Building Soil

[_Keith]

I ran across a reference to this article on another forum. It is indeed a fascinating piece. I would be interested in hearing your opinions on this, particularly Don's opinion, but also your thoughts on building good soil. Nothing is more important right? What are you doing? What is working for you, what is not?

http://www.anthonares.net/2006/07/terra-pr...ainability.html

[Mark_NoVA]

Very interesting, thanks for the link!

[FRITO]

I started composting all material, from the leavs and branches that fell on my porperty to the fruti and veggies and coffe ground waste I produce.

Most people take sticks and branches, hedge trimmings and rake leaves. then bag it or set it at the curb or throw it over the back fence in to that abandoned property.

this is taking nutrients from your soil basically and giving it to someone else. I compost everything I can. I shred paper at my computer desk - with low ink levels (hopefully this is good for the compost). the large branches that fall from trees get moved and form natural borders to my 'beds'

Huge branches and old palms fronds all make there way back into my soil somehow. Plus tons of imported mulch.

the soil is alway better in shadier area where the microbes can live and not bake in the sun.

[FRITO]

heres a border I made last April

[Tyrone]

Very interesting.

I wonder if humans were to look after the land everywhere like this, whether there would ever be a food shortage ever again. But man is greedy isn't he.

Once again the "primitive" people are proving to have been rather advanced.

Everyone compost

regards

Tyrone

[DoomsDave]

Fascinating!

I'd heard about evidence of an "advanced" civilization in the Amazon, which the present-day "Indians" don't know much about, either.

It also begs some other questions -- what happened to that civilization? When?

[Wai`anae Steve]

Frito,

Who are you keeping out w/that fence? Barbed wire on top.

[Kris]

here is the soil that i prepare...

[amazondk]

Keith,

I have brought this subject up in past posts. In fact I have even posted some pictures on land that is Terra Preta. The soil is black and mixed with pottery shards. In some areas there are up to 200 to 300 hectares of this man made soil. You find them all over the region. In some areas more than others. And, these areas were where the precolombian population was greatest. There were from 5 to 10 million inhabitants in the Brazilian amazon region when the Europeans came. There are about 25 million today. And, these people did not live in cities like manaus with 2 million plus people. It appears that 15 percent of Brazilian Amazonia was deforested 500 years ago, as compared to 18 percent today. So, it is not that man has suddenly destroyed the place. It has been altered by man for a long time. After the decimation of the original people many areas reverted to forest. You can see a human foot print on many forest areas of the region. It is easy for someone who knows the forest to spot Terra Preta areas the vegetation is markedly different. I have some pictures somewhere of this. What is true that the type of large scale deforestation for cattle ranching and large scale farming (agro business) was not the pattern. The areas were smaller and directly supported the inhabitants nearby. The best theory is that these areas were sort of like organic dumps and they were purposely mixed with charcoal and pottery shards to enhance the soil characteristics. I think that my lot on the other side of the river has soil which shows some sort of modification from past uses. It is a sandy mix fairly rich in organic matter. It has been used for some type of agriculture for a long time I am sure. The area around Manaus had a high precolombian population. Which only makes sense. The black water areas are great to live by as there are very few bothersome biting insects and the nearby Amazon floodplain varzea has great soil which is deposited from Andean run off and very rich fisheries. That is one of the reasons it has been a metropolitan city of it's size today. There is advanced pottery found along the Negro River dating back over 3,000 years. I have seen some of this and it is impressive as to the detail in the artwork. The key is what can be done now to replicate these soils and increase productivity. Today one of the main uses for isolated patches of Terra Preta is marijuana farming. Most of the pot coming to Manaus from the interior is grown on these soils in the Eastern part of the state. This is exactly the area I spent quite a bit of time in a few years ago looking for forest land. We always stayed away from the pot farming areas as you never knew if someone might not want you around and shoot at you. In fact the whole of tropical America had a large population at European contact. There were more people on Hispanola at the time I believe than there were in many in many parts of Europe at the time. The original inhabitants had developed a very good agricultural system based on root crops using a mound type of cultivation. If my memory is correct the Spanish census taken at Columbus's time was between 2 and 4 million people on the island. The Europeans tried to convert the place to their type of agriculture relying on seed crops and cattle. This did not work too well. Not to mention they enslaved the locals and killed them off in the gold mines.

