Even more on terra preta.
Not more on terra preta Tone!!!!
I was thinking, if the terra preta is reliant on Amazonian or rain forest species of fungi and earth worm, would we be able to replicate this kind of soil in our temperate climate?
Will we just be a poor copy of the soil in the rain forests or is there a possibility that this soil is replicable. We would have to substitute fungi and earthworm for those that can survive the temperate climate.
If we can then this is a remarkable resource that can be carried around the world. If not then whoever is attempting to make terra preta – and the Germans seem to be ahead of the pack in this department – is doomed to failure.
I think that increasing fertility of soil with the use of charcoal may be as far as we can go…
Here is a good reminisce. My allotment on 2nd February 1982 just after I had taken it over. I had cleared and dug almost half of the allotment. You can see I am skim digging. The weeds that I have skimmed off were buried in the trench. I took out a spit deep of subsoil, left it on the trackway and put in the weeds. I took out a spit deep of subsoil further on in the trench and covered the weeds leaving a hole which was filled with weeds. This is carried on until the end of the trench when I fetched the subsoil on the trackway and covered the weeds at the end of the trench.
February 1982 From a similar viewpoint February 2010
The view from the other end.
And the soil in February 1982. This is a typical stagnogley soil with clay enriched subsoil. This type of soil has reduced Iron II compounds because waterlogged soils do not let air flow through them very well. Iron II (Fe2+) compounds are grey or bluey grey in colour. As this was a less permeable heavy clay and waterlogged soil, it is grey although there is some oxidation where air has managed to get into the soil and this is where it has a mottled reddish brown colour. This soil profile is called a Bg horizon.
Needless to say that it is not like this now. As you can see, the bluey grey Iron II soil has been replaced by a more homogenous brown colour soil and there is obvious signs of organic matter even at the third spit - 90cm level. With oxygen from the air the iron compounds give the soil a brown colour. So soils that are free draining, open and porous tend to be redish brown. I think that I have won the water logging battle in this area of the allotment.
