I worked for a marine protection charity in Vanuatu. We were asked to investigate why their coral reefs were dying. Four years prior, a group of Australian Christians (with a big C) had visited this particular island (there are over 700 in the state) and were horrified to see that they were still using composting toilets and not 'proper' flushing toilets like 'civilised' people used. They had donated over AUS$200,000 to install a water pipe for a reservoir in the centre of the island and water closets in most homes. The funds did not stretch as far as a sewage treatment plant, so they did what all 'civilised' people do in an otherwise pristine environment; they let it run into the waterways and into the sea. The net effects of this 'civilisation'? As follows: - They started having water shortages for the first time in living memory - They were producing 25% less crops because they didn't have the fertiliser produced by the composting - They suffered their first attack of cholera ever recorded - The effluent flowing into the water was causing algae blooms that had killed 90% of the coral reefs and destroyed the fish population. - They had to trek 20 miles to the other side of the island and back to get enough fish to survive The islanders had already reverted to composting toilets to cure some of the items above, but it will take over twenty years for the corals to return to a vague resemblance of what they were before. 'Do-gooders' should think VERY hard before interfering with a symbiotic relationship that has grown up over hundreds, if not thousands of years.
When they baptised converts in the sea after the new missionary infrastructure had been installed, they didn't have to be so careful about the ceremonies they used, they just went through the motions.
I have been using biochar for a few years now instead of Vermicolite and Perlite in my potting mix , It is recommended you inoculate it before use. So to do that i mix 50% by volume with fresh Grass cuttings and Leave to sit in a cool place for a Few months, This Helps add beneficial bacteria, I then add this to my home made poting mix No chemicals or fertilizers added
@@dianapennepacker6854mainly in the soil, though there's some associated with grass roots But that would mean digging up the grass instead of simply mowing it. They could add a bit of soil with roots in it, just to start with.
Footnote to story of Terra Preta: “When the Conquistador Francisco de Orellana entered the remote Rio Negro region of the Amazon basin in 1542, he was searching for one thing -- a city of gold. Though he never found gold, he did find what is now believed to be the lost city of El Dorado (and something perhaps even more valuable for us today). Wide causeways running in perfectly straight lines for lengths of 50 miles or more across huge engineered agricultural landscapes, connecting cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands. This is what Orellana reported upon his return to Spain. But subsequent explorers could never find the legendary agrarian metropolis, and most dismissed his claims as fantasy.” The reason that they couldn’t find the agrarian civilization is that Orellana’s troupe had exposed these people to the same diseases that had decimated the other pre-Colombian civilizations. In short, they were mostly gone when later explorers came looking for them. “Even modern anthropologists dismissed the El Dorado legend for one good reason -- soil fertility, or lack thereof. The Amazon basis is notorious for its highly eroded and infertile soils, and until very recently it was impossible to consider that this soil could support such a large and extensive population. But the Lost City also contained a lost secret. A discovery that proved Orellana right”- Biochar aka Terra Preta.
Living in the tropics I have spent several years trying to transform degraded rice fields into productive land. Thai's have the same word "Din Dam"= Black Earth for productive soil and it has required the addition of significant amounts of organic material to get the process started. I have planted Teak and Mahogany for shade, then fruit trees and finally vegetables. I use solar drip irrigation to extend the growing season when the rains have stopped.
@Echo - Try this . (1) get some plastic dustbins with lids , half fill with water. (2) add ( per bin ) 1x carton natural live Greek yogurt + 1 can black molasses. (3) all organic mater - veg , fruit anything except animal manure . (4) after 2 months use fertiliser 1 part fertiliser to 10 parts water and use once per week. (5) remember to allow gasses to escape now and then. Collect egg shells and dry them , put them in the blender ( it will sharpen the blades ) and sprinkle the eggshell powder wherever needed . After a few short months you will see a massive improvement. You could also try banana skin tea ? Save up banana skins and put in a fresh plastic bucket with water - leave for 6 months and again 1 part banana tea to 10 parts water . Try not to use too much animal manure as you can destroy the roots . Happy growing 👍
@@caspians582 but unless you are making it somehow with renewables you are just making a bunch of co2 making...... it does appear to play a part in soil hydolics, may provide space for some soluble nutrients, but really isn't microbe friendly.... in will remain undisturbed in a hot compost, and does not inhibit that process....yet here's the big problem....biochar must, must be washed well, and the pollutants in that water are a big issue.... other issues outside of water use and pollution is dust... anyhow
@@curiousbystander9193 interesting point of view with the by product pollutants! I disagree about it being an unfriendly place for microbes and that it couldn’t store nutrition. As it has a high cation exchange capacity (sites that can hold a charged particle ie:nutrients) you can charge (soak) it with an organic liquid fertiliser and then inoculate with whatever species you’re aiming for! I’ve never seen any papers say biochar is antimicrobial if preped properly? Curious as to what toxins come out in the water? I’ve heard of concern about carcinogens?
@@caspians582 i said it should hold some soluble nutrients... but again, it does not support microbes...... or the carbon filters on all those water filters would yield continual problems with getting people sick, and they do not....... try yourself on your counter or compost... the higher the percentage of biochar the less miicrobial activity.. although as I have tested... 3-5% in a compost mix will not inhibit the composting of organic matter......whether much of anything gets in the biochar pores, hard tellin.... but again, it does have hydraulic capaciity. not sure what toxins are in the water, but appear to be some sort of gases, plus real fine char and ash.... if I pop the top off the retort cooker inside the main cooker I get blasted with the most ungodly gas, quite wicked.... properly cooked char should have pretty much no smell... but even properly cooked char yields nasty looking water until the char is washed good..... then it's so clear you could drink it, but not without pretty thorough washing... just can't imagine this is good for the earth from a manufacturing point of view, unless someone has millions to do it right.
bob townsend's comment just below says it perfectly for me. "How heartening to hear of at least a little forward progress for nature and biodiversity. My Sunday just got a whole lot better" Thank you Bob and the Just have a think team. This was really refreshing.
This is great news. The only additional thing I would emphasize is that there’s too much emphasis on trees and not enough on everything else. A healthy ecosystem has a large diversity of native trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, groundcovers, vines, fungi, mosses, lichens, etc. Some ecosystems have no trees at all. It’s all about what belongs there.
In areas of deforestation, trees are important. In certain areas of semidesert, trees can help reclaim water cycles and get dry creeks flowing. Groups like Ecosia work with local farmers to improve the land & grazing conditions with trees. Mossy Earth has a video showing how a small creek in England needs more tree cover & less animal impact, but also not too much tree cover. Good rewilding organizations put trees to best use. What I get skeptical of are companies selling "carbon credits" on forestland that is already protected.
@@RogerIElliott Plants are primary producers which capture energy from the sun and convert it into food. Everything else eats plants or eats something that eats plants. Insects and wildlife can only survive if diverse communities of plants are present. Animals are important yes but they wouldn’t survive without the plants first. If you put the correct plants native to an area in place, everything else will eventually arrive in it’s own.
Biochar is always a good idea, not just because it improves the soil by giving all the micro-critters somewhere to live but also because every kg of biochar in the ground is almost 4 kg of carbon dioxide not released into the air.
Terra preta is wonderful stuff. One thing you didn't mention is that it slowly regenerates itself, so those pots with a 20% Amazonian mix would slowly have more terra preta in them over time, until it finally reached 100%. The regeneration rate is too slow to effect their experiment, but in the wild it would help other trees nearby as the soil quality gradually increased. Also, I wouldn't say that planting a monoculture would do more harm than good. It doesn't help the local flora and fauna as much as a more diverse group of trees would, but it's still better than no trees at all. The key is to get back into those forests years later and plant more natural species to grow among the monoculture. You can gradually increase the quality of a forest over time by continuously planting new kinds of trees and shrubs.
@@curiousbystander9193 It's not the *carbon* that regenerates itself. The most interesting thing about terra preta is that it creates habitat for a microbial culture that actually continues sequestering carbon. That's how the soil literally "grows". They've recording 1cm soil growth a year in sites with classic terra preta. This isn't a mere chemistry experiment. It's a microbiology exercise, and that's what makes way for a more complex ecology to follow.
@@abstractedaway bullshsugar, show me one study showing microbes like living in biochar..... I never said anything about carbon regenerating itself....
@@curiousbystander9193 That's because there's more to Terra Preta than the biochar it contains. th-cam.com/video/aT2ji_tdHG0/w-d-xo.html "high concentration of charcoal, microbial life and organic matter. The combination accumulates nutrients, minerals and microorganisms and withstands leaching... It is reported to regenerate itself at the rate of 1 centimeter (0.4 in) per year", says Wikipedia, but this was also known decades ago by experts on the subject.
If you want dark soils that are stable humus is an incredibly complex compound which takes a long time to create, but it sticks around for quite a long time after. Since what I do for work now is primarily gardening and working on testing techniques of permaculture, biochar, worm composting and how that can work in a minimal gardening system (where as little inputs as possible are used to make a difference) I can verify that using materials similar to Terra Preta is a great improvement to poorer soils. However, (yes, there's that word), it is critical to remember that if you add things to the dirt which make it darker you are now absorbing more heat from the sun so it must be kept covered and growing and not allowed to dry out and blow around (because yet another problem with blowing bits of dark stuff around is that it will melt your glaciers and snow pack faster). So do remember that decreasing albedo is not a good idea, we're already doing too much of that already by melting the polar ice... This is a link to some notes I took on these topics years ago and they may be of interest to people just starting out with this sort of area of research. The notes haven't been updated much in recent years but that is because I got sidetracked into water issues and that has also been pretty interesting. :) www.anthive.com/project/notes/ As another topic in the future I'm pretty sure that current techniques of waste management will be seen to be very much wrong in several ways. For one is the large amount of water that is being used to deal with much less (human and animal) waste, so we're using water to move the waste, but water is heavy so that makes it expensive to pump and keep up all those pipes, pumps and then at the other end a water cleaning plant. And really also to think about is that clean water is precious and we should not be using it in such a manner. So all those nutrients are going to waste, all the fertilizers, stuff that comes out the other end, it should not be mingled with industrial wastes and it should also be safely composted, but otherwise it is not a hazard (read about composting human and other animal wastes). So where does that lead us? To a smaller and more self-sustaining system where you can reuse waste water if you don't pollute it with certain metals and other hazards, but gray water systems can be used to do a lot locally instead of transporting it via pipes for many miles to an expensive waste treatment plant only then to have to pump the water back so it can be reused. As there is less and less clean water available in the world the methods will have to change. Worms do a wonderful job of recharging garden soils. Instead of only using compost worms you can add a little garden dirt and humus from mostly digested wood chips to your worm buckets and then as the worms are breaking down and digesting your food and paper scraps you can also have them recharging some garden soil and creating something that is pretty close to Terra Preta. I've been doing this for 13 years now and I can verify that when you bury this material in a garden it will persist for several years and what I do is then rotate plant so that the benefit is spread among several years of crops. In combination with minimal tilling it is very efficient in how much work I need to do. Planting the tomatoes, onions and certain peppers first, squash and melons can go first or second year, green peppers and the lesser demanding crops can go second or third year, grasses or other fodder crops can go later, garlic, etc. It is a nice system and I don't use any other fertilizers (if you have very sandy soil make sure to add some clay to help hold water and nutrients along with your worm compost or other composts). Here are my links to worms and interesting worm composting things I've found out through the years: www.anthive.com/project/worms/ www.anthive.com/project/taters/
An exceptionally comprehensive response, well done! I'm with you all the way, your approach has to be the answer and, in my opinion, everyone needs to be involved. The most frustrating part of Dave's video here, is that he describes the beautiful Amazonian soil created as part of a living system, before going on to discuss tree planting numbers and crude monetary figures. It seems that most people feel that the answer still lies in segregation between man and nature, so long as we plant some trees over there we can continue to live "normally" here. The important point about your experiments, and permaculture more generally, is that they are systems for living, and the knowledge required exists within the living of that system. It has to be everyone. We can no longer outsource our basic human needs to far away water treatment facilities and supermarkets. We need to design our towns, cities and villages around these needs and everyone must play their part. As a fellow permaculturist, I'm well aware that once these systems are designed, the maintenance is extremely manageable (and enjoyable), and results in less outgoings for those basic needs (thus less time required working all else being equal). It's a permaculture revolution we really need, and I don't think it needed scientists studying Amazonian soil to understand that, it's an Amazonian way of life that is the more critical.
@@ricos1497 No, you need to scientifically prove different hypothesis, and economically justify that expense will yield results ! Also, Dave's focus was equally divided between holistic biodiversity and economic proof (both are vital to success). Now go take a bath you dirty hippie ! (lol, kidding... ~I agree with you, generally.. ; )
@@dc37009 but we don't scientifically prove different hypothesis and economically justify anything we do. We created an economic system based on the ridiculous concept of economic growth (itself, obviously, not subjected to any scientific proof, because it's stupid). We then fitted methods of production and living systems to that economic model, cherry picking bits of science along the way to justify. For example, we transformed agriculture with synthetic fertiliser because it suited the economic model. It cheated, by inserting fossil fuels into a natural process and allowed us to centralise production of fertiliser and sell it back to helpless (or hapless) farmers, all the while lobbying governments and modifying agricultural education to institutionalise the new way. The haber-bosch was a beautiful piece of chemical engineering, no doubt, but none of the ethical questions around monocropping, soil destruction and finite fossil fuels (and their CO2 output) were ever subjected to scientific justification before adopting the technology. The result is that we have a living system, backed by science and economics, that does not operate sustainably in any given location on earth. Repeat that back to yourself and really think about that. None of our cities, on the entire planet, can be sustained. It's staggering. We've designed a system where all evidence shows that it doesn't work, yet science isn't preventing that, or even slowing it. The system can probably be justified economically (with a lot of money printing, which is fine), but all that shows is that the measurements which we use to measure our economic system have no translation, or use, in the actual real world. I think you're right that the scientific method is extremely important (no good permculture student would adopt methods without trials for the most part), but history shows that it people use that tool as they see fit, and that economics drives science first and foremost, thus it is largely useless as a driver in its own right. Economic justification for changing a living system is a terrible idea, the economic system should always follow the design of living and never the other way round - because it's just a man made set of games and rules - which is precisely why we're in the mess we're in.
