As an aside, the new incarnation of ProMix (BX) potting soil is inoculated. I haven’t tested it against an uninoculated potting soil, but i have been impressed with what i’ve seen so far. And as someone who’s exposed to massive quantities of the stuff (and its dust), i’m thrilled that the potting soil we use no longer carries health warnings due to fungicides.

Thanks again.

*zzzz* …still tired!

Bellow are my collected stories and links that I promiscuously post to anyone who has an iron in this fire.

Thanks for your interest

Cheers,
Erich

the current news and links on Terra Preta (TP) soils and closed-loop pyrolysis of Biomass, this integrated virtuous cycle could sequester 100s of Billions of tons of carbon to the soils.

This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.Terra Preta Soils a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.

UN Climate Change Conference: Biochar present at the Bali Conference

link

SCIAM Article May 15 07;

link

After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.

Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra Preta Carbon Soil Technology.

The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first concrete steps in that direction;

S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007

A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:

Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative

for the 2007 Farm Bill

http://www.ases.org/climatechange/toc/07_biomass.pdf

The organization 25×25 released it’s (first-ever, 55-page )”Action Plan” ; see; link
On page 29 , as one of four foci for recommended RD&D, the plan lists: “The development of biochar, animal agriculture residues and other non-fossil fuel based fertilizers, toward the end of integrating energy production with enhanced soil quality and carbon sequestration.”
and on p 32, recommended as part of an expanded database aspect of infrastructure: “Information on the application of carbon as fertilizer and existing carbon credit trading systems.”

I feel 25×25 is now the premier US advocacy organization for all forms of renewable energy, but way out in front on biomass topics.

There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture and waste stream, all that farm & cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG should be returned to the Soil.

Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.

If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP web site I’ve been drafted to co-administer. http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node

It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who’s back round I don’t know have joined.

Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;

The Honolulu Advertiser: “The nation’s leading manufacturer of charcoal has licensed a University of Hawai’i process for turning green waste into barbecue briquets.”

See: http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/antalkingsford

ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State
link

Glomalin, the recently discovered soil protien, may be the secret to to TP soils productivity;

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm

Mycorrhizae Inoculent;

http://www.mycorrhizae.com/

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) conference held at Terrigal, NSW, Australia in 2007. The papers from this conference are posted at their home page; http://www.biochar-international.org/home.html

Here is my current Terra Preta posting which condenses the most important stories and links;

Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle

Man has been controlling the carbon cycle , and there for the weather, since the invention of agriculture, all be it was as unintentional, as our current airliner contrails are in affecting global dimming. This unintentional warm stability in climate has over 10,000 years, allowed us to develop to the point that now we know what we did,………… and that now……… we are over doing it.

The prehistoric and historic records gives a logical thrust for soil carbon sequestration.
I wonder what the soil biome carbon concentration was REALLY like before the cutting and burning of the world’s forest, my guess is that now we see a severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like no-till and reforestation have started to help rebuild it. It makes implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, a returning of the misplaced carbon to where it belongs.

On the Scale of CO2 remediation:

It is my understanding that atmospheric CO2 stands at 379 PPM, to stabilize the climate we need to reduce it to 350 PPM by the removal of 230 Billion tons of carbon.

The best estimates I’ve found are that the total loss of forest and soil carbon (combined
pre-industrial and industrial) has been about 200-240 billion tons. Of
that, the soils are estimated to account for about 1/3, and the vegetation
the other 2/3.

Since man controls 24 billion tons in his agriculture then it seems we have plenty to work with in sequestering our fossil fuel CO2 emissions as stable charcoal in the soil.

As Dr. Lehmann at Cornell points out, “Closed-Loop Pyrolysis systems such as Dr. Danny Day’s are the only way to make a fuel that is actually carbon negative”. and that ” a strategy combining biochar with biofuels could ultimately offset 9.5 billion tons of carbon per year-an amount equal to the total current fossil fuel emissions! ”

Terra Preta Soils Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X FertilityToo

All the Biochar Companies and equipment manufactures I’ve found:

Carbon Diversion
http://www.carbondiversion.com/

Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4

BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis – Biomass – Clean Energy – Renewable Ene
http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/bestpyrolysis.html

Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy
http://www.dynamotive.com/

Ensyn – Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals
http://www.ensyn.com/who/ensyn.htm

Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
http://www.agri-therm.com/

Advanced BioRefinery Inc.
http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/

Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17298/

3R Environmental Technologies Ltd. (Edward Someus)
WEB: http://www.terrenum.net/

The company has Swedish origin and developing/designing medium and large scale carbonization units. The company is the licensor and technology provider to NviroClean Tech Ltd British American organization WEB: http://www.nvirocleantech.com and VERTUS Ltd.
http://www.vertustechnologies.com
Genesis Industries, licensee of Eprida technology, provides carbon-negative EPRIDA energy machines at the same cost as going direct to Eprida. Our technical support staff also provide information to obtain the best use of biochar produced by the machine. Recent research has shown that EPRIDA charcoal (biochar) increases plant productivity as it sequesters carbon in soil, thus reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

http://www.egenindustries.com/

If pre-Columbian Kayopo Indians could produce these soils up to 6 feet deep over 15% of the Amazon basin using “Slash & CHAR” verses “Slash & Burn”, it seems that our energy and agricultural industries could also product them at scale.