I could go on a lot about this subject. It is very interesting and there are a lot of lessons for our time.

Dave, as I mentioned above the precolombian tropical american population was large throughout the region. In fact there are some that believe that advanced culture developed first in the Amazonian lowlands and then migrated to the Andes. The rivers and climate provided an easy and abundant source of protein as well as good natural soil on the flood plain. And then there was Terra Preta. The Europeans did a great job at Genocide when they decided to take the Americas. This was I believe both intentional to control gold and land. And, incidental due to decimation by European diseases. Since the American natives did not keep domestic animals, except maybe chickens they did not have the natural resistance to diseases such as swine flu and others that the Europeans did. What happended in the 15th Century was a massive depopulation of Tropical America. Many areas in Central America now in what people call virgin rain forest were actually farm lands 500 years ago. The area of Darien between Panama and Colombia was quite well populated and the Spaniards could easly ride there horses through areas that are dense unpopulated forest today. The Spaniards kept pretty good records of their early contacts in the region and tell in detail of the landscape they encountered and the the people. One of the best books on this is The Early Spanish Main by Carl Sauer (the founder of cultural Geography), my major in school as it happens.

dk

[amazondk]

I found this image I posted a long time ago of what Terra Preta looks like. This area in Eastern Amazonas was 17 hectares in size. The owner used to grow bananas there. They did very well. I don't know how deep the soil is, but it goes down a bit. I found some pottery shards there as well. As you can see it is really black. Preto or preta in Portuguese means black it is used the same way as negro / negra.

[ariscott]

Perfect organic black soil!!!!!!! What a perfect place to establish your garden!!

Our soil is not bad - as it is ex market garden. When we bought the place, as it has been cleared, it was baked by the sun. When we dig down... it is better than any place that we looked at here in Darwin. Most property we looked at were either swampy - where nothing will grow, or full of coffee rock. Since we got it and started planting almost 2 years ago (yes... we started planting even before the house was built), we have been putting around 75 cubic metres of euc mulch, 150 bales of hay - probably closer to 200. And yes... in the almost 2 years, we can see the improvement in the soil. We now have heaps of worms and it is full of organics. That is what we do and it works. I did it in Gove as well - and the soil there is laterite - which is much worse. And after 2 years of heavy mulch... we finally got decent top soil!! So, if I can garden in rocks, anyone can garden.

Yes, Tyrone... I compost as well... I planted dillenia alata next to my compost bin and I can't believe how big the leaves get... It must've loved the nutrients!!!!

Regards, Ari

[amazondk]

Ari,

It is incredible stuff. When you pick it there is a great organic aroma and it is loose and does not compact. It is probably one of the richest soils in the world. And, when you think that some of these areas were created several thousand years ago and they are still going strong.

dk

[_Keith]

Keith,

I have brought this subject up in past posts.

Thanks, I'll do a search. This is a fascinating topic. Hopefully, it is not in the archives, which may be lost forever.

[amazondk]

Keith,

You can find a lot of information by googling terra preta do indio and indian black earth. I will see if I can find some more pictures I have of areas with this soil. Everywhere you go around here in the interior you find it. There is even some patches by the reservoir where I go fishing. The fishing guides plant watermelons there. Watermelons grow great in the stuff.

dk

[_Keith]

Back to the main post topic. Prior to moving here, in my suburban back yard I hauled in over 30 truckloads of free municipal compost. Now this is rough stuff. Some fine compost but lots of pencil size and larger sticks too. I piled it in every bed about 6 inches thick, two years in a row. I did nothing more after that, other than mulching some, but not all of the beds. The tranistion of the soil was incredible over 4 years. Even in areas that were compacted, even one area that was used a gravel driveway. The first year not much happened. The second year, plant growth began show fundamental changes. By year 3, no matter where I stuck a shovel in the ground, it went in like butter. Even through areas that were gravel. Areas that were not treated to the generous application of compost were the same as before, sticky clayish when wet, and concrete when really dry. I am not exaggerating on this.

Now, that I have moved onto 3 acres I have done far less of this, due to the sheer size of the project, but I plan to start doing more this year. I will first focus on the area nearest my house which is what is called locally as A4 clay. Next best thing to concrete for soil stabilization. I tried to plant sometihng in it last year, and no kidding, I had to use a drill and an auger to make the hole. Tried a pick ax first and gave up. This stuff is that tough. Great testing ground.