@@ricos1497 Of course ! That's all true...Nice history...I told you I agreed with you (mostly). The last step is transparency and accountability ! The mainlining of AI is going to be quite a shock for Mob-Establishment types ! ~Go Gaia ; )
@@dc37009 yes, AI is an interesting proposition. For me, everything points toward us being too immature (as a society as a whole rather than individually) to put such technology to use. The fact is that we already have everything we need, we already have the means to live in abundance, freedom and with meaning. We choose not to (collectively, I mean). Given that we've never had the maturity or ability within our systems to use patience and offer forums to discuss the implementation of technology, I don't see that changing. My own thoughts are that AI will never see the light of day. Existing LLMs will turn out to be so pernicious and all consuming that they render the internet completely unusable as nobody will be able to tell what's real or not. I imagine small businesses getting 800 requests for their services everyday from spoof AI accounts, to the point where the real customers are indiscernible. Extrapolated across every social media and every online interaction, to the point where nobody knows what's real or not.
Regenerative farming is as old as human time. However renewed interest is growing at a rate of speed here in Oz. We have a number of farmers in our area using a mix of biochar and cyclical stock grazing (and associated droppings) to enrich degraded land with incredible results over 5-7 years. Diversity of methods and crop types seems to have the best results for encouraging microorganisms and carbon retention. Some of our farmers and soil scientists have been instrumental in showing and working with monoculture farmers in the USA and beyond to show the benefits including massive cost saving in adding chemical fertiliser to maintain crop yield. We have a soil crisis in Australia- where tonnes of soil gets blown away each year because of our ploughing and bare soil farming methods. You’re absolutely right in that we need to improve the way our factory farms manage their land. I see reports of interest from large farming/ food interests in the USA but I remain sceptical as to whether that is really just greenwashing. I’ve also heard estimates that increasing soil carbon retention not only results in healthier and increased crop yields but that an increase of just 5% of carbon retention annually would match Australia’s carbon pollution output, rendering us carbon neutral overall. I’d have to fact check that. It also puts paid to the view that running grazing stock (intelligently) is bad for soil health. Quite the opposite. I was planning on running a couple of podcasts myself on the topic of sustainable farming and in particular (for us town folk) how we can do that from farm practice to plate, humanely - particularly in the prospect of lab-grown meat and whether that is in fact the answer, or just another way to line certain interests pockets in this day and age. There may be a place for both. It isn’t hard to find links to these Australian stories and regenerative scientists and evangelists, but if you’d like a hand, message me (I’m on your patreon). Happy to participate
Deforested areas may also be restored with movable solar systems grazed by sheep or middle-size cattle for several years until young trees are solid and mature to grow. Then move the solar system to other areas and apply the same process. Sheep manure is one of the best for being richer in nutrients but also for a higher rate of methane emissions.
There is a topically adjacent study you should be aware of. Amazonian dark earth can be thought of as a sort of enhanced compost. In Marin county of California, there is this carbon farming initiative called the Marin Carbon Project (MCP), headed by John Wick (not the movie assassin). The MCP spread 1/2" of compost over range land, and found that over the next 5 years, the carbon levels in the soil kept increasing with no additional intervention. And more recently, at the 15 year mark, a follow-up study found that the carbon levels had kept increasing even after the 5 year mark. The added compost stimulated the plant life in that soil such that the soil kept on taking in more and more carbon. Since plants are the only things in the terrestrial ecosystem that draw down and fix carbon, the carbon in the soil necessarily comes from carbon drawn down by plants and exuded into the soil. Increased soil carbon levels necessarily entail stronger plant growth for this reason. Amazonian dark earth has a unique microbiome that is specific to its climate and its ecosystem. I don't think transplanting that soil to other places is necessarily a good idea; it could introduce invasive species and microbes that are not appropriate for other ecosystems. But if compost can be locally produced, especially if it is enhanced with biochar during the composting process, I think this material may be able to leverage the "negative priming" effect observed by the Marin Carbon Project. This way, the initial input of carbon can trigger forces of nature to continue to store more and more carbon without any intervention on the part of us humans.
but I am suspect as to whether biochar adds to this c02 sequestration process given microbes literally hate it... may be part of a healthy soil hydrolics and capturing some soluble nutrients... but unless you can make it with low co2 to make your heat and can wash your biochar... I'd say, leave it alone......unless you have millions for an electric solution and water filtration solution..... cause you need a lot of water to wash that stuff and can't just discharge the water.....anyhow....
That's amazing! We need something like that here in the Central Valley. Reinventing the land for monoculture farming has done a number. However, as Tulare Lake had shown us, Nature will do what she does.
@@curiousbystander9193 I’ve farmed for my entire life. Working mostly with heavy clay soils. Some sandy loam and some peaty meadowlands. You’re quite right that some soils respond well to being heavily worked, and plowing in a green manure crop works well in the clay. However my comment was specific to the retaining of the carbon content in the black soils, and when you break them up you release a lot of carbon into the atmosphere.
I think Steve Irwin is smiling at us from above. Breakthroughs like this really solidify the fact that humanity can overcome its failings. it's still an uphill battle, but it is doable and worth the toil and struggle. Thank you so much for making this video!!!!
At least we can try and 'slow' climate change at this point, even if we're not going to turn it around in our lifetime. We have to keep thinking of all these little kiddies around us who are, one day, going to grow up and ask us why we didn't do enough to save the planet we put them in - especially when they learn we were warned and warned time and again by real experts, and yet 'still' we 'let' most of our governments do next to nothing while allowing the deniers scream their 'myths and falsehoods' on media. That GlobalForestWatch map is truly disappointing, when you think of the number of countries that attended summits, put pen to paper, made pledges, made speeches, and have come up well and truly short of expectations. Glad I live in one of the 'blue' countries - but most of Western Europe is really, really failing and my own country can still do a lot better.
This is not a “breakthrough” it’s been known for a long time but it takes actual time and effort from pile of people to utilize it. Unfortunately most spend their time in the mall or Disneyland and don’t want dirt under their nails.
Gabe Brown is farming using a no till and a continuous ground cover method, along with being organic. he has some great videos on here showing how is land hold water in the dry time and just how much more nutritional his food is, something we can all practice on our own garden. Hew Richards is another great source for organic gardening and jeez his stuff looks amazing.
Agreed, I've been instituting Permaculture methodologies for over six months now (in NE Thailand); no-till, compost and mulch. Hugely better for my back and the results above and below ground are almost miraculous. As a prime example one lime bush has produced about fifty fruits this season compared to little more than a handful of so in previous seasons - just through application of well matured compost (the inoculant) and mulch (soil protector and food for the microbes). We've picked about 20 of the fruit and in the last week or so a smattering of more flowers have bloomed. Healthy or what? And at no point have I even needed to consider chemical fertilisers or pesticides of any sort. It's a win-win sum gain and I'm now working to extend the treatment to all fifty (approx.) fruit trees on our home-stay resort gardens (c.2 hectares).
(Very) former forester here: a "climax" forest refers to the observations that forests progress through a series of species compositions, each building upon the "preparations" of the prior one, until a stable mix of species results. This "end mix" of species is known as a "climax" forest. Typically, old-growth forests are "climax" forests.
Exactly this. What you want to do is study the progression of the ecosystem in stages - say, from meadow to early growth forest to mid to climax. If you manage this well, you can accelerate the growth to "climax" to where 50 years of unattended growth can be matched in 15.
Very important points . Reforestation and transitioning to compost growing is critical, we don't give it enough attention. I'm hoping to starty as vertical garden and eat from it instead of grocery stores. Starting with spouts and then microgreens , then moving up to vegetavles, dwarf fruit and nut trees , indoor in the desert of Nevada. Anywhere on Earth is far easier than anywhere in Space, as the space colonizers are hot for.
First time I heard of Amazon soil, but, just for fun. To witness this practice I would urge you guys to check out Charles Dowding, the Father of no dig gardening. Nature knows best. Really enjoyed this episode ❤
I'd agree, no dig is the way forward. I've been watching Charles Dowding for a few years. Compost feeds the soil, which feeds stronger/healthier plants and yields 20-30% more crop. Somewhere along the line we have forgotten what nature does and instead we've used man made chemicals in it place.
Terra Preta has been recognised for decades. I looked this up long ago. There's documentaries on it along with studies. This was developed by the local ancient civilization. Charcoal & dirt mix. They transformed huge swaths of moderately to low fertile land into high yield land. The extent of it was incredible. They built a thriving civilization. Then they disappeared and forests grew but the soil is still great.
@@szymonbaranowski8184 deforestation, the cut down all the trees for houses and fuel to cook and after a while it is easier to move than carry the wood. after they leave the forest regrow.
Dave - you should be aware that the most recent and well-regarded research into ADE and Terra Preta do not support a “humans living in harmony with nature” origin. Two distinct processes appear to be involved - in Argentina, Terra Preta is largely thought to have origins in communal kitchen middens and faeces piles - charred bone mass, fecal remnants and charcoal point to inadvertent soil improvement. It appears that humans would settle an area and overextract its resources over a period of a few years, cutting and burning a bunch of local timber and overhunting the local wildlife and then have to leave the area, perhaps not to return for decades. It was this cycle of burning lots of wood + animal bones + human faeces + long fallow periods that caused those kitchen middens to become terra preta- once the humans left, the area would recover but a lot of carbon and minerals gathered from a larger area would be concentrated in a smaller spot, making those soils especially rich. In Brazil, some of that also occurred but the primary way they occurred was due to long dry periods with frequent forest fires followed by flooding (largely due to climate change coming out of the Ice Age). This process started before large groups of humans arrived. To the extent that humans enhanced that process, it was again kitchen middens, faeces piles and some amount of fish waste tilled into the ground. The “Nobel savage living in harmony with nature” is largely a myth. Humans tend to overextract wherever they are found in large enough numbers. The Amazon was not especially well suited to huge concentrated populations for any great periods of time, so these pressures were localized in both time and space.
Composting helps me keep the greenest yard in the 'hood. When I mow, (2-3 times a year, southern Colorado) I leave the mulch on the ground. Don't have to water, and NO chemicals added. Some woodstove ash, eggshells, fruit and veggies scraps, and the healthiest Earth worms anyone could wish for gives me healthy soil.
We do the same here in Sweden. The woodstove ash, eggshells and compost is just amazing in the compost/garden. We have a LOT of earth worms everywhere we put a spade down. It is silly, not even my parents garden had that many earth worms.
How do you get away with mowing that little? I'm in Colorado too, but if I don't mow twice a week my lawn shoots up. Usually I only mow once every 1-2 weeks. The lawn mower is difficult to manage and the mulched grass can kill circles of grass unless I pick out the mulched clumps.
So opportune! A year ago I undertook a bucket-grade test of my own with about 150 Tom plants - totally inconclusive but your reports have rekindled my interest. I'm absolutely convinced of the benefits of well matured (invertebrate chewed) compost - modest additions of which produce fantastic boosts in growth. And I'm now completely convinced that the garden, the farm etc. is a primarily biological, not a chemical environment. Consequently I don't use chemical fertilizers now at all! My plants and garden don't miss them either and I'm actively looking for biological methods of pest management. Great news, thanks indeed for this report.
Hay. I use to go to the local sewage treatment plant and pick up sludge that I use in my garden. The stuff was quite clean at that point. Actually if human manure is composed for a reasonable amount of time almost all the pathogens are killed. So human manure can be safely use as fertilizer if handled properly.
This is great news!! I remember being around when environmental groups tied themselves to trees to keep people from cutting them down. Now that the world is actually feeling the effects that they predicted, we're finally listening (and championing) their long running cause! Great work Dave as usual - thanks for a breath of fresh air!
@@byrongsmith I was just going to say the same.We had an activist killed recently near Atlanta, trying to prevent the razing of an old growth forest/indigenous sacred area for a "cop city," law enforcement training area. That fight is ongoing.
@@erinmac4750 Solidarity and gratitude. I've been arrested multiple times while participating in a nonviolent blockade preventing/delaying the destruction of a critically-endangered woodland ecosystem to make way for a massive open-cut coal mine. In the end, that campaign delayed, but didn't stop the destruction (corruption runs deep). But it also gained sufficient public attention that the next mega-coal mine saw a campaign more than ten times as big, with 5-10 times more direct actions taken, that lasted five times as long, and which was successful in stripping the proposed mine of most of its financial backing, delaying it by a decade, and reducing its scope by a factor of ten. And that campaign has meant that for the first time in history, the government here has actually started saying "no" to a couple of proposed new mines, and with ongoing, increasing pressure, will eventually agree with what scientists were saying decades ago: new coal mines (and new dirty energy infrastructure more generally) is incompatible with a habitable planet (or a just society).