Harnessing the work of this vast number of microbes and fungi changes the whole equation of energy return over energy input (EROEI) for food and Bio fuels. I see this as the only sustainable agricultural strategy if we no longer have cheap fossil fuels for fertilizer.

We need this super community of wee beasties to work in concert with us by populating them into their proper Soil horizon Carbon Condos.

Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar@aol.com

If you now feel bad about buying fertilizer, you can always pee in a jar and save it for a while. The ammonia converts to nitrogen. Recent tests with aged urine show amazing results. If that’s a little too extreme for you, worm castings are a great source of nitrogen for garden soil.

I’m all for organic gardening. Most of what i grow is grown organically. But like “global heating” or “climate change” wording can create problems…especially when the government is in charge of defining the words. For example. If you buy imported, organic asparagus from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, it was shipped through Miami. Every box of asparagus going through Miami is fumigated with a fungicide. Is it still organic?

And organic ties a growers hands. I spend most of my summer advising people how to care for their yards,/grow things. I always recommend the most organic method first (eg. Neem oil for a bug problem). But there are times when those solutions don’t cut it. Do you adhere to the principle of “organic” and watch your garden disappear, or do you do what you have to do to keep it?

I think that our focus needs to be on small, diversified, and local growing…rather than organic. Those types of growers will almost always choose more organic methods, because they are almost always cheaper. The small holder will also be able to keep closer tabs on insect/disease problems. The massive amount of pesticides used (it is improving because it’s too expensive) on huge farms is not because there are so many pests, but because it’s hard to catch an outbreak early on thousands of acres. So the farmers wage preventative war.

Oops, sorry for the tome. Maybe we should start calling global heating “human suicide”; that’s what it really is, after all. There wouldn’t be any fudging that phrase.

Besides, the difference between 40C and 45C (104F and 113F) is more than merely “warmer” – it’s hotter.

He was a little confused. His point was that Global Heating as a phrase seems to be dropping off and is now being replaced with the phrase Climate Change. Climate Change he said was nothing new and that the earth has been cooling and heating and changing all by itself for ages. He thinks that a sleight of hand may be showing itself in the cards dealt at the public table.

I pointed him in the direction of S & R.

Excellent information, as ever.

I am just as concerned about how this leveling might dissuade the public from dealing with warming. I can just see the conservative pundants in the next couple of years saying that climate change was “just a fad”.

The reports are based on the first ever, VERY preliminary short-term predictive climate model. As such, there’s a lot of unknowns about it. But an NCAR scientist interviewed for the NYTimes article pointed out something that’s vitally important – a short term flat (or even very gradually declining) trend over the next few years doesn’t negate a long term trend towards increased heating. If the cooling trend becomes long-term, THAT’s a big deal, but it’ll takes decades to confirm such a long-term trend, just as it’s taken decades to confirm a long term heating trend.

One other thing to keep in mind – if ocean currents are going to keep the planet’s atmosphere cooler for the next few years, that means that the oceans will be absorbing the extra heat. Similarly, that will probably reduce the rate of increase in carbon dioxide emissions (cold water can hold more dissolved gases than hot water). And the likely results of more CO2 and more heat in the water will be faster sea level rise and a rapid increase in ocean acidity.

How’s that for tradeoffs?

I thought you’d find this interesting Brian: The Telegraph is reporting that “Global warming will stop until at least 2015 because of natural variations in the climate.” I’d be interested in your take on that.

Organic growing is, at its root, more about soil building than plant growing. Good organic is difficult to achieve because it takes an average of four years to build the soil. And as you pointed out, our current soil issues will only be excerbated by climate changes (and excerbate the climate changes in a feedback loop).

GMO’s are not inherently bad (though they may be inherently dangerous). The issue is to what end they are developed. When recently confronted with studies by two major, agricultural universities that showed Bt Soya crops to produce yields of 6-11% below traditional Soya, DP&L (Monsanto) countered that they hadn’t been developing the crops for higher yields. Funny, their advertising always claims higher yields. But it’s true. GMO research has mostly been either to make the plant itself a pesticide or increase tolerance to pesticides/herbicides/fungicides. In other words, allow the farmer to spend more money on the products sold by the companies that pay for the GMO research. Why would Monsanto want to produce higher yielding seeds? It goes against their economic interest. Higher yielding seeds mean that the farmer A. might not need so much seed (and tertiary products) and B. might deflate prices all along the vertically integrated industrial food chain.

(Note: The highest yields for the GMO Soya came from adding Manganese. And while we fight fungi tooth and nail, they are actually integral to soil health. Unfortunately, any genetic engineering to increase yields won’t be available overnight; futhermore, many of the seed strains that would be used are now patented by Monsanto.)

Feed yourself and the rest will follow.

Dirt is eroding globally, but researchers are working to save or replace it; genetically engineered organic foods, anyone?; Vulcan provides an example of why it’ll be hard to reduce US CO2 emissions; NOAA reports CO2 and methane concentrations still r…