You would be amazed over 3 acres how much the soil can vary, particularly on a lot that has been in use for nearly 200 years. I have horrible soil compaction on the front acre. Incredible silty clay loam soil, but with some areas of brick in-fill in the middle acre, and mostly rich alluvial deposits on the rear acre nearest the river. Oh, and an old gravel road running right through the middle. There are many large oaks too. I never dig a hole without a shovel, an axe, and a pick axe at hand.

On the composting side, I never throw anything away that will rot. Rather than compost piles at this point, I usually just go out, dig a hole and bury it putting soil right back on top. Other than that, I am now going to start hauling truckload after truckload of municipal compost.

After reading some other threads, I also plan to call the local tree trimmers to dump some raw grindings as well. I have many places that won't be developed for a few years, so I plan to dump the raw stuff, spread it, and just let it rot down in place.

Most of my bed areas are too big to mulch economically, so I will go with ground covers, but not until after a couple of years of thick compost being deposited.

[amazondk]

Keith,

That sounds like a great project. I still have to figure out what I am going to do with our lot in the country. I need to get a shredder so that I grind up material from pruning and thining. Right now my only option is burning what I have cut down from the brush that I have cleared. Here at my house in the city which has a very small area for a garden I have been using left over charcoal for mulch around the palms. The charcoal we get here is lump charcoal made from tree branches not the manufactured kind. I ended up digging up a lot of information about the terra preta while looking into charcoal as a mulch. I can get a lot of wood processing material, chips from moulders and planers for example. These are loose wood flakes which could do pretty well. And, there is a ready supply of chicken manure which can be mixed with the wood chips for composting. The area of the lot in secondary forest, about a third I am just letting nature take her course making natural top soil. This is a very thin layer here though because organic matter is recycled so fast back to the trees. When you walk in areas of forest it is like walking on a sponge normally. But, when you cut down the trees it quickly can become like a rock.

dk

[ariscott]

Keith,

It is worth the money, trust me!! We spent a lot of money on mulch and the plants are doing so much better this year. A lot of work too spreading it. I just finished mulching everything before the dry hits and I swore to use hay next time. Easier to spread than those bark. I think Scott and I had done our back in the past few months... spreading at least 50 cubic metres of it. I wish I had a bobcat for all those mulch. BTW, we have to do it twice a year here because the heat breaks them down too fast... but you... probably once a year??

BTW, it is worth calling your tree loppers - that is where we get ours from. Although theirs not as good as the ones from garden centres, they are less than half the price..and the plants don't know any difference.

Regards, Ari

Edited April 25, 2008 by ariscott

[Randall]

I started composting all material, from the leavs and branches that fell on my porperty to the fruti and veggies and coffe ground waste I produce.

Most people take sticks and branches, hedge trimmings and rake leaves. then bag it or set it at the curb or throw it over the back fence in to that abandoned property.

this is taking nutrients from your soil basically and giving it to someone else. I compost everything I can. I shred paper at my computer desk - with low ink levels (hopefully this is good for the compost). the large branches that fall from trees get moved and form natural borders to my 'beds'

Huge branches and old palms fronds all make there way back into my soil somehow. Plus tons of imported mulch.

the soil is alway better in shadier area where the microbes can live and not bake in the sun.

I've heard if you're gonna use shredded paper in your compost, to use only paper printed in black, and not colored ink. I haven't a clue why that is.

[_Keith]

This was once a worry. Up until a decade or so ago, lead, cadmium and other toxic heavy metals were commonly used in paper inks. Today, however, most publishers use organic pigments. Most of these pigments are the same as those used in tattoos, lipstick, hair coloring and other cosmetics. You may have seen the "soy ink" symbol on a newspaper, which tells the reader that the newspaper company is using soybased inks for printing.

[amazondk]

Keith,

I guess one could find something negative in most anything if they want. The consumption of soy based products for inks could lead to increased deforestation in Amazonia to create more farm land to supply the worlds ever increasing demand. Even though cattle feed, oil, and other uses are the main villans. I guess you could say that any industrial use of soy beans is a contributing factor. That is not to say that heavy metals are better than soybeans.

dk

[ghar41]

Im constantly building my soil with organic material. This year Im adding coffee grinds.

http://www.cycad.org/Documents/Broome-Coffee-2007.pdf