Trouble with human sewage is that it's highly contaminated with a wide range of pretty horrible things. Too many people think the drains are for any liquid waste, and even without that, the end results of all sorts of chemicals that humans ingest end up in that stream. Hormones, antibiotics and other weird things that are put in food.
Hello there, I appreciate a lot this canal. Here are some precision about this material called terra preta (do índio). It's called Biochar not because burning a biomaterials but because the char obtained by pyrolysis (or not ) is enriched with biology afterwards. Biology can be microorganisms or organic material. The main property of char is porosity, creating a home for microbiology and minerals(cation exchange) limiting lixiviation, particularly in tropical conditions with high level of biological degradation. There many and many more chemical, physical and biological properties of Biochar that needs a lot of text to describe. A subject that should be studied extensively. About the difference in growth between a grass and tropical pioneers the causes are interesting to analyse once you dig a bit more about biochar properties. About the 20% or 100% équivalence in the result, that's really a door open on further studies and my first reaction would be to focus on microbiology. Anyway. With little input your video lets the subject very open on this complex question. Cheers
Great to have a focus on dark, rich healthy soils. Whilst it is good there is a potential, and much needed, downturn in the graph at 11:57, this a graph of deforestation - i.e. of continuous tree / rainforest loss since the late 1980s (as the line never goes below zero which ought to represent overall afforestation / net tree gain). Even in the "best" year just over 4,000 km2 of forest was lost. The line really needs to go quickly below zero (if afforestation / net tree gain is to occur unless that's a separate measure or otherwise to near zero) for the longest time.
The research you quote seems to have missed the most important component of soil, the microbiome. It is not the inorganic components of terra preta that need to be replicated, it is the microbiome which can be propagated through composting and compost tea. Our recent developments in DNA and RNA analysis have shown that historically we have ignored the most important component of soil, its bacteria, fungi and larger organisms. Here in the UK and around the world the regenerative agriculture movement is learning how to improve soils through supporting and nuturing the microbiome
Hi Dave, very interesting topic and video :). May I suggest for anyone wishing to go further down the Amazon brazilian lane syntropic agroforestry developed by Ernst Götsch. This resulted in massive reforestation and changes in the... weather pattern of the region. More trees, more rain, therefore, water must be planted, not hoped/wished for!
Brother, thank you as usual for your wonderful Contant. As a regenerative farmer who has been practicing these methods in Hawaii now for some years, the concept is completely valid, and I can demonstrate that as the biological complexity grows the ability for that Superorganism to re-integrate carbon dioxide into the soil accelerates in the diversity, creates a situation that results in overall wellness without the possibility of disease. However, we have a urgent situation at hand we are in. We need to sequester carbon as quickly as possible. Concept of indigenous versus invasive is a Victorian concept that needs to be overcome. Diversity is the key and allowing ecosystems to evolve in whatever way they will given climate change is necessary. The concept of indigenous is no longer applicable. What we can do is practice stewardship, and create a situation where we Create opportunities for beneficial plants and provide obstacles to proliferation for those that will not service in the long run. Stewardship with handicaps and assistance will allow us to evolve an ecosystem through active management, including incorporating dead material, and using animals none only for their manure, but for their dander, and for their ability to act, not only as fertilizers, but cultivators in a multi species, free range paradigm. The opportunities to, mitigate climate change through environmental restoration are really fantastic. But we need to get beyond a narrative of blame, including blame at the fossil fuel industry. Pesticide industry, and our war against bacterial and fungal and insect life are much more instrumental than a fossil fuel narrative. We are all addicted to a civilization entirely based on fossil fuels. We need to give ourselves time to transition to a lower energy future, where in the new energy will be a rise in human consciousness and greater active management. Thank you for all your good work. Godspeed.
With the horrible fires - I was thinking of Geoff Lawton and how he still had green vegetation during the horrible fires in Australia (which luckily did not hit his region). But he manages his soils, and above all brings water in the underground (also uses biochar as a tool) - so he still had water in the tanks and ponds and the green vegetation would have slowed down any fire. His neighbours (regular cattle farms like his property used to be) were already dry because of the draught. Hawaii has plenty of rain and must have had excellent soils in the past. The natives had ways to farm that avoided erosion, compaction, and the soil and vegetation getting too dry. Which was the root cause of the fire. Not the wind guts or that a fire broke out and spread - than can happen. But if fire meets green vegetation it has to evaporate all the water and that reduces temperatures and speed. so it is much easier to contain.
What a hopeful and positive video! I very strongly suspect that the Brazilian scientists will make up the structure and composition of the soil as you described but that, to me, is only half of the job. Each batch must be inoculated with a small amount (teaspoon sized?) of good, old, well-developed Terra Preta because the zootic aspect of a soil is an essential part of any soil - bacteria, nematodes, fungus tiny insects etc
Where I live is just sand, like beach sand but without the pleasure of the Ocean. All we had were Mosquitoes and ants, and like 2 birds. So we put in a garden and started an open Aquaponics System to feed the plants. Well, that wasn't enough but the weeds looked great. So, I started building up the sand into soil with whatever I could get from the yard like leaves and pine needles, but that wasn't enough, so I researched every method available (and by this time burying over stock fish from the pond which yielded amazing results!) and stumbled across Terra Preta, the Terra Preta sticks around longer because of the Clay which helps bind the sand. We want a Regenerative Food Forest so we still have a lot to do but now we have wildlife! Bees, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Hummingbirds, Worms, Bugs, and Lizards to eat the Bugs, and an ever increasing population of new birds and species, a Rabbit and occasionally Deer tracks and it's amazing!
Clay does not bind sand and clay is not a part of terra preta. (a classic mistake of people with dense clay soil is to add sand in the hope of making it less dense - does not help much on its own). Terra preta Is carbon rich material that is burned (heated up) without oxygen. Clay on the other hand consist of mineral particles it is ground down rocks. Terra preta with its gazillions of pores (pretty much like medical coal) offers good living conditions for soil microbes (especially bacteria) and those microbes and other soil critters build humus - and those long chains (humus) are the glue that transforms dirt (whether sandy or dense) into good soil. if you have sandy soil, they have good drainage - and very little ability to store water. Terra preta very much improves the abilit to hold water. Not only is it good for the plants in a very direct way - it is also good for the soil life that needs slightly moist conditions.
I bought 5 acres of poor rocky mountainside with a pinyon-juniper forest. Over 9 years I have improved the soil, brought in local seeds, and relied on birds to bring fertilizer and seeds. I love it and feed me and wildlife. Now have apex species from the wildlife corridor behind me. This morning I was taking a bit of Maximilian Sunflower seeds to put out, and found 2 tree seedlings in one of what was the driest sand on the place. I don't even know what species yet! The only tree seeds I have distributed in that area have been apple seeds, and although tiny, it resembles an apple tree. I have planted apple seeds for 9 years. In any event, the perennial Sunflower has edible leaves and an edible root much eaten by First Americans. I sure look forward to testing that out. They are a cousin to Jerusalem artichokes. I have a foot injury or I would walk the hill to see if this is the Year of Crabapples.
This is interesting, especially that there's giant miscanthus, which grows well in Europe and is almost a perfect energy crop - except for that it's not convenient to use as fuel. I wonder if it could produce good yeld of biochar instead? I need to try this idea out with my own plants this autumn
We use charcoal, ashes, manures, scraps, plant matter and whatnot and have great black soil. We have a biodigestor for our black waters and the black muds are separated every year and a half more or less, treated with lime and used for fruit trees and ornamentals. We vermicompost and make liquid fertilizers with weeds. It is a choice to be responsible.
Ummm? So the "experts" have just worked out what good organic gardeners have known for generations. That good soil organics, biochar, compost and humanure combined with good plant cover including trees, make really good soil for growing things and is fully self sustaining....
over here in South Africa, we have peace gardens, dig a trench 2 meter by 1 meter and 1 meter deep. Put kitchen scraps in, cover with newspaper and a sprinkle of the removed soil to 10mm deep, repeat until it is a bit higher than the soil level, leave for a month and plant in it. This works.
I liked the video. You've highlighted the complexity of reforestation projects, which is fair due for the present times. There is also the fact that Biochar is not really performing as it was promising at first. Results on its efficacy are quite doubtful yet. Just saying that we don't know much yet, and it should be considered before starting large-scale project with this ingredient at hand. Thanks though, very inspiring as always.
I love - LOVE - that there's so much Science here backing up what most organic farmers all over the world have known since time immemorial: Composting works. Gawd, I love this channel.
Thank you Dave for this report, it's nice to hear some good news! This is something I've thought about for years, that we can restore degraded land and actually create fertile soil in deserts by using composed waste, organic matter and biochar. Once you reach the point where the soils are producing a decent yield, the land / the process becomes self-sustaining.
I am so wishful that one day instead of weapons of war, the Nations of the world will come together and put that money into projects like this. Step one, show the companies that make the war materials how they can still make money on projects that HELP humanity.
We can do both! Kill two birds with one stone. Wipe out 70% of the human population in an eco friendly manner and then rebuild with better methods. BAM efficacy at its finest while also getting some amazing things like exo skeletons and some super soldiers.
Soil-improvements is one of those areas where different waste streams can be utilized in different ways. Some are straight forward to turn into value added chemical/compost products like beef waste which mostly require big waterproof containers ideally kept at an above average temperature to turn that into biogas but not every type of waste product is well suited to that process. Pig and chicken waste is high in nitrogen which promotes the formation of ammonia-producing bacteria in bioreactors which don't play nicely with the methane producing bacteria we're generally aiming for. As an added problem bioreactors produce a solid remnant of indigestible substances (like lignin) that the bacterial processes struggle with so after you've got the biogas and the liquid fertilizer 'tea' you're left with a sludge you've got to do something with. Turning it into fuel and soil improvements seems ideal as it solves the pathogen issues since pyrolysis involves temps around/above 800 C.
It’s not correct that deforestation is decreasing this year. To stop deforestation, need stop export (meet, wood and gold) from Amazon for other countries (many European). Greetings from Brazil 🇧🇷, your videos are great.
I was left a lot confused after this episode. As special as the soil is there is nothing unique about it. It's just a deep use of biochar. The reason for the higher productivity is that biochar has enormous surface area compared to soil without it so soil bacteria have more habitat so their numbers are considerably higher in any given space. It's not only an Amazon thing either, lots of peoples have done the same just not to their extent. On its own when inoculated with soil fauna biochar is a good growing medium. It is soil without all the dirt. I inoculate mine with worm juice, the runoff from a worm farm, which populates the char with the anerobic bacteria that are part of the nitrogen cycle, the aerobic comes when it's put into use. If any gardener wants to see it for themselves all you need is a bag of charcoal either lump or briquettes preferably not self lighting. It's best to grind it down to a fine powder and apply as much as you want to your soil. Just be aware that if you don't populate it with soil fauna first there will be a sharp loss of available nitrogen in the soil as the biology catches up but once it has the ground will have more productive potential and more available food. Biochar is pretty cool stuff and fits in with "carbon farming" systems in general. I'm just finishing a phase testing formed biochar to replace perilite or vermiculite in potting soil and it's going great.
Bio char is not charcoal. Charcoal could be burned. Biochar does not burn, the production process is not the same as for charcoal. (the setup may seem somewhat similar but the chemical reactions is different).
@@franziskani no. Char is coal or bio depending on the intended use. There are a couple tiers of quality for both. North American lump charcoal being low quality and binchotan the highest. Regardless carbon is carbon its just a matter of how pure the char is. To get the highest quality you need to take the feedstock to 800 degrees but 1,110 is best. I make both and my wife swears the biochar has made out crops yield a lot more.
I worked on a project on Pyrolysis/Biochar about 10 years ago. Cool idea, easy to do - mostly. The practical problem is mechanical - the precursor organic material doesn't transport or flow well and it has to be very dry or the economics get dicey. The political problem, unfortunately, is that anything related to roasting of organic matter tends to get lumped into the 'incineration' bucket and is therefore persona non grata. Its a good idea but NIMBY will keep this one out of any foreseeable green future - at least in the USA.
Was this a University project or what? I LOVE this kind of stuff and would love to read up on, or at least discuss what all you did. Was the pyrolysis oil recovered etc?
Ive been waiting for this, since i first read about tera preta. When they buried orange peels, another magnificent result, but it was discontinued. If the world can work together about this, its a great begining.
6:50 I am so glad you added the comment about leaving the soil where it is and creating more artificially. I had images of diggers chewing up the Amazon to send soil to reforest the US and Europe.
I wonder if it could really work in non-tropical ecosystem though, I'm a bit skeptical about one-size-fits-all solutions. Maybe we're lucky and just a bit tinkering will be needed.
@@cpav9062 I agree. Mixing in charcoal, compost, bone meal, well rotted manure and some living soil is not exactly revolutionary. Almost any gardener does that every year.
thank you for a very uplifting episode I really look forward to your content every Sunday. Hope you have a good week and I will be back as always next Sunday.
This is a bit like what Allan Savory has talked about with grazing animals like cows. Sounded like in his TED Talk he was really onto something. The problem is that now that we have turned half the planet into desert we need water. Nuclear power would provide the power for desalination and pumping massive amounts of water around the planet.
I would think the microbial, including fungal , composition is also important. Once artificially infused they should infuse it with a fraction of the original soil to enhance that aspect.
