Terra Preta - Dark Soil - Experiment

[SilverSurfer_OG]

High folks

Things ticking along here nicely. Plants starting to pick up their growth rates a bit. Have given them few feeds and topdressed with slow release ferts.

On the left are the Maroc/Afghan, the Big bud on the right with the two remaining Menage a trois still small at the front. They are getting repotted and given a good dose of nutes tomorrow.



The side by side is pretty much even stevens at mo.

These puppies are both in coco with the charcoal mix on the right. There is about a cm in it with the chicken poo in front.



These are in soil with the charcoal amended plant a bit bigger. This of course could be for any number of reasons. But so far so good.



So what have we learned already? Not much, but will mix in a good amount of charcoal with next re-pot and see what happens

 

[jaykush]

im starting to like the look of those Maroc/Afghan.

i like the side by side, looks good for now not much that i can see only a few differences but that could very well be because of genetics. one thing we have learned is that charcoal in the soil doesnt kill your plants, or seem to harm them in any way as of yet.

 

[Smurf]

Very healthy indeed SS, I'm loving the deep veined rippled leaves in those pics.
I swear by those square seedling tubes you're using, nice & deep.
If any of the charcoal plants die I'll be gob smacked,, only because an elderly gentleman taught me in my youth (many moons ago) that charcoal was extremely beneficial for healthy soil/plants i.e. it keeps the soil "sweet" & stops it from going "sour". I have personally never had probs with it, in fact IMO the plants can take more abuse.

I love this type of side by side test grow,,, its always interesting,,, until I stuff up by misplacing the tags etc.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah i am very pleased after the dodgy start...

@Jaykush
I love the look of the Maroc/Afghani too jaykush, looks unlike any plant i have grown so far....

What ratio did you find the charcoal to be most effective in your grows?

I guess lots of people have been mixing charcoal into their compost heaps. I have put a good few shovels of charcoal into mine.

@Smurf
Yeah more punishment indeed

Love those pots too. Want to get a bigger example but cant find any here in Taz...

Do you still use charcoal in your mixes?

 

[jaykush]

What ratio did you find the charcoal to be most effective in your grows?

I guess lots of people have been mixing charcoal into their compost heaps. I have put a good few shovels of charcoal into mine.

actually im doing it a lot different than you. heres what i plan to do.

i mixed a few gallons back hmmm 2-3 weeks ago. each started with a base of castings, soil from outside sterilized in the oven, and perlite.

i am doing 4-5 mixes.
ca= castings ch=charcoal(natural from nature i gathered it up from about 4 different species and mixed equal parts) ach=activated charcoal pe=perlite ss=sterile soil
(these are estimates i do not measure)

1.10%ca/40%ss/20%ch/30%pe
2.10%ca/40%ss/30%ch/20%pe
3.20%ca/30%ss/30%ch/20%pe
4.10%ca/40%ss/30%ach/20%pe

then after a 2 months has gone by i will make another batch. so one will be aged two months. then say another 2 months ill make another, ill have a 2 month, 4 month and a fresh one. this is to see if age has anything to do with it. i might even go longer im not sure yet depends on how much room this is going to take.

after that i will probably start clones to throw out genetic differences.

its a long but patient way of doing things, but the results will show in time. its a side project anyways, way too much breeding, and composting experiments to do.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Excellent jaykush. Very thorough! It will be interesting to see if the age makes a difference.

It has been raining here a fair bit and has kept my charcoal mix nice and moist. I wonder if that will allow beneficial microbes to flourish?

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Update.

Update.

Hello again.

The 4 Reclining Buddahs have just been repotted. Here you can also see the root development. The roots of the coco plants are lookin more healthy and less compact.

From left to right:

1. Coco/perlite/chicken poo
2. Compost/perlite/chicken poo
3. Coco/charcoal/perlite
4. Compost/charcoal/perlite





As you can see the two with charcoal are wee bit smaller... maybe this is due to the awesome power of chicken manure or maybe due to sex/genes or maybe the charcoal just wasnt rich enough??? Lots of variables here...

Anyway i have now gottem in 10litre buckets and have kept the same mixes. This time i have added a good helping of dry ferts to each pot.

 

[ThaiPhoon]

I think they look great. I have one plant that grew in the same pot as one of my small citrus trees. Not sure how it got there, but it is my most healthy specimen. The soil in that pot is about 40% rice husk charcoal the rest is a mixture of local potting soil and some clay earth native to my area. I tried a mixture of 50 50 coco and char a while ago, I believe that failed due to my inexperience with fertilisers and such. I will have another crack at it soon enough. Awesome thread Silver..

Peace

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Thanks ThaiPhoon!

I have been using 1/3 charcoal for my recent mixes and 1/4 charcoal indoors.

This did seem to disagree slightly with my more sativa strains but the indicas were fine.

I would imagine 50% might be too much...

I should also point out that my charcoal mix is actually an equal amount of charcoal, compost and sand.

 

[jaykush]

looking good. this is where clones would have come in handy. to see the slight differences but its all good still a good show. was wondering when you were gonna update this.

 

[ThaiPhoon]

From what I've read here, as well as in other places, mixing the charcoal with things like compost and even soaking it in guano teas or something seems to be the way to go. From my understanding the little microbes like to live in the micro pores of the charcoal...Its gotta be good stuff, it helped to sustain a jungle civilization after all!

