[Stoves] don't burn the charcoal bury it

[Jeff Davis]

Dear All,


Traditionally agriculture has been a theft based regime, possibly
starting with slash and burn. This worked for the short term but after a
few years it was time to move on to another site and repeat the process.
At that point in history this would not be a problem and may have been
beneficial, also the few indigenous groups remaining today are too few
to be an issue. But in the present with 6 billion people it's rather
dubious. Odd that biochar claims to be a long lasting solution when this
only worked a few years. To date we carry on with this theft based
regime with the indirect application of fossil fuels and the direct
application of pesticides thus burning off the humus and adding more CO2
into the atmosphere.

A vital factor to consider is the relationship between clay, humus and
water. Humus is sticky and glues it's self to clay particles and absorbs
water (this relationship also stores water somewhat like biochar) thus
creating an electric circuit somewhat like a battery or you could say
it's nature's version of an IC chip.  The clay-humus colloid's two
players are the anion and the cation. This relationship is like poetry
or music to the plants and I doubt that it exist with biochar. Healthy
soil is a living creature, in a way, and we are an extension of this
living creature.

Charcoal has earned the title as a filter. I have a charcoal filter in
my face mask used for chores like painting. It absorbs harmful fumes and
lucky for me that it doesn't decide to release them. This could help
explain pictures of plant roots that had to work to penetrate the
biochar in order to use what was absorbed. Some people soak their
biochar in urine and I would assume that the biochar would be overloaded
with this material and easily release the excess but I could more easily
apply urine to the soil by spraying and it would naturally work it's way
into the soil by it's self. I also add some sugar with my urine
applications.

Humus has been aiding the soil from dry cracking for thousands of years
much like the fibers in fiberglass composite materials. One possible
example could be found at the end of my report on Fuelage. You can see
first hand how strong a fermented grass can become. Of course I can not
be certain that Fuelage is related to humus. The root cause of the soil
cracking is a lack of humus not the lack of biochar in the soil and for
that matter soil fertility. If we could work on the root causes (pun not
intended) of our problems we would end up with rich soil, extra fuel
whether in the form of wood or charcoal and healthy food.

In short. If you have healthy soil (humus) biochar can burn it out at an
accelerated rate, you very well could see an increased yield for a short
time then a decrease. If your soil is dead (burned out) biochar will
help but why not use the real deal. 

Whether something works in a limited way, especially in a lab
environment, or intrinsically works is like night and day so to speak.
For example I have experimented with growing potatoes, pumpkins and
squash in bales of weed. I could say that it works because, after all, I
have the produce to prove it. But the real truth is that it's a needy
regime with low yield.

Honestly I don't know anything about Africa's soil but I will not be the
person to denies them access to all of their options.

The goal of this weed/grass-humus scheme is not to reduce the amount of
chemical fertilizer but eliminate it. The goal is not to reduce the
application of pesticides but to eliminate it. The goal is not to reduce
irrigation but to eliminate it (in most cases). So what would this
scheme look like? One possibility would be to pick a wet plot for
growing your exotic [2] plants. This soil would be built up with humus
produced from the surrounding grass/weed land. A variety of grasses and
weeds would produce a healthier humus for the plants as apposed to a
mono-crop. A wet plot would help to preserve the humus and become a
water battery. The excess humus would make up for the heavy soil. The
grass/weed land could be treated with urine, composted human-manure
(maybe) and the tea from humus production. One other goal is to reduce
the amount of natural composting by producing extra humus that
sequesters carbon in the soil. The grass/weed portion of the land could
also be used for growing alternative foods like Dandelions but you would
need to skip the composted human-manure.

Biochar is the silver bullet that solves our soil/plant problems and
global warming [1] also allowing us to continue burning all the fossil
fuels we want in order to continue our present life styles. The
scientist is content with working with a single variable, after all
biochar adds carbon to the soil and helps to store water. Lucky is the
Scientist that deals with the single variable but woe is the Grower that
has to churn the equation.

See links below.

Unfortunately I've consumed my email time for rest of the year.


Best regards,


Jeff

[1] Assuming man made global warming.

[2] An exotic plant is what most people think of as food for example
pumpkin.



Humus and sugar:
<http://www.aglabs.com/newletters/humus.html>

<http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biocharbriefing.pdf>

Biochar 'Carbon Sequestration' Company Charged with Fraudulent “Ponzi”
Scheme Targeting Elderly
<http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/11/23>

<http://www.greenworld.org.uk/page242/page242.html>

FoEA
<http://www.foe.org.au/resources/publications/climate-justice/FoEA%
20Biochar%20Briefing.pdf>

Charcoal's green image blackened
<http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080501/full/news.2008.791.html>





-- 
________________________________________________

www.puffergas.com

Sent from any port in the storm via  Acer netbook & Ubuntu Remix.