Hi Robert,
You said this again, (and I questioned before whether you meant what you had posted before) ...
Regards,
SeanThis goes to the heart of the problem facing the originators of the terra preta soils.
1 They did not have the tools to physically handle the available biomass. We actually have limitations today. Their solution was as always to use slash and burn. The burn off of the undergrowth would also kill off the larger trees which would then rot out over the next two years or so. Remember, that this is the Amazon.
2 The ash would provide the nutrients for corn and cassava culture. Without terra Preta methods, this would be exhausted in two to three years.
3 With terra preta methods applied to the corn in particular, and a continuing burn off of the field to suppress weeds and regrowth we get the resultant soils with a modest labor input.
4 I emphasize the corn because it clearly produces the several times as much biomass as any likely crop can produce, and it lends itself to the manufacture of a biochar stack. However, any other convenient waste material that could be handled by hand would also be thrown into the stack.
5 Pollen analysis has confirmed the two principal crops of corn and cassava, which ended any uncertainty I might have had.
The problem is that the only energy available to a farm family then was their own. That is the over riding constraint that we cannot avoid.
1 They did not have the tools to physically handle the available biomass. We actually have limitations today. Their solution was as always to use slash and burn. The burn off of the undergrowth would also kill off the larger trees which would then rot out over the next two years or so. Remember, that this is the Amazon.
2 The ash would provide the nutrients for corn and cassava culture. Without terra Preta methods, this would be exhausted in two to three years.
3 With terra preta methods applied to the corn in particular, and a continuing burn off of the field to suppress weeds and regrowth we get the resultant soils with a modest labor input.
4 I emphasize the corn because it clearly produces the several times as much biomass as any likely crop can produce, and it lends itself to the manufacture of a biochar stack. However, any other convenient waste material that could be handled by hand would also be thrown into the stack.
5 Pollen analysis has confirmed the two principal crops of corn and cassava, which ended any uncertainty I might have had.
The problem is that the only energy available to a farm family then was their own. That is the over riding constraint that we cannot avoid.