@@thebigpicture2032 Well luckily cultures are self propagating in the conditions they prefer. So if the culture takes in a synthetic batch of soil, then you can use that to propagate the culture in other synthetic batches.
Research was done 25 years ago using coal ash as the carbon supplement mixed with sewer waste from treatment works and paper waste from industry and the results were very good. The land was planted with native species which responded very well. BHP and and the local water treatment works where the driver of this project.
Love the great well researched videos you put out! But was a bit bothered by seeming to imply that the Amazon soil is special and should be used as soil amendment elsewhere. Well, there's a big lack of good studies on soil health and rehabilitation, but any good soil with humic acid, the "black earth" with it's characteristic smell, is a great start to spread the microbial and fungal life. I've made a permaculture designer certification and it's eye-opening to see how industrial farming and agroforestry ignore completely wind factors, ecosystems, local microclimates, segregated from support species and animals, etc, etc... It's trying to have a clean slate of almost sterile ground to use the same recipe and seeds of fertilizer-driven crop production. We need big changes in the way food and wood production are made, leave the fallen leaves to rot on the soil, let the cities and towns be a bit more green and wild!
It is important to understand degraded soils. Generally they are soils not enriched by the grind of glaciers. Meaning that there are places much closer to home than the Amazon these techniques can be applied. Here in northern Kentucky the glaciers stopped north of the river in Ohio. Kentucky soil is tan, Ohio soil is dark. The same could apply to Europe. Definitely Spain but even as far north as southern Ireland. If your soils are tan is worth asking a soil expert about local benifits.
Uk which was under ice sheets has lost 40% soil fertility since ww2 according to articles i read in 2018 n thats all from industrial farming, tilling, monocrops n harsh petro chemicals destroying microbiota such as mycellium
I had a concrete slab supported about 1" (25mm) above the concrete driveway (Essex, UK) for about 30 years. When it came time to move it the earthworms had completely filled the gap with rich black soil & were still happily maintaining it. Within a few days of this soil being exposed to sunlight there was a covering of green shoots. Nature looks after itself everywhere when given the chance, not just Brazil.
you might want to look into the work of Allan Savory. Soil restoration via healthy animal grazing. Bonus is that healthy grasses lock up CO2 in their roots systems and the cattle etc. feed the hungry.. something that a forest can't really do unless its' a mono crop using all sorts of chemicals.
In Shropshire we will soon be growing a large portion of our roads. Trees killed by Ash die-back will be removed from roadsides, turned to biochar (while generating electricity from the wood gas produced) then incorporated into asphalt to reduce the amount of tar. Perhaps even getting to carbon neutral roads...
I seem to recall that there were some places that tried using biochar/tera preta and it didn't have the desired result. But for the places where it does, it sounds like something we should fund globally.
sounds like traditional farming practices in Asia. The food grown from these organic soil mix are very delicious. This is something you have to taste yourself to really believe/experience.
Not sure if it's biochar though (at least in EU), I think it has to do with phosphorous and nitrogen. Also, there are some limitations relative to the concentration of some metals, pathogens and probably PFAS. And its usage is limited to some cultures and pastures.
It’ll be really tough to improve the soils where things are grown by using the waste from the concrete jungles. Cities simply act as malignant growths which suck up nutrient from the surrounding landscape and hemorrhage it into oceans and waterways from which it can not be recovered, hence the reliance on chemical fertilizers. Good luck with the holistic approach.
Even on land we use for relatively conventional agriculture, (that is, exclusive of agricultural systems that utilize mixed species forest agricultural techniques) changing the way we do tillage - minimizing or eliminating it, plus reducing or eliminating Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's) and using certain types of rotational grazing instead would sequester an amazing amount of carbon. See Dr. Elaine Ingham's and Gabe Brown's work (scientist and farmer, respectively) as just 2 examples of research, theory, and practice on the subject. As touched on in the video, biochar as was used to make terra preta is another valuable soil-enhancing and carbon sequestering method.
Adding charcoal has the advantage on its own of locking carbon up long term. It's worth doing in its own right. We can start by asking farmers to turn stubble into biochar and plough it back into the field it came from. This recycles some of the mineral nutrients that are normally lost when the stubble is disposed off away from the field.
We've spent 40 years putting compost in our clay subsoil garden, and for 40 years it's been oxidizing into carbon dioxide and escaping to the atmosphere. Last year I decided to turn some waste wood into biochar by burning half of it to turn the other half into biochar by pyrolysis (heating in inadequate oxygen). I did it the way people have been doing it for thousands of years: burning in a pit to choke off oxygen to the wood on the bottom. I also tried a barrel, but turned out about the same. Theoretically, the char sequesters carbon (not carbon dioxide as you said) for hundreds of years. Of course I burned half of it but the rest will persist forever, and I'll do more again this year. But biochar isn't a fertilizer. You need to charge it with nutrients or the raw char will actually reduce fertility until it soaks up its fill. The pores allow nutrients and water to be absorbed and released when plant roots go through it. Also it's a fine home for soil fungus. It reduces fertilizer runoff and less is needed. Mechanically, it's a soil amendment which breaks up clay particles. A similar commercial product in the USA is called Miracle Gro, which is a black compost/char/fertilizer mix. Anything black means carbon. Excess heat and volatiles can be used as a byproduct in a commercial biochar retort.
It is normal that compost only lasts a few years. 1 - 3 depending on your climate. But during that time it helps soil life so indrectly it helps to build humus (and that can last for at least 100 years if not longer - if you do not use farming practices that destroy and erode soil.
You are right biochar is a soil amentment and makes soil into a better substrate and a better home for beneficial soil microbes. And it helps to store water (again helping soil life - not to mention your crops).
Folk do use the Humanure process to good effect ... there are units etc that can be bought. Obviously there will be restrictions depending on where you live. Wood ashes, seaweed, weeds, comfrey and other green manures and animal manure soon have soils looking darker and growing stuff with ease. I do like your vlogs ... but I just wish folk would love Mother Earth again and read up on how to naturally replenish the nutrients....it is as old as the hills and very simple really.
I have a hypothesis on how Terra Preta was formed. The people of the Amazon would make throwaway clay pottery vessels to store both kitchen refuse and their own human waste and, after each use, they would throw charcoal (biochar) on the top to keep the odor down. After the vessel was full with multiple layers of refuse and charcoal, they would go to a community trench and throw the whole pot in, shattering it. Once the trench was mostly full, they'd cover it with dirt and then plant. That's why clay pottery shards are found everywhere in Amzonian Terra Pretta. The clay shards are porous (much like biochar) and provide a wicking function for rainfall and are beneficial bacteria and fungus, which for a symbiotic relationship with plant roots to bring the roots both water and nutrients from beyond the root zone. You can find more thoughts on this by going to David The Good's Website "thesurvivalgardener.com" and doing a search on the aritcle "The Effect of Pottery Shards in Terra Preta". I believe he has a TH-cam video on this as well.
The bio char you mentioned. Didn't, in an earlier video, you look at a company in PA, I think, that had a process for turning sewage into bio char? I seem to recall watching that.
Very interesting about the Amazon soil. Who'd think it was man-made? I was lucky in finding myself gifted with a huge heap of charcoal sitting to one side of my (Scottish) garden (2 acres) when I moved in - didn't know it was a gift at the time, and cursed the stuff as I began to think of how to re-landscape the area. However, once it had been spread out at last, the landscaping done, and things planted in it - boy, did they grow. I decided on a small pinetum (pine arboretum) in that part of the garden (I like pines and only 3 days ago I was delighted to find the rarely seen 'Firecrest' bird has not only moved into my garden, they are nesting here in one of the young pine trees. I haven't seen this dinky little bird in nearly 40 years. I took some of the charcoal to another part of the garden and, now that I think about it, that's where Bluebells first appeared in the garden, and where they do best, producing the largest, healthiest plants. In the last few years, after having suffering a few false starts in other parts of the garden, namely with trees that wouldn't settle happily in soil that had been exhausted by overgrazing, I decided to start planting 'Silver Birch' trees. I did this because I noticed that Silver Birch always appear to be the first to colonise a bit of wasteland or a demolition area. Since then, I've come to know that Silver Birch is considered a 'Frontier Tree.' With that in mind, I now raise any Birch seedlings I find scattered around the garden, and plant them everywhere there is space. As soon as I have a need to take that space back to plant something better, I only need cut the Silver Birch down and stack it for firewood. I always put the ash from my fireplace back into the garden and have no need to buy extra firewood because of the number of trees I now grow. So, I have the charcoal and the ash. Human poop? I'm not there with that one as yet... I do collect urine from the family though. Not only is it a good fertiliser, but it seems to be a fairly okay-ish barrier against slugs trying to get to my broad beans. I put this down to the salts, which do not - so far - seem to affect the plants. I am making sure I do dilute the urine down. I'm also using it as a partial deterrent against invading deer. (No one thing on its own scares off deer, 'that' I have learned the hard way. But doing a number of scent and visual things does seem to unsettle them just enough to 'reduce' the frequency of plant attacks). Pottery? I will need to start asking if anyone has any old terracotta they don't want. Just smash it to smithereens I suppose. In addition to the above 'black earth' ingredients, I would like to add another ingredient to the list. I have discovered that certain Spring bulbs slowly 'darken' soil over time. From my own garden-wide experiments - Snowdrops turned out to be the best manufacturers of quality soil, Bluebells coming in a hot second. Spring Snowflakes are fair to middling, just taking longer to get the same result. Daffodils, Wild Garlic and Lilies don't seem to make a significant amount of difference to soil quality, even after 20 years. I think they take back pretty much all the goodness they put into leaves/flowers. So, I wouldn't be surprised if many other bulbs were proven to do likewise. Many permaculturists favour Comfrey as a soil builder, but there are other plants that are good for soil building too, since these bring up other elements from deep down in the ground in the same way Comfrey does. Other chop-and-drop plants I use include Broad-Leaved Dock and Dandelion. Rosebay Willow Herb is excellent as a soil builder - collect when in flower, chop up or stack. Beautiful light, fluffy soil from that (but never let them go to seed. I made that mistake and one summer spent recovering from an op was all they needed to start spreading out of control). Two more good ones are ordinary clump ferns and Bracken. Bracken was a right devil inhabiting one corner of my garden and had been rapidly spreading at one point. Now, I eagerly search for new fronds (increasingly rare every year), pull them up at the base, fold them and dump them as a mulch under fruit bushes. The resulting soil is excellent. I have been growing my own ferns as a soil conditioner for a long time now. The crowns divide naturally, and I just dig out pieces to transplant under another tree to become a ready source of mulch in situ. Bracken and ferns have good water retention abilities.
I worked for a marine protection charity in Vanuatu. We were asked to investigate why their coral reefs were dying. Four years prior, a group of Australian Christians (with a big C) had visited this particular island (there are over 700 in the state) and were horrified to see that they were still using composting toilets and not 'proper' flushing toilets like 'civilised' people used.
They had donated over AUS$200,000 to install a water pipe for a reservoir in the centre of the island and water closets in most homes. The funds did not stretch as far as a sewage treatment plant, so they did what all 'civilised' people do in an otherwise pristine environment; they let it run into the waterways and into the sea.
The net effects of this 'civilisation'? As follows:
- They started having water shortages for the first time in living memory
- They were producing 25% less crops because they didn't have the fertiliser produced by the composting
- They suffered their first attack of cholera ever recorded
- The effluent flowing into the water was causing algae blooms that had killed 90% of the coral reefs and destroyed the fish population.
- They had to trek 20 miles to the other side of the island and back to get enough fish to survive
The islanders had already reverted to composting toilets to cure some of the items above, but it will take over twenty years for the corals to return to a vague resemblance of what they were before.
'Do-gooders' should think VERY hard before interfering with a symbiotic relationship that has grown up over hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Thanks Ian
human excrement getting into rivers/ocean/sea is not the problem ... it is the INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS that are the real problem
Nice story, very informative!
When they baptised converts in the sea after the new missionary infrastructure had been installed, they didn't have to be so careful about the ceremonies they used, they just went through the motions.
@@trueriver1950 lol
I have been using biochar for a few years now instead of Vermicolite and Perlite in my potting mix , It is recommended you inoculate it before use. So to do that i mix 50% by volume with fresh Grass cuttings and Leave to sit in a cool place for a Few months, This Helps add beneficial bacteria, I then add this to my home made poting mix No chemicals or fertilizers added
Wouldn't adding roots with the dirt be better since that is where a lot of the bacteria and fungus live?
@@dianapennepacker6854mainly in the soil, though there's some associated with grass roots
But that would mean digging up the grass instead of simply mowing it. They could add a bit of soil with roots in it, just to start with.
How heartening to hear of at least a little forward progress for nature and biodiversity. My Sunday just got a whole lot better 😊❤
I hope you don't mind as you summed up my thoughts perfectly. quoted you above. Hope you have a great weekend
He had me in the first half, but when he started talking about Peltphorum I got dubious...
Footnote to story of Terra Preta:
“When the Conquistador Francisco de Orellana entered the remote Rio Negro region of the Amazon basin in 1542, he was searching for one thing -- a city of gold. Though he never found gold, he did find what is now believed to be the lost city of El Dorado (and something perhaps even more valuable for us today).
Wide causeways running in perfectly straight lines for lengths of 50 miles or more across huge engineered agricultural landscapes, connecting cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands. This is what Orellana reported upon his return to Spain. But subsequent explorers could never find the legendary agrarian metropolis, and most dismissed his claims as fantasy.”
