Yours A.D.Karve
On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 9:45 AM, David Murphy
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Joe, you might find it of interest to look
up John D. Hamaker on the net. He was an
American Mechanical Engineer who turned his
mind (and subsequently devoted his life) to
improving soil by the addition of rock dust.
He saw global warming as a precursor to the
next ice age. He saw an ice age as essential
refurbishment of the earth's resources.
His argument has a lot of good solid logioc
to it and it's worth adding to your store of
knowledge on the general topic. If he's
proven right, then we're in a lot of trouble
! If you want to study it further I have
a DVD I made from a tape he produced I could
let you have.
Rock dust is a storehouse of minerals, all
of which are essential to growth. First
to plants and then to the animals which eat
them - including us humans. Rock dust is
insoluble to water but not to enzymes which
are produced by soil benevolent bacteria -
bacteria which are present in soil with good
OM and in compost. Many readers of this
string will be aware of it's benefits when
used as fertiliser.
Seeking to remedy climate change purported
to be caused by anthropomorphic global
warming is an extraordinarily complex
question. And seeking to make a
contribution by sequestering carbon as
charcoal is in itself another complex range
of issues. The charcoal must be first
ligneos carbon - wood - and it is probably
almost as good to lock up some of that
carbon in timber for building houses or
making furniture.
I'd promote the first step by making the
sequestration of the carbon as part of a
broader program of building building soil
organic matter OM. This includes animate
carbon as well as vegetative. At least
get it up to 5% to plough depth, say 10
inches (250mm) as a minimum, aiming at
20%. That in itself locks away a lot of
carbon, but of a different nature, in that
it's available to contribute to plant
growth, growth without the need for chemical
or artificial fertilisers.
Every 1% increase in soil OM (world wide)
would be a lockup of around 30 billion
tonnes of carbon in a world which generates
now (probably) 20 million tonnes
annually. Just for the record, the
biggest emitter of CO2, bigger than every
other agency combined - every factory,
airplane, car truck tractor etc and so on -
is the soil of the earth as it respires.
So, the more land we put down under crop to
feed the increasing billions, the more CO2
we produce and put into the atmosphere.
So, it's a race against a proven runner - so
called mother Nature - and she's a proven
stayer.
On the other hand, some of the wise owls are
now saying it's not CO2 at all, but PCB's
causing the damage. Maybe they're right -
who knows _for sure ?_ Nobody I'm aware
of despite what they say. It's all
conjecture, some of it soundly based, but
still conjecture relying on historical info
compiled over a geological blink.
Using charcoal and zeolite together is a bit
like wearing belt & braces with
self-supporting trousers. It certainly
works !
The easy and less costly way is to just get
the OM into the soil and plant stuff to grow
and suck up all the CO2 and N.
But whatever you do, don't stop the good work.
David Murphy.
On 08/12/2013 12:33 PM, Joe Barnas wrote:
DAVID,
Thankyou for the insightful overview of
biochar and comparative functionality of
Zeolite, of which I was not familiar.
However one thing I am focused on is how to
address catastrophic global climate change
and for that having billions of gardeners
sequestering carbon, while building healthy
soil and hence healthy food is not
something that Zeolite can provide. It is
another tool in growing food, yes, but
let's not lose sight of the long term
benefit of promoting biochar. I might even
try mixing some with biochar just to gain
the N adsorption benefits.
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 2:00 PM, David
Murphy <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Greetings Biochar/Gasifier people !
Everybody & his dog seems to have
something to say about
charcoal/biochar/biochar-compost mix
and so on. Well, here's another dog
to bark his piece !
Biochar is often seen as the great
agricultural panacea, but _it is
not_.Biochar is a name given to plain
ordinary charcoal to indicate that it
is destined for use in soil
improvement, but basically it is still
plain ordinary charcoal, just crushed
into smaller particles. In some
circumstances it is a very beneficial
tool but it is not magical as some
proponents seem to think. Just
remember, all charcoal has a bio-origin
- wood.
In some Ag. trials in Australiait
significantly improved crop volume
(treble in one case) but in other
instances, nothing worth writing home
about.It depends on what the soil is
like to start with.
Charcoal is stable.That means it does
not take part in any composting system
(which is one primarily of bacterial
digestion) and it is indigestible so
that when offered as a dietary
supplement (in poultry food for
example) it passes through the
digestive system physically unchanged
but will adsorb a high proportion of
the gases and some toxins produced in
the process of digestion, because that
is what charcoal does. For this
reason, it's adsorption capability,
poultry will generally do better on a
little charcoal.
Quite a few pages could be filled on
the beneficial services provided by
charcoal as it travels through the
digestive system, but it does it as
charcoal only and as nothing else. By
all means use a little in the feed, you
can only benefit.
The only physical way to change the
nature of charcoal is to burn it.
That is why it lasts in soil (or
wherever it is) for thousands of years.
It has an incredibly high surface area
of 360 m^2 (varies) and is a mass of
minute tunnels which in turn means a
very high volume and gases become
trapped in these tunnels.It does not
_ab_sorb, it _ad_sorbs and traps
only.The difference between absorb and
adsorb is the same as the difference in
liquids of suspension and solution.Clay
particles will be in suspension, sugar
and salt go into solution.
Charcoal is useful in an aerobic
composting system because again of the
entrapment of air in the tunnels.A
composting system goes well if there is
enough oxygen bearing air available to
the bacteria which are a significant
part of the system.The more air, the
higher the population of bacteria
(other factors being OK). The charcoal
itself is inoperative, and doesn't
change, nor is it a catalyst, it simply
provides a service. It will only
provide a haven for soil benevolent
bacteria if there is something trapped
in the tunnels which the bacteria can eat.
Charcoal is a good adsorber of gas and
liquid simply because that is what it
does.Zeolite on the other hand, can
have an even higher surface are per
gram and has a propensity to entrap
gases, most particularly nitrogen in
it's various forms -- as gas --
ammonium for example -- and in liquids
as a salt of NO_3 .It actually draws
them in (like a magnet attracts ferric
objects) where charcoal just takes it
as it comes. It is easy to see also
why charcoal is so effective as a
filter, but if you have a solution rich
in nitrogen, run it through Zeolite and
the N will be removed. Add some to the
litter in poultry grower sheds, there
will be fewer mortalities because the
ammonia which sometimes will asphixiate
small birds will be absorbed.
Zeolite will take N out of solution,
charcoal will not. There's 40
natural forms of Zeolite and more than
another 150 can be synthesised, so
choose carefully for the one most
appropriate to your problem. Zeolite
can perform an amazing range of
actions. Once used and applied as
fertiliser, Zeolite subsequently will
release the N slowly and remain in the
soil as a balancer of N. Too much, it
will take it in (so that the soil pH is
not lowered) and release it as required.
Charcoal's great stuff though, it's
easy to make and holds answers to a lot
of problems - but not all !
David Murphy.
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--
Joe Barnas
Portland, OR
541-525-1665
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***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural
Technology Institute (ARTI)
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