Terra Preta de Indio sounds better, but biochar works

[Steve]

Yo, Billy. New Biochar Test Shows up to 17% Crop Yield Increase, Lower Soil Nutrient Depletion

[Billy]

"The nearly year-long test, done in collaboration with BlueLeaf Inc., found that plots where Dynamotive's CQuest Biochar was applied had 6-17% increases in crop yields, compared to control plots. Additionally, the biochar plots showed high plant density and greater root depth (68% increase). Lower rates of nutrient depletion during the growing season were also observed in the biochar plots, phosphorus depletion was down

44%. The test plots were located in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and had some 3,500 lbs/acre of biochar applied."

------- That's the first year. See the results for three years below, noted in the book "1491", pg. 346. "In a preliminary test run at creating terra preta, Steiner, Wenceslau Teixeira of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise, and Wol-fang Zech of the University of Bayreuth applied a variety of treatments involving charcoal and fertilizers for three years to rice and sorghum plots outside Manaus. In the first year, there was little difference among the treatments (except for the control plots, in which almost nothing grew). By the second year, Steiner said, "the charcoal was really making a difference." Plots with charcoal alone grew little, but those treated with a combination of charcoal and fertilizer yielded as much as 880 percent more than plots with fertilizer alone. His "terra preta" was this productive, Steiner told me, despite making no attempt to re-create the ancient microbial balance."

[Charlie]

Thanks for the link and the test results. FUnny thing ain't it, that GM crops are showing an overall "reduction" in yield and that the morons are screaming that organic and alternative methods cannot feed the world.

sigh.....and we are called kooks by the great unwashed.

Charlie, chopped liver apparently (which by the way, is very very good stuff)

[Steve]

FUnny indeed. Ah well, the flat earth gene pool had to surface somewhere. It's genetic whack-a-mole.