The reason that they couldn’t find the agrarian civilization is that Orellana’s troupe had exposed these people to the same diseases that had decimated the other pre-Colombian civilizations. In short, they were mostly gone when later explorers came looking for them.
“Even modern anthropologists dismissed the El Dorado legend for one good reason -- soil fertility, or lack thereof. The Amazon basis is notorious for its highly eroded and infertile soils, and until very recently it was impossible to consider that this soil could support such a large and extensive population. But the Lost City also contained a lost secret. A discovery that proved Orellana right”- Biochar aka Terra Preta.
Living in the tropics I have spent several years trying to transform degraded rice fields into productive land. Thai's have the same word "Din Dam"= Black Earth for productive soil and it has required the addition of significant amounts of organic material to get the process started. I have planted Teak and Mahogany for shade, then fruit trees and finally vegetables. I use solar drip irrigation to extend the growing season when the rains have stopped.
Do you know Andrew Millison's channel?
He might be interested in showcasing your work in his channel if you contact him.
At least one smart guy in Thailand - good to hear 👍
@@Sagittarius-A-Star wow that’s not racist at all! Born dimwitted or what?
@Echo -
Try this .
(1) get some plastic dustbins with lids , half fill with water.
(2) add ( per bin ) 1x carton natural live Greek yogurt + 1 can black molasses.
(3) all organic mater - veg , fruit anything except animal manure .
(4) after 2 months use fertiliser 1 part fertiliser to 10 parts water and use once per week.
(5) remember to allow gasses to escape now and then.
Collect egg shells and dry them , put them in the blender ( it will sharpen the blades ) and sprinkle the eggshell powder wherever needed . After a few short months you will see a massive improvement.
You could also try banana skin tea ? Save up banana skins and put in a fresh plastic bucket with water - leave for 6 months and again 1 part banana tea to 10 parts water . Try not to use too much animal manure as you can destroy the roots .
Happy growing 👍
Good thing more people are talking about our Amazon soil. More research, more opinions, more ideas. Always better.
Search Dr. Elaine Ingham, Geoff Lawton. You'll learn why feeding the soils makes healthier foods for all living things, including us.
And Matt powers has heaps on the actual inputs you can make like terra preta
@@caspians582 but unless you are making it somehow with renewables you are just making a bunch of co2 making...... it does appear to play a part in soil hydolics, may provide space for some soluble nutrients, but really isn't microbe friendly.... in will remain undisturbed in a hot compost, and does not inhibit that process....yet here's the big problem....biochar must, must be washed well, and the pollutants in that water are a big issue.... other issues outside of water use and pollution is dust... anyhow
@@curiousbystander9193 interesting point of view with the by product pollutants! I disagree about it being an unfriendly place for microbes and that it couldn’t store nutrition. As it has a high cation exchange capacity (sites that can hold a charged particle ie:nutrients) you can charge (soak) it with an organic liquid fertiliser and then inoculate with whatever species you’re aiming for! I’ve never seen any papers say biochar is antimicrobial if preped properly?
Curious as to what toxins come out in the water? I’ve heard of concern about carcinogens?
@@caspians582 i said it should hold some soluble nutrients... but again, it does not support microbes...... or the carbon filters on all those water filters would yield continual problems with getting people sick, and they do not.......
try yourself on your counter or compost... the higher the percentage of biochar the less miicrobial activity.. although as I have tested... 3-5% in a compost mix will not inhibit the composting of organic matter......whether much of anything gets in the biochar pores, hard tellin.... but again, it does have hydraulic capaciity.
not sure what toxins are in the water, but appear to be some sort of gases, plus real fine char and ash.... if I pop the top off the retort cooker inside the main cooker I get blasted with the most ungodly gas, quite wicked.... properly cooked char should have pretty much no smell... but even properly cooked char yields nasty looking water until the char is washed good..... then it's so clear you could drink it, but not without pretty thorough washing...
just can't imagine this is good for the earth from a manufacturing point of view, unless someone has millions to do it right.
bob townsend's comment just below says it perfectly for me. "How heartening to hear of at least a little forward progress for nature and biodiversity. My Sunday just got a whole lot better" Thank you Bob and the Just have a think team. This was really refreshing.
This is great news. The only additional thing I would emphasize is that there’s too much emphasis on trees and not enough on everything else. A healthy ecosystem has a large diversity of native trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, groundcovers, vines, fungi, mosses, lichens, etc. Some ecosystems have no trees at all. It’s all about what belongs there.
In areas of deforestation, trees are important. In certain areas of semidesert, trees can help reclaim water cycles and get dry creeks flowing. Groups like Ecosia work with local farmers to improve the land & grazing conditions with trees. Mossy Earth has a video showing how a small creek in England needs more tree cover & less animal impact, but also not too much tree cover. Good rewilding organizations put trees to best use. What I get skeptical of are companies selling "carbon credits" on forestland that is already protected.
Nothing will grow well without those fungi networks transporting the nutrients. Modern farming just tears that up.
Agreed, but you missed perhaps the most important element. Animals.
@@RogerIElliott Plants are primary producers which capture energy from the sun and convert it into food. Everything else eats plants or eats something that eats plants.
Insects and wildlife can only survive if diverse communities of plants are present. Animals are important yes but they wouldn’t survive without the plants first. If you put the correct plants native to an area in place, everything else will eventually arrive in it’s own.
@@scottlarue5304 indeed. And they all evolved together. They are one.
Biochar is always a good idea, not just because it improves the soil by giving all the micro-critters somewhere to live but also because every kg of biochar in the ground is almost 4 kg of carbon dioxide not released into the air.
❤
Just checking the math. Where are the other 3kg here? How does 1kg in the ground prevent 4 from going up?
@@peter9477 easy: 1 kg (12 units) of carbon and almost 3 kg (32 units) of oxygen.
@@mrxmry3264 Ah, right. Carbon sequestration, not CO2 sequestration. Thanks.
Terra preta is wonderful stuff. One thing you didn't mention is that it slowly regenerates itself, so those pots with a 20% Amazonian mix would slowly have more terra preta in them over time, until it finally reached 100%. The regeneration rate is too slow to effect their experiment, but in the wild it would help other trees nearby as the soil quality gradually increased.
Also, I wouldn't say that planting a monoculture would do more harm than good. It doesn't help the local flora and fauna as much as a more diverse group of trees would, but it's still better than no trees at all. The key is to get back into those forests years later and plant more natural species to grow among the monoculture. You can gradually increase the quality of a forest over time by continuously planting new kinds of trees and shrubs.
you have no idea about dynamics in soil
monoculture always kills soil
carbon in terra preta form does not regenerate itself.... some soluble nutrients and water might get caught up in the pores, but bugs kinda hate it.
@@curiousbystander9193 It's not the *carbon* that regenerates itself. The most interesting thing about terra preta is that it creates habitat for a microbial culture that actually continues sequestering carbon. That's how the soil literally "grows". They've recording 1cm soil growth a year in sites with classic terra preta.
This isn't a mere chemistry experiment. It's a microbiology exercise, and that's what makes way for a more complex ecology to follow.
@@abstractedaway bullshsugar, show me one study showing microbes like living in biochar..... I never said anything about carbon regenerating itself....
@@curiousbystander9193 That's because there's more to Terra Preta than the biochar it contains. th-cam.com/video/aT2ji_tdHG0/w-d-xo.html
"high concentration of charcoal, microbial life and organic matter. The combination accumulates nutrients, minerals and microorganisms and withstands leaching... It is reported to regenerate itself at the rate of 1 centimeter (0.4 in) per year", says Wikipedia, but this was also known decades ago by experts on the subject.
Great that you have done a video on this important subject.
If you want dark soils that are stable humus is an incredibly complex compound which takes a long time to create, but it sticks around for quite a long time after.
Since what I do for work now is primarily gardening and working on testing techniques of permaculture, biochar, worm composting and how that can work in a minimal gardening system (where as little inputs as possible are used to make a difference) I can verify that using materials similar to Terra Preta is a great improvement to poorer soils. However, (yes, there's that word), it is critical to remember that if you add things to the dirt which make it darker you are now absorbing more heat from the sun so it must be kept covered and growing and not allowed to dry out and blow around (because yet another problem with blowing bits of dark stuff around is that it will melt your glaciers and snow pack faster). So do remember that decreasing albedo is not a good idea, we're already doing too much of that already by melting the polar ice...
This is a link to some notes I took on these topics years ago and they may be of interest to people just starting out with this sort of area of research. The notes haven't been updated much in recent years but that is because I got sidetracked into water issues and that has also been pretty interesting. :)
www.anthive.com/project/notes/
As another topic in the future I'm pretty sure that current techniques of waste management will be seen to be very much wrong in several ways. For one is the large amount of water that is being used to deal with much less (human and animal) waste, so we're using water to move the waste, but water is heavy so that makes it expensive to pump and keep up all those pipes, pumps and then at the other end a water cleaning plant. And really also to think about is that clean water is precious and we should not be using it in such a manner. So all those nutrients are going to waste, all the fertilizers, stuff that comes out the other end, it should not be mingled with industrial wastes and it should also be safely composted, but otherwise it is not a hazard (read about composting human and other animal wastes). So where does that lead us? To a smaller and more self-sustaining system where you can reuse waste water if you don't pollute it with certain metals and other hazards, but gray water systems can be used to do a lot locally instead of transporting it via pipes for many miles to an expensive waste treatment plant only then to have to pump the water back so it can be reused.
As there is less and less clean water available in the world the methods will have to change.
Worms do a wonderful job of recharging garden soils. Instead of only using compost worms you can add a little garden dirt and humus from mostly digested wood chips to your worm buckets and then as the worms are breaking down and digesting your food and paper scraps you can also have them recharging some garden soil and creating something that is pretty close to Terra Preta. I've been doing this for 13 years now and I can verify that when you bury this material in a garden it will persist for several years and what I do is then rotate plant so that the benefit is spread among several years of crops. In combination with minimal tilling it is very efficient in how much work I need to do. Planting the tomatoes, onions and certain peppers first, squash and melons can go first or second year, green peppers and the lesser demanding crops can go second or third year, grasses or other fodder crops can go later, garlic, etc. It is a nice system and I don't use any other fertilizers (if you have very sandy soil make sure to add some clay to help hold water and nutrients along with your worm compost or other composts).
Here are my links to worms and interesting worm composting things I've found out through the years:
www.anthive.com/project/worms/
www.anthive.com/project/taters/
An exceptionally comprehensive response, well done! I'm with you all the way, your approach has to be the answer and, in my opinion, everyone needs to be involved. The most frustrating part of Dave's video here, is that he describes the beautiful Amazonian soil created as part of a living system, before going on to discuss tree planting numbers and crude monetary figures. It seems that most people feel that the answer still lies in segregation between man and nature, so long as we plant some trees over there we can continue to live "normally" here. The important point about your experiments, and permaculture more generally, is that they are systems for living, and the knowledge required exists within the living of that system. It has to be everyone. We can no longer outsource our basic human needs to far away water treatment facilities and supermarkets. We need to design our towns, cities and villages around these needs and everyone must play their part. As a fellow permaculturist, I'm well aware that once these systems are designed, the maintenance is extremely manageable (and enjoyable), and results in less outgoings for those basic needs (thus less time required working all else being equal).
It's a permaculture revolution we really need, and I don't think it needed scientists studying Amazonian soil to understand that, it's an Amazonian way of life that is the more critical.
@@ricos1497 No, you need to scientifically prove different hypothesis, and economically justify that expense will yield results !
Also, Dave's focus was equally divided between holistic biodiversity and economic proof (both are vital to success).
Now go take a bath you dirty hippie ! (lol, kidding... ~I agree with you, generally.. ; )
@@dc37009 but we don't scientifically prove different hypothesis and economically justify anything we do. We created an economic system based on the ridiculous concept of economic growth (itself, obviously, not subjected to any scientific proof, because it's stupid). We then fitted methods of production and living systems to that economic model, cherry picking bits of science along the way to justify. For example, we transformed agriculture with synthetic fertiliser because it suited the economic model. It cheated, by inserting fossil fuels into a natural process and allowed us to centralise production of fertiliser and sell it back to helpless (or hapless) farmers, all the while lobbying governments and modifying agricultural education to institutionalise the new way. The haber-bosch was a beautiful piece of chemical engineering, no doubt, but none of the ethical questions around monocropping, soil destruction and finite fossil fuels (and their CO2 output) were ever subjected to scientific justification before adopting the technology.
The result is that we have a living system, backed by science and economics, that does not operate sustainably in any given location on earth. Repeat that back to yourself and really think about that. None of our cities, on the entire planet, can be sustained. It's staggering. We've designed a system where all evidence shows that it doesn't work, yet science isn't preventing that, or even slowing it. The system can probably be justified economically (with a lot of money printing, which is fine), but all that shows is that the measurements which we use to measure our economic system have no translation, or use, in the actual real world.
I think you're right that the scientific method is extremely important (no good permculture student would adopt methods without trials for the most part), but history shows that it people use that tool as they see fit, and that economics drives science first and foremost, thus it is largely useless as a driver in its own right. Economic justification for changing a living system is a terrible idea, the economic system should always follow the design of living and never the other way round - because it's just a man made set of games and rules - which is precisely why we're in the mess we're in.
@@ricos1497 Of course ! That's all true...Nice history...I told you I agreed with you (mostly).
The last step is transparency and accountability !
The mainlining of AI is going to be quite a shock for Mob-Establishment types !