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

@jaykush Yeah i reckon will repeat this with clones. I will have some in a week or so.

Going to use more ferts in with the charcoal mixes.

These Reclining Buddahs are hungry suckers!

@Thaiphoon

Yeah my next batch is getting a good soak in some frothy tea

 

[Guest]

Nice.

I have mixed a small batch and begun to play with potted plants.

30% charcoal
70% local organic soil mix (recycled so nutrients should be depleted somewhat)

I have watered with plain water only as I'm also interested in how much growth Tera Preta alone will sustain. I believe the scientists have already proven it's worth as a soil amendment, though I believe it will only really shine once micro flora & fauna are well established - The second crop. This is the same as Aquaponics, once the critters are there doing their job, and good parameters are met, the growth really kicks in.

Observations - Heat Buffered. the pots were not as hot, and clones did not die.

Dry Buffering - Plants that are in conventional soil, when completely dry (very light to pick up) wilt. Plants in Tera Preta beside them, on the same watering schedule, do not wilt, they are also very light, but obviously enough moisture is still retained.

Water Retention - Just pour some water into the mix you'll see what I mean. It holds water better than most soil mixes, but doesn't get 'gluggy'.

Ground Cover - the greenhouse is very hot, within days three potted Tera Preta plants grew a fine moss groundcover on them. This had no apparent detrimental effects at all, just looked really wet as it is a moss, you know, but was a 1mm very fine (brushes away to the touch) groundcover with no bad smell, waterlogging, or anything like that that I could associate with moss.

I have a Tera Preta (TP) pepper and an Aquaponic (AP) Pepper.

Same size when planted in respective 'systems'. Both in Greenhouse.

Size - Tera Preta only just winning (remember this plant gets fed nothing)
Flower set - Tera Preta first to flower.

Both plants still young and quite thin.

 

[Smurf]

good idea for a control there bongsong, specially w/o nutes!,,,, what size (charcoal) particles did you end up going for in your mix?

only reading yesterday how some agricultural farmers down this way are rebuilding their soil by applying lignite (brown coal) to the fields,,, these same farmers have had increases in crop production not seen in 5 yrs,,,, from the testimonials - water retention & increased microbial activity were observed almost immediately.

the first time I ever used the stuff was in my orchid mix, at the time I had no idea why, only doing what I was instructed,,, looking back now its probably one of the best soil amendments I've ever made.

 

[Guest]

Ermm. Particle size of the charcoal ranges from dust to 1". I pulverised it as best I could while wetted down in a soil mix to avoid breathing carbon (I grew up above a coal mine and had athsma for 14 years till we moved away).

I'll definately be using TP more about the place, as time etc allows. Quite interested in making a solar machine to char crop residues, well, very interested.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Good stuff Bongsong!

I have also noticed my recent batch of plants outdoor have been coping well with the current drought. Very nice to notice some immediate benefits!

I have sexed my Buddahs and am happy to report 3 females
The male was in the coco without TP.

You are using unamended charcoal in your mix?

Hey Smurf!

You been using charcoal for your marijuana crops since your orchids?

 

[ThaiPhoon]

One observation I have made about using rice husk charcoal here is that it holds water like a sponge. I was washing some charcoal the other day and was just playing with it in my hands. I squeezed a handful of soaked charcoal and was very surprised at the amount of water that was actually stored in it. I wash the charcoal to get ash and other small floaters out of it. The good charcoal sinks to the bottom, the crap floats and is easily removed. I've got a guava tree in a mixture of local earth and about 40% rice husk charcoal, seems to love it, as does that other citrus tree with that pot plant in it!

I have just germed 9 more of my homemade seeds and I will plant them into a mix of my homebrew compost/bokashi/EWC mix and 30-40% charcoal and see what happens!

Peace

Edit: link www.eprida.com/hydro/ecoss/background/ricehullcharcoal.pdf

 

[jaykush]

well i mixed another batch the other day. some things i noticed were the TP has a lot better soil structure. its light, but still solid. moist but not soaking. seems to hold the perfect amount of water. and has a nice lil film of something growing on top like bongsong said. the others dont not nearly as much. i found soaking the charcoal chunks first. letting them dry till lightly moist, put in a bag and crush. then after run through water to get all that stuff thats not needed. eventually u have 1/8 to 1/4 inch sized particles perfect for amending. and clean to the touch so no charcoal dust everywhere which happened the first time.

 

[Guest]

I've added only charcoal to see if I can estimate when it 'comes right' - being, how long it takes for naturally occuring micro flora/fauna to get established. I'm thinking a few doses of rain and it will be well and truly seeded.

When bacteria are established in Aqua you can tell from - no ammonia - no nitrite, less deficiencies of any kind, robust growth.

In dirt? I'll have to keep observing dirts a learning curve for me here. - I was trained to be a market gardener - you know - kill everything and plant a hybrid on the scorched earth....

 

[konstantgrdnr]

Just a little more info. The first link is to the Terra Peta article, The second link is to the library of articles that Acres has for free. There are some real interesting articles that are worth a good look, especially if your into using soil.

Terra Preta article
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Feb07_TerraPreta.pdf

catalog of articles.
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/articles.htm


Collectively we can start a Johnny chronic seed movement.Show a friend how to grow with a little soil and couple of cfl's.Then that friend shows another friend,and so on and hopefully on and on.