I was watching the National Geographic channel last night, and came across a documentary called "The Lost Villages of the Amazon". Apparently, the Spanish Conquistadores describe seeing large villages with large populations of indigenous Indians, and large "gleaming white" buildings during the exploration of the amazon.
The problem is that to date, there had been no evidence of large populations of indigenous peoples anywhere in the amazon basin (IE: large monumental block buildings/ruins) And to further stymie researchers, they found that the soil of the amazon basin is way too acidic to support the kind of agriculture necessary to support a large population.
While excavating sites that were suitable for a large scale population, they discovered localized deposits (50 to 100 acres per site) of what the locals describe as "Terra Preta" (Dark Earth). It has been described as quite possibly the most fertile soil anywhere on the planet, and it does not occur naturally. It was produced by the Indians.
The main component in this soil (That we cannot duplicate exactly yet) is charcoal. This is SOMEWHAT along the same theory as "slash and burn", where the vegetation is burned, then plowed under to enrich the soil. And it is very enriched. Slash and burn is a very widely used technique in South America, the down side it the relatively rapid destruction of rain forest.

Here are a couple of links that I have found so far:

Terra preta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.geo.uni-bayreuth.de/boden...eta/index.html
Terra Preta home

(I know, I cited wiki. But the other link is from Cornell University, and bolsters the wiki definition)

I found this extremely interesting, and of course my first thought was to share this tidbit, and maybe get a discussion going about it's possible replication, or at the very least, a discussion on the merits of fine activated carbon in soil. This COULD be a huge boon to both indoor and outdoor growers.
Has anyone else ever heard of this? I wanna hear all comments about this.

TLP

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You can lead a Horticulture....But you can't make her think!!!!

Another link, this one with a "recipe" for terra preta and also many other interesting organic gowing techniques. None are specifically geared to cannabis, but hey...................

OpEdNews » Making Terra Preta Soil: Ramona's Recipe for Home-Made Dirt

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You can lead a Horticulture....But you can't make her think!!!!

Yes, I have heard of this. Been doing a great deal of reading up on how I might make my own terra preta. And, you found what I would have linked. There are others who say they don't like how she did it and they've been experimenting for a while with it, see excellent results with as little as 5% char added.

Oh yeah, I was watching the show last night, too. I'd read of the archaeological research a few times in the past few years, but it was more focused on the peoples than the terra preta.

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It's amazing how this "hobby" changes ones priorities. I am avid about anthropology and archeology, yet when they mentioned the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Terra Preta, thats all I could hear!!!

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You can lead a Horticulture....But you can't make her think!!!!

Are you? I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a kid, and took some classes in college. But, back then the only reliable income for an archy was government grants and I wanted a better income than that and for some fucked up reason went into graphic design. Then I went and got knocked up and decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

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WTF?? There are alot of references in Google, but most are dead links? Anyone else find some good links, please post them.

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You can lead a Horticulture....But you can't make her think!!!!