~Go Gaia ; )
@@dc37009 yes, AI is an interesting proposition. For me, everything points toward us being too immature (as a society as a whole rather than individually) to put such technology to use. The fact is that we already have everything we need, we already have the means to live in abundance, freedom and with meaning. We choose not to (collectively, I mean). Given that we've never had the maturity or ability within our systems to use patience and offer forums to discuss the implementation of technology, I don't see that changing. My own thoughts are that AI will never see the light of day. Existing LLMs will turn out to be so pernicious and all consuming that they render the internet completely unusable as nobody will be able to tell what's real or not. I imagine small businesses getting 800 requests for their services everyday from spoof AI accounts, to the point where the real customers are indiscernible. Extrapolated across every social media and every online interaction, to the point where nobody knows what's real or not.
Regenerative farming is as old as human time. However renewed interest is growing at a rate of speed here in Oz. We have a number of farmers in our area using a mix of biochar and cyclical stock grazing (and associated droppings) to enrich degraded land with incredible results over 5-7 years. Diversity of methods and crop types seems to have the best results for encouraging microorganisms and carbon retention. Some of our farmers and soil scientists have been instrumental in showing and working with monoculture farmers in the USA and beyond to show the benefits including massive cost saving in adding chemical fertiliser to maintain crop yield.
We have a soil crisis in Australia- where tonnes of soil gets blown away each year because of our ploughing and bare soil farming methods.
You’re absolutely right in that we need to improve the way our factory farms manage their land. I see reports of interest from large farming/ food interests in the USA but I remain sceptical as to whether that is really just greenwashing.
I’ve also heard estimates that increasing soil carbon retention not only results in healthier and increased crop yields but that an increase of just 5% of carbon retention annually would match Australia’s carbon pollution output, rendering us carbon neutral overall. I’d have to fact check that.
It also puts paid to the view that running grazing stock (intelligently) is bad for soil health. Quite the opposite.
I was planning on running a couple of podcasts myself on the topic of sustainable farming and in particular (for us town folk) how we can do that from farm practice to plate, humanely - particularly in the prospect of lab-grown meat and whether that is in fact the answer, or just another way to line certain interests pockets in this day and age. There may be a place for both.
It isn’t hard to find links to these Australian stories and regenerative scientists and evangelists, but if you’d like a hand, message me (I’m on your patreon).
Happy to participate
geoff lawton is an aussie with a good youtube channel on permaculture (for other commenters)
Deforested areas may also be restored with movable solar systems grazed by sheep or middle-size cattle for several years until young trees are solid and mature to grow. Then move the solar system to other areas and apply the same process. Sheep manure is one of the best for being richer in nutrients but also for a higher rate of methane emissions.
There is a topically adjacent study you should be aware of. Amazonian dark earth can be thought of as a sort of enhanced compost. In Marin county of California, there is this carbon farming initiative called the Marin Carbon Project (MCP), headed by John Wick (not the movie assassin). The MCP spread 1/2" of compost over range land, and found that over the next 5 years, the carbon levels in the soil kept increasing with no additional intervention. And more recently, at the 15 year mark, a follow-up study found that the carbon levels had kept increasing even after the 5 year mark. The added compost stimulated the plant life in that soil such that the soil kept on taking in more and more carbon. Since plants are the only things in the terrestrial ecosystem that draw down and fix carbon, the carbon in the soil necessarily comes from carbon drawn down by plants and exuded into the soil. Increased soil carbon levels necessarily entail stronger plant growth for this reason.
Amazonian dark earth has a unique microbiome that is specific to its climate and its ecosystem. I don't think transplanting that soil to other places is necessarily a good idea; it could introduce invasive species and microbes that are not appropriate for other ecosystems. But if compost can be locally produced, especially if it is enhanced with biochar during the composting process, I think this material may be able to leverage the "negative priming" effect observed by the Marin Carbon Project. This way, the initial input of carbon can trigger forces of nature to continue to store more and more carbon without any intervention on the part of us humans.
but I am suspect as to whether biochar adds to this c02 sequestration process given microbes literally hate it... may be part of a healthy soil hydrolics and capturing some soluble nutrients... but unless you can make it with low co2 to make your heat and can wash your biochar... I'd say, leave it alone......unless you have millions for an electric solution and water filtration solution..... cause you need a lot of water to wash that stuff and can't just discharge the water.....anyhow....
That's amazing! We need something like that here in the Central Valley. Reinventing the land for monoculture farming has done a number. However, as Tulare Lake had shown us, Nature will do what she does.
As long as you don’t plow or break up the soil structure that is.
@@stanweaver6116 there are lots of soils types that need plowing nd breaking up.... I am so sick of this no-till ignorance.
@@curiousbystander9193 I’ve farmed for my entire life. Working mostly with heavy clay soils. Some sandy loam and some peaty meadowlands.
You’re quite right that some soils respond well to being heavily worked, and plowing in a green manure crop works well in the clay.
However my comment was specific to the retaining of the carbon content in the black soils, and when you break them up you release a lot of carbon into the atmosphere.
I think Steve Irwin is smiling at us from above. Breakthroughs like this really solidify the fact that humanity can overcome its failings. it's still an uphill battle, but it is doable and worth the toil and struggle. Thank you so much for making this video!!!!
Our ability was never in question, only willingness.
At least we can try and 'slow' climate change at this point, even if we're not going to turn it around in our lifetime.
We have to keep thinking of all these little kiddies around us who are, one day, going to grow up and ask us why we didn't do enough to save the planet we put them in - especially when they learn we were warned and warned time and again by real experts, and yet 'still' we 'let' most of our governments do next to nothing while allowing the deniers scream their 'myths and falsehoods' on media.
That GlobalForestWatch map is truly disappointing, when you think of the number of countries that attended summits, put pen to paper, made pledges, made speeches, and have come up well and truly short of expectations.
Glad I live in one of the 'blue' countries - but most of Western Europe is really, really failing and my own country can still do a lot better.
This is not a “breakthrough” it’s been known for a long time but it takes actual time and effort from pile of people to utilize it.
Unfortunately most spend their time in the mall or Disneyland and don’t want dirt under their nails.
Gabe Brown is farming using a no till and a continuous ground cover method, along with being organic. he has some great videos on here showing how is land hold water in the dry time and just how much more nutritional his food is, something we can all practice on our own garden. Hew Richards is another great source for organic gardening and jeez his stuff looks amazing.
Agreed, I've been instituting Permaculture methodologies for over six months now (in NE Thailand); no-till, compost and mulch. Hugely better for my back and the results above and below ground are almost miraculous. As a prime example one lime bush has produced about fifty fruits this season compared to little more than a handful of so in previous seasons - just through application of well matured compost (the inoculant) and mulch (soil protector and food for the microbes). We've picked about 20 of the fruit and in the last week or so a smattering of more flowers have bloomed. Healthy or what? And at no point have I even needed to consider chemical fertilisers or pesticides of any sort. It's a win-win sum gain and I'm now working to extend the treatment to all fifty (approx.) fruit trees on our home-stay resort gardens (c.2 hectares).
(Very) former forester here: a "climax" forest refers to the observations that forests progress through a series of species compositions, each building upon the "preparations" of the prior one, until a stable mix of species results. This "end mix" of species is known as a "climax" forest. Typically, old-growth forests are "climax" forests.
Exactly this. What you want to do is study the progression of the ecosystem in stages - say, from meadow to early growth forest to mid to climax. If you manage this well, you can accelerate the growth to "climax" to where 50 years of unattended growth can be matched in 15.
Very important points . Reforestation and transitioning to compost growing is critical, we don't give it enough attention. I'm hoping to starty as vertical garden and eat from it instead of grocery stores. Starting with spouts and then microgreens , then moving up to vegetavles, dwarf fruit and nut trees , indoor in the desert of Nevada. Anywhere on Earth is far easier than anywhere in Space, as the space colonizers are hot for.
I like your thinking 🧐 Solid plan and hope more people take up this kind of thinking.
I was very surprised to see Terra Preta rasied here, as I first learned about it in Charles Mann's 1491 in the Atlantic back in 2002.
From one stranger to another, I want to wish you the best of luck in your endeavours and hope you have bountiful harvests.
Great stuff to bad you had to end it with a downer, or maybe you have no clue that without NASA you wouldn’t now have TH-cam to watch!
@@TheLosamatic I don't think the OP is having a dig at NASA, rather the billionaires intent on moving to mars because it's too hard to fix earth.
First time I heard of Amazon soil, but, just for fun. To witness this practice I would urge you guys to check out Charles Dowding, the Father of no dig gardening. Nature knows best. Really enjoyed this episode ❤
Will check it out.
I'd agree, no dig is the way forward. I've been watching Charles Dowding for a few years. Compost feeds the soil, which feeds stronger/healthier plants and yields 20-30% more crop.
Somewhere along the line we have forgotten what nature does and instead we've used man made chemicals in it place.
Terra Preta has been recognised for decades. I looked this up long ago. There's documentaries on it along with studies.
This was developed by the local ancient civilization. Charcoal & dirt mix. They transformed huge swaths of moderately to low fertile land into high yield land. The extent of it was incredible. They built a thriving civilization. Then they disappeared and forests grew but the soil is still great.
why would they disappear then
and what culture was it? did they sacrifice humans or ate them?
wrong, some folk had a local sewage dump and other folk dug it up.
@@szymonbaranowski8184 deforestation, the cut down all the trees for houses and fuel to cook and after a while it is easier to move than carry the wood. after they leave the forest regrow.
They disappeared due to invasive infectious diseases.
Dave - you should be aware that the most recent and well-regarded research into ADE and Terra Preta do not support a “humans living in harmony with nature” origin. Two distinct processes appear to be involved - in Argentina, Terra Preta is largely thought to have origins in communal kitchen middens and faeces piles - charred bone mass, fecal remnants and charcoal point to inadvertent soil improvement. It appears that humans would settle an area and overextract its resources over a period of a few years, cutting and burning a bunch of local timber and overhunting the local wildlife and then have to leave the area, perhaps not to return for decades. It was this cycle of burning lots of wood + animal bones + human faeces + long fallow periods that caused those kitchen middens to become terra preta- once the humans left, the area would recover but a lot of carbon and minerals gathered from a larger area would be concentrated in a smaller spot, making those soils especially rich.
In Brazil, some of that also occurred but the primary way they occurred was due to long dry periods with frequent forest fires followed by flooding (largely due to climate change coming out of the Ice Age). This process started before large groups of humans arrived. To the extent that humans enhanced that process, it was again kitchen middens, faeces piles and some amount of fish waste tilled into the ground.
The “Nobel savage living in harmony with nature” is largely a myth. Humans tend to overextract wherever they are found in large enough numbers. The Amazon was not especially well suited to huge concentrated populations for any great periods of time, so these pressures were localized in both time and space.
ah well fuck it might aswell just use NPK and monocrops, since the "noble savage living in harmony with nature," is largely a myth
Composting helps me keep the greenest yard in the 'hood. When I mow, (2-3 times a year, southern Colorado) I leave the mulch on the ground. Don't have to water, and NO chemicals added. Some woodstove ash, eggshells, fruit and veggies scraps, and the healthiest Earth worms anyone could wish for gives me healthy soil.
We do the same here in Sweden. The woodstove ash, eggshells and compost is just amazing in the compost/garden. We have a LOT of earth worms everywhere we put a spade down.
It is silly, not even my parents garden had that many earth worms.
How do you get away with mowing that little? I'm in Colorado too, but if I don't mow twice a week my lawn shoots up. Usually I only mow once every 1-2 weeks. The lawn mower is difficult to manage and the mulched grass can kill circles of grass unless I pick out the mulched clumps.
So opportune! A year ago I undertook a bucket-grade test of my own with about 150 Tom plants - totally inconclusive but your reports have rekindled my interest. I'm absolutely convinced of the benefits of well matured (invertebrate chewed) compost - modest additions of which produce fantastic boosts in growth. And I'm now completely convinced that the garden, the farm etc. is a primarily biological, not a chemical environment. Consequently I don't use chemical fertilizers now at all! My plants and garden don't miss them either and I'm actively looking for biological methods of pest management. Great news, thanks indeed for this report.
Hay. I use to go to the local sewage treatment plant and pick up sludge that I use in my garden. The stuff was quite clean at that point. Actually if human manure is composed for a reasonable amount of time almost all the pathogens are killed. So human manure can be safely use as fertilizer if handled properly.
"A bloody nuisance of ourselves". Amongst the serious stuff that little bit made me smile.
This is great news!! I remember being around when environmental groups tied themselves to trees to keep people from cutting them down. Now that the world is actually feeling the effects that they predicted, we're finally listening (and championing) their long running cause! Great work Dave as usual - thanks for a breath of fresh air!
They still do. And this is still necessary.
@@byrongsmith I was just going to say the same.We had an activist killed recently near Atlanta, trying to prevent the razing of an old growth forest/indigenous sacred area for a "cop city," law enforcement training area. That fight is ongoing.
@@erinmac4750 Solidarity and gratitude. I've been arrested multiple times while participating in a nonviolent blockade preventing/delaying the destruction of a critically-endangered woodland ecosystem to make way for a massive open-cut coal mine.
In the end, that campaign delayed, but didn't stop the destruction (corruption runs deep). But it also gained sufficient public attention that the next mega-coal mine saw a campaign more than ten times as big, with 5-10 times more direct actions taken, that lasted five times as long, and which was successful in stripping the proposed mine of most of its financial backing, delaying it by a decade, and reducing its scope by a factor of ten.
