be breaking!!!!

As "stewpot" said in a reply to a posting, "we are only custodians of the soil during our lifetimes", Therefore what we do will help those who follow our path.This was I believe the ethos of these ancient Amazonian tribes people. Like these ancient people we need to think of the bigger picture, as in how to feed those who follow us!!!

I have been conducting an experiment for the last few months using EM's, it is all but complete and when
finished I will post the results.

I sincerely hope that those who follow this quest will see the worth of returning to balance and life within our soils. EM's, VAM's, charcoal and yeasts working in symbiosis within the soil may be our saving grace in preserving our ability to cultivate the soil and feed ourselves.This form of cultivation will also protect all of the other life forms within our plots which are necessary to our survival as a species!!!!!

This is only what I will hopefully be doing, and is information only. However I hope that you will all be experimenting with your own thoughts on TP and EM's.

Uriel

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