Forget the past, carbon-rich soil may be the ticket to sustainable agriculture

San Jose Mercury ^ | March 3, 2019 | Helen Santoro

[artichokegrower]

Loren Poncia scooped up a handful of dark, damp soil that could change the future of farming.

The nutrient-rich muck was filled with slithery earthworms and thin, white roots sprouting in every direction like lightning bolts.

“This is the carbon farmer’s dream,” he exclaims. “We want to see like 10 worms in a shovel-full.”

[artichokegrower]

“By adding carbon into our farming systems, we can help reverse climate destabilization and buffer agriculture systems,” said Creque, a co-founder of the Marin Carbon Project. “It’s a win-win that begs for application on a global scale.”

I've been in agriculture for the last 44 years. These university types are always coming up with new "sustainable" ideas. Adding carbon to the soil causes the soil bacteria to begin the process of breaking this carbon down. To fuel this process the bacteria use the available soil nitrogen. These wanabee agriculturalists have ignored the basics of the soil carbon nitrogen ratio. More carbon less nitrogen.

[null and void]

IIRC, the Mayans added charcoal to their poor dirt to make soil.

[SpaceBar]

Sheltered suburban idiots discover dirt. Film at eleven.

[Cicero]

Maybe we’d better ask Al Gore about this.

[oldasrocks]

Anyone needing good soil is welcome to comer over and scoop out my chicken house.

[Flag_This]

"IIRC, the Mayans added charcoal to their poor dirt to make soil."

They have "terra preta" in the Amazon. It's a mixture of charcoal, broken pottery and compost that the indians in Brazil used to make about a thousand years ago.

[Sacajaweau]

Let’s think about it....we put manure on crops and surely that manure contains a lot of cow farts. So we’ve been doing this forever.

[null and void]

AH!!! That’s it! Freezer are awesome!

[null and void]

dammit! FReepers are awsome!

[Fungi]

Same as biochar. Amazonian soil is very poor, forming laterite after a few seasons worth of planting, and forcing farmers to move to another patch.

[catnipman]

dey gonna need all dat gute chickenshit nitrogen wit all dat carbon dey be a addin ...

[dfwgator]

[catnipman]

“More carbon less nitrogen. “

indeed. compost pile 101 says add grass clippings when adding leaves ...

[DoughtyOne]

I noticed more than ten worms in the first paragraph...

Okay, couldn’t resist.

Finally! Carbon is good again!

[Sacajaweau]

https://www.thoughtco.com/chemical-composition-of-farts-608409

[daniel1212]

What think ye of this: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Black-Kow-50-lb-Organic-Cow-Manure/3047339

[artichokegrower]

“Many conventional farms till their soil and strip the land of all vegetation, reducing the amount of carbon in the soil, said Jeanne Merrill, the policy director of the California Climate and Agriculture Network.”

They are called weeds Jeanne and yes we do get rid of them.

[daniel1212]

indeed. compost pile 101 says add grass clippings when adding leaves ...

3 brown to one green IIRC.

[Mrs. Don-o]

For 15 years we were heating with a wood-burning stove and I was making biochar, pounding it as fine as I could (from gravelly to powdery) and adding it to the soil --- like the South American terra preta. You're supposed to soak it is a nitrogen-rich fertilizer before you add it to the soil, or it will indeed initially deplete nitrogen.

I believe it was the Incas (?) who added the limitlessly bountiful, cheap and excellent N source: urine.

I found the biochar greatly stabilized any fertilizer I used, absorbing the minerals, keeping them and "grabbing" them in the root zone rather than letting them erode or runoff or leach away. The biochar then slowly releases he nutrients to be available in the root zone. Sort of a time-release concept. Ultimately we used a lot less fertilizer, with good results.

Anybody else have experience to share?

[Right Wing Assault]

Plants like a lot of C02 in the air, too.