And that campaign has meant that for the first time in history, the government here has actually started saying "no" to a couple of proposed new mines, and with ongoing, increasing pressure, will eventually agree with what scientists were saying decades ago: new coal mines (and new dirty energy infrastructure more generally) is incompatible with a habitable planet (or a just society).
Trouble with human sewage is that it's highly contaminated with a wide range of pretty horrible things. Too many people think the drains are for any liquid waste, and even without that, the end results of all sorts of chemicals that humans ingest end up in that stream. Hormones, antibiotics and other weird things that are put in food.
Hello there, I appreciate a lot this canal. Here are some precision about this material called terra preta (do índio). It's called Biochar not because burning a biomaterials but because the char obtained by pyrolysis (or not ) is enriched with biology afterwards. Biology can be microorganisms or organic material. The main property of char is porosity, creating a home for microbiology and minerals(cation exchange) limiting lixiviation, particularly in tropical conditions with high level of biological degradation.
There many and many more chemical, physical and biological properties of Biochar that needs a lot of text to describe. A subject that should be studied extensively.
About the difference in growth between a grass and tropical pioneers the causes are interesting to analyse once you dig a bit more about biochar properties. About the 20% or 100% équivalence in the result, that's really a door open on further studies and my first reaction would be to focus on microbiology.
Anyway. With little input your video lets the subject very open on this complex question. Cheers
Great to have a focus on dark, rich healthy soils. Whilst it is good there is a potential, and much needed, downturn in the graph at 11:57, this a graph of deforestation - i.e. of continuous tree / rainforest loss since the late 1980s (as the line never goes below zero which ought to represent overall afforestation / net tree gain). Even in the "best" year just over 4,000 km2 of forest was lost. The line really needs to go quickly below zero (if afforestation / net tree gain is to occur unless that's a separate measure or otherwise to near zero) for the longest time.
Always enjoy your informative videos.
Thanks for the great work!
The research you quote seems to have missed the most important component of soil, the microbiome. It is not the inorganic components of terra preta that need to be replicated, it is the microbiome which can be propagated through composting and compost tea. Our recent developments in DNA and RNA analysis have shown that historically we have ignored the most important component of soil, its bacteria, fungi and larger organisms. Here in the UK and around the world the regenerative agriculture movement is learning how to improve soils through supporting and nuturing the microbiome
Hi Dave, very interesting topic and video :). May I suggest for anyone wishing to go further down the Amazon brazilian lane syntropic agroforestry developed by Ernst Götsch. This resulted in massive reforestation and changes in the... weather pattern of the region. More trees, more rain, therefore, water must be planted, not hoped/wished for!
You should feature Mossy Earth in one of your episodes, they do great work in the developed world on restoration of ecosystems!!
Brother, thank you as usual for your wonderful Contant. As a regenerative farmer who has been practicing these methods in Hawaii now for some years, the concept is completely valid, and I can demonstrate that as the biological complexity grows the ability for that Superorganism to re-integrate carbon dioxide into the soil accelerates in the diversity, creates a situation that results in overall wellness without the possibility of disease. However, we have a urgent situation at hand we are in. We need to sequester carbon as quickly as possible. Concept of indigenous versus invasive is a Victorian concept that needs to be overcome. Diversity is the key and allowing ecosystems to evolve in whatever way they will given climate change is necessary. The concept of indigenous is no longer applicable. What we can do is practice stewardship, and create a situation where we Create opportunities for beneficial plants and provide obstacles to proliferation for those that will not service in the long run. Stewardship with handicaps and assistance will allow us to evolve an ecosystem through active management, including incorporating dead material, and using animals none only for their manure, but for their dander, and for their ability to act, not only as fertilizers, but cultivators in a multi species, free range paradigm. The opportunities to, mitigate climate change through environmental restoration are really fantastic. But we need to get beyond a narrative of blame, including blame at the fossil fuel industry. Pesticide industry, and our war against bacterial and fungal and insect life are much more instrumental than a fossil fuel narrative. We are all addicted to a civilization entirely based on fossil fuels. We need to give ourselves time to transition to a lower energy future, where in the new energy will be a rise in human consciousness and greater active management. Thank you for all your good work. Godspeed.
With the horrible fires - I was thinking of Geoff Lawton and how he still had green vegetation during the horrible fires in Australia (which luckily did not hit his region). But he manages his soils, and above all brings water in the underground (also uses biochar as a tool) - so he still had water in the tanks and ponds and the green vegetation would have slowed down any fire. His neighbours (regular cattle farms like his property used to be) were already dry because of the draught.
Hawaii has plenty of rain and must have had excellent soils in the past. The natives had ways to farm that avoided erosion, compaction, and the soil and vegetation getting too dry. Which was the root cause of the fire. Not the wind guts or that a fire broke out and spread - than can happen. But if fire meets green vegetation it has to evaporate all the water and that reduces temperatures and speed. so it is much easier to contain.
What a hopeful and positive video! I very strongly suspect that the Brazilian scientists will make up the structure and composition of the soil as you described but that, to me, is only half of the job. Each batch must be inoculated with a small amount (teaspoon sized?) of good, old, well-developed Terra Preta because the zootic aspect of a soil is an essential part of any soil - bacteria, nematodes, fungus tiny insects etc
Where I live is just sand, like beach sand but without the pleasure of the Ocean. All we had were Mosquitoes and ants, and like 2 birds. So we put in a garden and started an open Aquaponics System to feed the plants. Well, that wasn't enough but the weeds looked great. So, I started building up the sand into soil with whatever I could get from the yard like leaves and pine needles, but that wasn't enough, so I researched every method available (and by this time burying over stock fish from the pond which yielded amazing results!) and stumbled across Terra Preta, the Terra Preta sticks around longer because of the Clay which helps bind the sand. We want a Regenerative Food Forest so we still have a lot to do but now we have wildlife! Bees, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Hummingbirds, Worms, Bugs, and Lizards to eat the Bugs, and an ever increasing population of new birds and species, a Rabbit and occasionally Deer tracks and it's amazing!
Clay does not bind sand and clay is not a part of terra preta. (a classic mistake of people with dense clay soil is to add sand in the hope of making it less dense - does not help much on its own). Terra preta Is carbon rich material that is burned (heated up) without oxygen. Clay on the other hand consist of mineral particles it is ground down rocks. Terra preta with its gazillions of pores (pretty much like medical coal) offers good living conditions for soil microbes (especially bacteria) and those microbes and other soil critters build humus - and those long chains (humus) are the glue that transforms dirt (whether sandy or dense) into good soil.
if you have sandy soil, they have good drainage - and very little ability to store water. Terra preta very much improves the abilit to hold water. Not only is it good for the plants in a very direct way - it is also good for the soil life that needs slightly moist conditions.
I bought 5 acres of poor rocky mountainside with a pinyon-juniper forest. Over 9 years I have improved the soil, brought in local seeds, and relied on birds to bring fertilizer and seeds. I love it and feed me and wildlife. Now have apex species from the wildlife corridor behind me.
This morning I was taking a bit of Maximilian Sunflower seeds to put out, and found 2 tree seedlings in one of what was the driest sand on the place. I don't even know what species yet! The only tree seeds I have distributed in that area have been apple seeds, and although tiny, it resembles an apple tree. I have planted apple seeds for 9 years.
In any event, the perennial Sunflower has edible leaves and an edible root much eaten by First Americans. I sure look forward to testing that out. They are a cousin to Jerusalem artichokes.
I have a foot injury or I would walk the hill to see if this is the Year of Crabapples.
Thanks for your comment, and more power to you.
This is interesting, especially that there's giant miscanthus, which grows well in Europe and is almost a perfect energy crop - except for that it's not convenient to use as fuel. I wonder if it could produce good yeld of biochar instead? I need to try this idea out with my own plants this autumn
Look at Allan savory who have the best technic to fight desertification.
Great video, thanks for the details and the links. Hope to meet you on the road someday.
I Really Enjoyed Today's Video So Much And I Really Learned Something New In This Video
We use charcoal, ashes, manures, scraps, plant matter and whatnot and have great black soil. We have a biodigestor for our black waters and the black muds are separated every year and a half more or less, treated with lime and used for fruit trees and ornamentals. We vermicompost and make liquid fertilizers with weeds. It is a choice to be responsible.
Ummm? So the "experts" have just worked out what good organic gardeners have known for generations. That good soil organics, biochar, compost and humanure combined with good plant cover including trees, make really good soil for growing things and is fully self sustaining....
over here in South Africa, we have peace gardens, dig a trench 2 meter by 1 meter and 1 meter deep. Put kitchen scraps in, cover with newspaper and a sprinkle of the removed soil to 10mm deep, repeat until it is a bit higher than the soil level, leave for a month and plant in it. This works.
I liked the video. You've highlighted the complexity of reforestation projects, which is fair due for the present times. There is also the fact that Biochar is not really performing as it was promising at first. Results on its efficacy are quite doubtful yet. Just saying that we don't know much yet, and it should be considered before starting large-scale project with this ingredient at hand. Thanks though, very inspiring as always.
I love - LOVE - that there's so much Science here backing up what most organic farmers all over the world have known since time immemorial: Composting works.
Gawd, I love this channel.
Always watch Just have a Think videos as soon as possible as they are so well researched/presented and positive. Thanks! 🙏❤️
Thank you Dave for this report, it's nice to hear some good news! This is something I've thought about for years, that we can restore degraded land and actually create fertile soil in deserts by using composed waste, organic matter and biochar. Once you reach the point where the soils are producing a decent yield, the land / the process becomes self-sustaining.
in a desert or a steppe you would still need irrigation, but even that would reduce over time as you build up your biomass.
I am so wishful that one day instead of weapons of war, the Nations of the world will come together and put that money into projects like this.
Step one, show the companies that make the war materials how they can still make money on projects that HELP humanity.
We can do both! Kill two birds with one stone. Wipe out 70% of the human population in an eco friendly manner and then rebuild with better methods.
BAM efficacy at its finest while also getting some amazing things like exo skeletons and some super soldiers.
Soil-improvements is one of those areas where different waste streams can be utilized in different ways.
Some are straight forward to turn into value added chemical/compost products like beef waste which mostly require big waterproof containers ideally kept at an above average temperature to turn that into biogas but not every type of waste product is well suited to that process.
Pig and chicken waste is high in nitrogen which promotes the formation of ammonia-producing bacteria in bioreactors which don't play nicely with the methane producing bacteria we're generally aiming for.
As an added problem bioreactors produce a solid remnant of indigestible substances (like lignin) that the bacterial processes struggle with so after you've got the biogas and the liquid fertilizer 'tea' you're left with a sludge you've got to do something with.
Turning it into fuel and soil improvements seems ideal as it solves the pathogen issues since pyrolysis involves temps around/above 800 C.
It’s not correct that deforestation is decreasing this year. To stop deforestation, need stop export (meet, wood and gold) from Amazon for other countries (many European). Greetings from Brazil 🇧🇷, your videos are great.
Eco tourism is a funny one. As the majority of the visitors will fly to the destination. Is there any analysis on the net benifit? Future video?
was a big new thing in gardening years ago, and since subsided
Hockey stick effect is how we learn to solve our problems almost as quickly as we create them.
Very interesting and well presented video. Thank you.
Brand new info to me, thanks very much Dave.
I was left a lot confused after this episode. As special as the soil is there is nothing unique about it.
It's just a deep use of biochar. The reason for the higher productivity is that biochar has enormous surface area compared to soil without it so soil bacteria have more habitat so their numbers are considerably higher in any given space. It's not only an Amazon thing either, lots of peoples have done the same just not to their extent.
On its own when inoculated with soil fauna biochar is a good growing medium. It is soil without all the dirt. I inoculate mine with worm juice, the runoff from a worm farm, which populates the char with the anerobic bacteria that are part of the nitrogen cycle, the aerobic comes when it's put into use.
If any gardener wants to see it for themselves all you need is a bag of charcoal either lump or briquettes preferably not self lighting. It's best to grind it down to a fine powder and apply as much as you want to your soil.
Just be aware that if you don't populate it with soil fauna first there will be a sharp loss of available nitrogen in the soil as the biology catches up but once it has the ground will have more productive potential and more available food.
Biochar is pretty cool stuff and fits in with "carbon farming" systems in general. I'm just finishing a phase testing formed biochar to replace perilite or vermiculite in potting soil and it's going great.
Bio char is not charcoal. Charcoal could be burned. Biochar does not burn, the production process is not the same as for charcoal. (the setup may seem somewhat similar but the chemical reactions is different).
@@franziskani no.
Char is coal or bio depending on the intended use. There are a couple tiers of quality for both. North American lump charcoal being low quality and binchotan the highest.
Regardless carbon is carbon its just a matter of how pure the char is. To get the highest quality you need to take the feedstock to 800 degrees but 1,110 is best.
I make both and my wife swears the biochar has made out crops yield a lot more.
I worked on a project on Pyrolysis/Biochar about 10 years ago. Cool idea, easy to do - mostly. The practical problem is mechanical - the precursor organic material doesn't transport or flow well and it has to be very dry or the economics get dicey. The political problem, unfortunately, is that anything related to roasting of organic matter tends to get lumped into the 'incineration' bucket and is therefore persona non grata. Its a good idea but NIMBY will keep this one out of any foreseeable green future - at least in the USA.
Was this a University project or what? I LOVE this kind of stuff and would love to read up on, or at least discuss what all you did.
