-from ==> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta


i'm very intrigued by this and there seems to be a good amount of growing literature/awareness out there on the subject, but i have as yet to see/find anything directly related to mj growth and the use of charcoal as a soil amendment...
'anybody have any experience with this? benefits? detriments? advice?
i'm going to be giving it a go in my next grow, substituting the charcoal in for a portion of my regular amount of perlite, giving a final perlite-charcoal ratio of 3:1 (this gives me a total of c16% charcoal in my soil mix)...
this seems to be in line (on the low side) with the normative range apparently found in terra preta:



(see here for source and further non-mj specific discussion ==> http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/...428251066.html )


your thoughts, all?


cheers
-g

keep us up to date and lets see how that works for ya
good luck

colonies of mychorizal fungi are an important component of terra pretta,

you can get such a product from general hydroponics.

__________________
It's a War on War

indeed! (as they are of any grow medium...)

i think that the idea here (or at least one of them) with terra preta is that mychorrizal development is significantly enhanced by anthropogenic soil composition...

"Amending the soil with low temperature charcoal produced from a mix of wood and leafy biomass (termed biochar) has been observed to increase the activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi"
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta ]

&

"To maintain the mycorrhizal fungal structures, around 20 % of the assimilated carbon from the plant is translocated to the fungal symbiont in both arbuscular- and ectomycorrhizal associations."
[ http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/buckingresearch ]

BMO's SPT (potent stuff!) gives a great rhizospheric boost, and blackstrap of course works wonderfully to feed those little microbeasties, so i readily anticipate the C from the charcoal, aside from its "sweetening" effect, being a real manna from heaven for the microbes.

'also picked up some anasazi pottery shards to incorporate into the soil mixtures for the paramagnetism effect ( http://www.amazon.com/Paramagnetism-.../dp/0911311491 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramagnetism )... 'apparently a contentious aspect to actual in situ terra preta sites, but i'd hate to think i was omitting anything... voodoo? perhaps. though i've seen some conjecture that the shards provide a sort of 'housing' that promotes mychorrizal "colonies"/development, as well as being a porous soil buffer, etc...
[edit: also "the pottery is helping to regulate phosphorous, since P doesn't seem to be bound by the microbial community, and because analysis of fragments in ancient ADE seem to show high levels of it" ==> http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/3451-terra-preta-parent-thread-started-all-8.html#post105478 ; see also ==> http://hypography.com/forums/terra-p...ml#post105728]

anyhoo, 'waiting to harvest my present grow (arjan's ultra haze #1... bloody long flowering sativa), but then it will be an AUH1 clone, a bluecheese clone, and a couple of subcool's 'the void' beans going into some 'terra preta' in me veg chamber.

so, any thoughts anyone on the proportions of charcoal i mentioned in the first post? 'suppose if i were really being scientific i'd do this with the same strain in varying proportions of charcoal to soil mix, but alas i'm a stealth grower and space is at a premium [!]. maybe in the subsequent run (though it'd mean losing my mothers for whatever strains i'd opt not to grow)...

'would love to hear of others experience though!
(and in the meantime will report back, when all's up and runnning, on my own... 'hell, maybe i'll even get off my lazy ass and do a grow journal for it.)

cheers
-g


[edit: abstract of study on ABE pottery shard usage

[ http://hypography.com/forums/terra-p...tml#post107009 ] ]

here are some further links

(forum devoted to terra preta) ==> http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/

(IC terra preta grow thread... 'lots of good info here. 'still need to wade through it all) ==> http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=73866&page=3

cheers
-g

i found this statement on terra preta to be quite inspirational:

[ http://hypography.com/forums/terra-p...tml#post105730 ]

so here's the soil mix ratio set i'm coming around to for my initial "terra preta" grow experiment... 'comments/observations welcome!:

8 perlite : 4 biochar : 8 OceanForest : 4 HappyFrog : .125 dolomite : .5 wormcastings for veg, or .5 bonemeal for flwr : +pottery shards : +2-3 live worms per pot

this all gets a pre-flush/soak solution of (per gal H2O) 2TBL SPT + 1TBL blackstrap + 2TBL Olivia'sCloningSolution + 1TBL Mg (pH corrected with CA(OH)2 / apple cider vinegar, and bubble-aerated for 24hrs)

'still figuring out additional (if any) microbial inoculants to employ (aside from the SPT)... GeneralHydroponics' Subculture M&B (thanks Treeth for the pointer!) are a definite possibility, though i'm researching ('budding amateur microbiology-enthusiast here... 'have microscope, will study!) the cultivation of my own colonies and serums rather than going with a commercial product... 'might just be easier (though less fun) to go with a pre-made inoculant though.
as well, might it be overkill to use SPT in addition to other rhizospheric inoculants? can one have too many microbeasties??

cheers
-g

edit: here's a good article on "Mycorrhizal responses to biochar in soil" ==> http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/l...%20Warnock.pdf

my beans (subcool's the void, barney's farm blue cheese, and arjan's ultra haze #1) went into germ yesterday (11/1), so the ball is rolling here...

'will be making use of some biodynamic compost in the regime as well, so i'm eagerly looking forward to observing the microherd at work and the productive fruits of its labors!

cheers
-g

I want updates god damnit!

not too much to report...

the seedlings were successfully transplanted from their germination peat-pots to 1gals with the terra preta proper this morning (following Maria Thun's sidereal BD calendar); so now the waiting begins and we'll see how they take to the soil...

the final soil mixture i prepared last week (for four 1gals) was:

16 cups perlite
8 cups charcoal (biochar)
16 cups FF Ocean Forest
8 cups FF Happy Frog
4 TBL dolomite
4 TBL paramagnetic igneous rock dust
1 cup worm castings
1 cup BD compost
c2 cups pottery shards (varying sizes, but none 'too' big)

this all then received an inoculant solution (24hrs vortex aerated) of:

1 gal H2O
2 TBL BMO SPT
1 TBL lacto bacillus
1 tsp GH subcultureB
1 tsp GH subcultureM
1 TBL blackstrap
1 TBL Mg (epsom salts)

and that's the latest.

the next 'major' operation will be the first topping at the 4th node (this is a height restricted 'stealth' grow; first node development had already got off to a good start while still in the germination peat-pots), that and the beginning of feeding ('using BMO's tea preps in coordination with BD compost tea) beginning circa week 3.

'will get some photos up when there's something worth looking at...



cheers
-g