Was the pyrolysis oil recovered etc?
Ive been waiting for this, since i first read about tera preta. When they buried orange peels, another magnificent result, but it was discontinued. If the world can work together about this, its a great begining.
6:50 I am so glad you added the comment about leaving the soil where it is and creating more artificially. I had images of diggers chewing up the Amazon to send soil to reforest the US and Europe.
I wonder if it could really work in non-tropical ecosystem though, I'm a bit skeptical about one-size-fits-all solutions. Maybe we're lucky and just a bit tinkering will be needed.
@@cpav9062 I agree. Mixing in charcoal, compost, bone meal, well rotted manure and some living soil is not exactly revolutionary. Almost any gardener does that every year.
thank you for a very uplifting episode I really look forward to your content every Sunday. Hope you have a good week and I will be back as always next Sunday.
skip the tourist ad in 11:04 11:39 It looks very much like a sponsorship where I do certainly believe it wasn't
This is a bit like what Allan Savory has talked about with grazing animals like cows. Sounded like in his TED Talk he was really onto something. The problem is that now that we have turned half the planet into desert we need water. Nuclear power would provide the power for desalination and pumping massive amounts of water around the planet.
I make biochar in my wood stove and add it to my worm castings to make a potent soil.
I would think the microbial, including fungal , composition is also important. Once artificially infused they should infuse it with a fraction of the original soil to enhance that aspect.
The original soil is pretty limited in quantity.
@@thebigpicture2032 Well luckily cultures are self propagating in the conditions they prefer. So if the culture takes in a synthetic batch of soil, then you can use that to propagate the culture in other synthetic batches.
Research was done 25 years ago using coal ash as the carbon supplement mixed with sewer waste from treatment works and paper waste from industry and the results were very good. The land was planted with native species which responded very well. BHP and and the local water treatment works where the driver of this project.
Love the great well researched videos you put out! But was a bit bothered by seeming to imply that the Amazon soil is special and should be used as soil amendment elsewhere. Well, there's a big lack of good studies on soil health and rehabilitation, but any good soil with humic acid, the "black earth" with it's characteristic smell, is a great start to spread the microbial and fungal life.
I've made a permaculture designer certification and it's eye-opening to see how industrial farming and agroforestry ignore completely wind factors, ecosystems, local microclimates, segregated from support species and animals, etc, etc... It's trying to have a clean slate of almost sterile ground to use the same recipe and seeds of fertilizer-driven crop production. We need big changes in the way food and wood production are made, leave the fallen leaves to rot on the soil, let the cities and towns be a bit more green and wild!
It is important to understand degraded soils. Generally they are soils not enriched by the grind of glaciers. Meaning that there are places much closer to home than the Amazon these techniques can be applied. Here in northern Kentucky the glaciers stopped north of the river in Ohio. Kentucky soil is tan, Ohio soil is dark. The same could apply to Europe. Definitely Spain but even as far north as southern Ireland. If your soils are tan is worth asking a soil expert about local benifits.
Uk which was under ice sheets has lost 40% soil fertility since ww2 according to articles i read in 2018 n thats all from industrial farming, tilling, monocrops n harsh petro chemicals destroying microbiota such as mycellium
I had a concrete slab supported about 1" (25mm) above the concrete driveway (Essex, UK) for about 30 years. When it came time to move it the earthworms had completely filled the gap with rich black soil & were still happily maintaining it. Within a few days of this soil being exposed to sunlight there was a covering of green shoots.
Nature looks after itself everywhere when given the chance, not just Brazil.
you might want to look into the work of Allan Savory. Soil restoration via healthy animal grazing. Bonus is that healthy grasses lock up CO2 in their roots systems and the cattle etc. feed the hungry.. something that a forest can't really do unless its' a mono crop using all sorts of chemicals.
how about a talk on bio char?
I had no idea that it can actually sequester CO2 - sounds counter-intuitive. So yes, would love to see a video on this.
In Shropshire we will soon be growing a large portion of our roads. Trees killed by Ash die-back will be removed from roadsides, turned to biochar (while generating electricity from the wood gas produced) then incorporated into asphalt to reduce the amount of tar. Perhaps even getting to carbon neutral roads...
Considering Carbon is the central component of terra preta and biochar, it is the carbon element that is the crucial component of soil
I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.
I seem to recall that there were some places that tried using biochar/tera preta and it didn't have the desired result. But for the places where it does, it sounds like something we should fund globally.
sounds like traditional farming practices in Asia. The food grown from these organic soil mix are very delicious. This is something you have to taste yourself to really believe/experience.
beautiful animations
Biochar can also be created from sewage sludge. It's already happening at commercial scale
Not sure if it's biochar though (at least in EU), I think it has to do with phosphorous and nitrogen. Also, there are some limitations relative to the concentration of some metals, pathogens and probably PFAS. And its usage is limited to some cultures and pastures.
Check out PYREG sludge pyreg.com/wp-content/uploads/2020_pyreg_brochure_sludge_EN.pdf
Just another superb video. Comment for you know what.
'The earth care manual' - Patrick Whitefield
Compost your poops!
Fantastic work. Thank you
Thanks for your support. Much appreciated! All the best. Dave
We know so little, but arrogantly think otherwise
It’ll be really tough to improve the soils where things are grown by using the waste from the concrete jungles. Cities simply act as malignant growths which suck up nutrient from the surrounding landscape and hemorrhage it into oceans and waterways from which it can not be recovered, hence the reliance on chemical fertilizers. Good luck with the holistic approach.
oh !! a breath of fresh air!!! a pun and a great thank you for the video!!
Even on land we use for relatively conventional agriculture, (that is, exclusive of agricultural systems that utilize mixed species forest agricultural techniques) changing the way we do tillage - minimizing or eliminating it, plus reducing or eliminating Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's) and using certain types of rotational grazing instead would sequester an amazing amount of carbon. See Dr. Elaine Ingham's and Gabe Brown's work (scientist and farmer, respectively) as just 2 examples of research, theory, and practice on the subject. As touched on in the video, biochar as was used to make terra preta is another valuable soil-enhancing and carbon sequestering method.
I wasn't very successful at gardening until I realized I wasn't growing plants I was growing roots. Soil matters.
great to hear some good news!
The Amazon is also fertilized annually by diatoms carried on air currents that come from the Bodele in Africa.
When you listen the minerals and metals found in the dried plant remains, the last bit sounded alot like batteries....
I wonder where i got that from
Adding charcoal has the advantage on its own of locking carbon up long term. It's worth doing in its own right.
We can start by asking farmers to turn stubble into biochar and plough it back into the field it came from.
This recycles some of the mineral nutrients that are normally lost when the stubble is disposed off away from the field.
I love this channel 😄
We've spent 40 years putting compost in our clay subsoil garden, and for 40 years it's been oxidizing into carbon dioxide and escaping to the atmosphere.
Last year I decided to turn some waste wood into biochar by burning half of it to turn the other half into biochar by pyrolysis (heating in inadequate oxygen). I did it the way people have been doing it for thousands of years: burning in a pit to choke off oxygen to the wood on the bottom. I also tried a barrel, but turned out about the same.
Theoretically, the char sequesters carbon (not carbon dioxide as you said) for hundreds of years. Of course I burned half of it but the rest will persist forever, and I'll do more again this year. But biochar isn't a fertilizer. You need to charge it with nutrients or the raw char will actually reduce fertility until it soaks up its fill. The pores allow nutrients and water to be absorbed and released when plant roots go through it. Also it's a fine home for soil fungus. It reduces fertilizer runoff and less is needed. Mechanically, it's a soil amendment which breaks up clay particles. A similar commercial product in the USA is called Miracle Gro, which is a black compost/char/fertilizer mix. Anything black means carbon.
Excess heat and volatiles can be used as a byproduct in a commercial biochar retort.
It is normal that compost only lasts a few years. 1 - 3 depending on your climate. But during that time it helps soil life so indrectly it helps to build humus (and that can last for at least 100 years if not longer - if you do not use farming practices that destroy and erode soil.
You are right biochar is a soil amentment and makes soil into a better substrate and a better home for beneficial soil microbes. And it helps to store water (again helping soil life - not to mention your crops).
Great video!
Folk do use the Humanure process to good effect ... there are units etc that can be bought. Obviously there will be restrictions depending on where you live. Wood ashes, seaweed, weeds, comfrey and other green manures and animal manure soon have soils looking darker and growing stuff with ease. I do like your vlogs ... but I just wish folk would love Mother Earth again and read up on how to naturally replenish the nutrients....it is as old as the hills and very simple really.
Been doing it for years. You should try the food we grow!
I have a hypothesis on how Terra Preta was formed. The people of the Amazon would make throwaway clay pottery vessels to store both kitchen refuse and their own human waste and, after each use, they would throw charcoal (biochar) on the top to keep the odor down. After the vessel was full with multiple layers of refuse and charcoal, they would go to a community trench and throw the whole pot in, shattering it. Once the trench was mostly full, they'd cover it with dirt and then plant. That's why clay pottery shards are found everywhere in Amzonian Terra Pretta. The clay shards are porous (much like biochar) and provide a wicking function for rainfall and are beneficial bacteria and fungus, which for a symbiotic relationship with plant roots to bring the roots both water and nutrients from beyond the root zone. You can find more thoughts on this by going to David The Good's Website "thesurvivalgardener.com" and doing a search on the aritcle "The Effect of Pottery Shards in Terra Preta". I believe he has a TH-cam video on this as well.
First I thought this would be boring, but again... Interesting!
The bio char you mentioned. Didn't, in an earlier video, you look at a company in PA, I think, that had a process for turning sewage into bio char? I seem to recall watching that.
Very interesting about the Amazon soil. Who'd think it was man-made?
I was lucky in finding myself gifted with a huge heap of charcoal sitting to one side of my (Scottish) garden (2 acres) when I moved in - didn't know it was a gift at the time, and cursed the stuff as I began to think of how to re-landscape the area.
However, once it had been spread out at last, the landscaping done, and things planted in it - boy, did they grow.
I decided on a small pinetum (pine arboretum) in that part of the garden (I like pines and only 3 days ago I was delighted to find the rarely seen 'Firecrest' bird has not only moved into my garden, they are nesting here in one of the young pine trees. I haven't seen this dinky little bird in nearly 40 years.
I took some of the charcoal to another part of the garden and, now that I think about it, that's where Bluebells first appeared in the garden, and where they do best, producing the largest, healthiest plants.
In the last few years, after having suffering a few false starts in other parts of the garden, namely with trees that wouldn't settle happily in soil that had been exhausted by overgrazing, I decided to start planting 'Silver Birch' trees.
I did this because I noticed that Silver Birch always appear to be the first to colonise a bit of wasteland or a demolition area. Since then, I've come to know that Silver Birch is considered a 'Frontier Tree.'
With that in mind, I now raise any Birch seedlings I find scattered around the garden, and plant them everywhere there is space. As soon as I have a need to take that space back to plant something better, I only need cut the Silver Birch down and stack it for firewood.
I always put the ash from my fireplace back into the garden and have no need to buy extra firewood because of the number of trees I now grow.
So, I have the charcoal and the ash.
Human poop?
I'm not there with that one as yet...
I do collect urine from the family though. Not only is it a good fertiliser, but it seems to be a fairly okay-ish barrier against slugs trying to get to my broad beans. I put this down to the salts, which do not - so far - seem to affect the plants. I am making sure I do dilute the urine down.
I'm also using it as a partial deterrent against invading deer. (No one thing on its own scares off deer, 'that' I have learned the hard way. But doing a number of scent and visual things does seem to unsettle them just enough to 'reduce' the frequency of plant attacks).
Pottery?
I will need to start asking if anyone has any old terracotta they don't want. Just smash it to smithereens I suppose.
In addition to the above 'black earth' ingredients, I would like to add another ingredient to the list. I have discovered that certain Spring bulbs slowly 'darken' soil over time.
From my own garden-wide experiments - Snowdrops turned out to be the best manufacturers of quality soil, Bluebells coming in a hot second. Spring Snowflakes are fair to middling, just taking longer to get the same result.
Daffodils, Wild Garlic and Lilies don't seem to make a significant amount of difference to soil quality, even after 20 years. I think they take back pretty much all the goodness they put into leaves/flowers. So, I wouldn't be surprised if many other bulbs were proven to do likewise.
Many permaculturists favour Comfrey as a soil builder, but there are other plants that are good for soil building too, since these bring up other elements from deep down in the ground in the same way Comfrey does.
Other chop-and-drop plants I use include Broad-Leaved Dock and Dandelion. Rosebay Willow Herb is excellent as a soil builder - collect when in flower, chop up or stack. Beautiful light, fluffy soil from that (but never let them go to seed. I made that mistake and one summer spent recovering from an op was all they needed to start spreading out of control). Two more good ones are ordinary clump ferns and Bracken.
Bracken was a right devil inhabiting one corner of my garden and had been rapidly spreading at one point. Now, I eagerly search for new fronds (increasingly rare every year), pull them up at the base, fold them and dump them as a mulch under fruit bushes. The resulting soil is excellent.
I have been growing my own ferns as a soil conditioner for a long time now. The crowns divide naturally, and I just dig out pieces to transplant under another tree to become a ready source of mulch in situ. Bracken and ferns have good water retention abilities.
it was their local sewage dump, nothing more, nothing less.... then other people dug it up
He had me in the first half, but when he started talking about Peltphorum I got dubious...