Re: [SeBIG] Elaine Ingham's antipathies

[Erich Knight]

O The Muck & The Mystery,

Adding Soil-Age to this latest convolutions of Elaine's thinking.

I'm quite astounded she would use such an analogy as anaerobic muck to make "her" points about elemental raw char being lifeless.

What mental gymnastics she must go through to come up with that?, and for what?
How confusing for her students?,

Cheers,

Erich

Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd. McGaheysville, VA. 22840
  540-289-9750   

Policy & Community Chairman
2013 North American Biochar Symposium
Harvesting Hope: The Science & Synergies of Biochar
October 13-16, 2013 at UMASS Amherst
http://pvbiochar.org/2013-symposium/

On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 10:34 PM, John Bonitz <john....@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends,

I had the interesting experience today of hearing a four hour seminar by Dr Elaine Ingham, of soil food web fame.  She spoke this afternoon at the NCSU Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center.

It is fairly well known that she's said some disparaging things about biochar in the past.  Erich Knight has made valiant efforts to engage her meaningfully, with very little constructive response.  Perhaps others in the biochar community have as well.

So, going into this event, I was prepared to hear something critical, or at least skeptical.  I also knew that Dr Ingham tends to rail against the practices that create anaerobic conditions that are so common in conventional agricultural soils.  She rightly points out the ways in which these oxygen-starved soil conditions tend to favor disease producing bacteria, fungi, and nematodes.  Unfortunately, along the way, she dismisses bokashi (or lactobacterial anaerobic composting) as promoting and continuing the same disease-producing conditions.

But today the glib and entirely unscientific way in which she disparaged biochar today really threw me for a loop.  And I nearly lost my temper!   

So tonight I am sharing, as much to get it off my chest as to ask if anyone has ideas of how to respond to her constructively. 

Here's how it happened:

She was discussing fungal dominated compost, and the need for it.  And she showed a slide with a photograph of a poorly composted windrow of 50% manure with woodchips.  The windrow had a section scooped out, so that layers were visible.  She pointed out the nicely composted surface layer, which had received sufficient oxygen.  Then she observed and explained the white, ashy actinomycetes layer, which is now more accurately known as actinobacteria, because the ashy whiteness is caused by a filamentous aerobic bacteria, NOT fungal hyphae.  Then she described the dark, putrid, stinky interior of the pile, as having been heated up to the point that it was charcoal, or biochar.

WHAT!? I couldn't help myself, I blurted out, 'NO.'

Wow. She just called bad compost 'biochar'. She described the dark black stuff or anaerobic material in a bad compost pile as charcoal. Or on its way to charcoal. Cooked. Inert. Devoid of life.

Then she said, there in Western North Carolina, "you are lucky to live around here, where the biochar guys know to add life back into charcoal to make biochar. But beware that the majority of biochar on the market is devoid of life." 

A friend sitting behind me said my neck and face turned bright red.  I was restraining myself from pointing out that biochar is created between 300 to 800 degrees Celsius, temperatures impossible to achieve in a compost pile without it bursting into flames.  I was also restraining myself from pointing out that she had contradicted herself, by saying that the dark, poorly composted material was both devoid of life and full of dangerous, pathogenic bacteria.

The sheer ridiculousness of what she said is only now becoming clear to me.  Fortunately, anyone who knows anything about composting knows that what she said was nonsense.  

Unfortunately, most people who still know so little about charcoal for use as soil amendment may fall for her nonsense because they don't know to question otherwise.

Any words of wisdom for me, friends?  I am really tempted to challenge her to correct her statement.  At a loss, though, as to how to approach her.

Glumly yours,

John

John Bonitz
Pittsboro, NC

919-360-2492 | LinkedIn

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[David ya]

I'll offer thoughts about elaine's latest miscommunication -- but not with one thumb on my cell. Ya gotta expect this kinda screwy commentary as people muddle through to new, startling insights about carbon.  Newbies and dubies always spit out half-baked thought as they muddle and puddle thru to insight and understanding.  After, char is a rather dark subject, poorly understood, barely known.

---

From: Erich Knight
Sent: ‎3/‎6/‎2015 11:11 PM
To: se-bi...@googlegroups.com; Soil Age
Cc: biochar...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [soil-age] Re: [SeBIG] Elaine Ingham's antipathies

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[seth itzkan]

Hi John,

Two suggestions:

First: I think you need to approach Dr. Ingham professionally and cordially, the same way you would approach any scholar or shared-interest stakeholder or colleague.

Thank her for the good work she is doing (mention at least two things you admire), then offer some information (with citations if possible) to help expand her thinking along the dimensions you think are required.

Tell her you'd be interested in her feedback and be happy to discuss the matter further at her convenience.

Don't pick a fight. That is counter productive.

Then, leave it at that. She may come to see the light, or she may not. It's not your responsibility.

Second: Realize that her opinion, frankly, isn't that important. No one considers her an expert on biochar, and offhand derogatory comments tarnish her integrity.  Be the voice that she isn't.

Personally, I've been on a panel with her that was almost embarrassing for me because of her shockingly outrageous comments about the potential of compost, matched only by her equally self-assured disposition. There was no hint of scientific discretion. It was a real turnoff. 

- s

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[Renald FLORES]

Hi all, 

I would like to contribute, share my experience, and maybe try to moderate a bit on the below. 

I am following Elaine’s Online Classes, I can ensure she never quotes anything against Biochar. Never. I insist on the fact that it is my experience as well.

I am also very interested in the Biochar community and trying to see how both Elaine’s work and Biochar can complete each other. I would actually really like to read things on how both can work together.

To give you more details, please see attached the slide John is maybe talking about, and the related transcript she gives about this precise slide. 

I am asking you not to interpret beyond what she says in the text. She never goes against the Biochar community, she goes for compost. This has to be respected as well.

John, is it what you are referring to ?

"So what happens to soil when it gets compacted? I want to use this example from a composting operation as kind of the graphic. The information will help you to understand all those things that happen when we move in an anaerobic direction. So this is a windrow. It’s about 300 feet long going this way. When I arrived at this composting yard, the smell coming out of these piles was just awful. It was horrific. I was having a hard time breathing, so I went to the upwind part of this composting operation and I asked them to take their frontend loader and take a scoop out of the side of that windrow, and as they were scooping down through here, it’s a whoa, look at the middle of that pile and how black that is in the middle of that pile. It had this interesting white ashy layer. What is this going on and then we have this outer layer that’s about 3 to maybe 4-inch deep layer on the surface. There’s oxygen diffusing into that pile but that oxygen is being used-up as it’s moving into that pile. When we get to this white ashy layer, we know that oxygen has reached about 6.5 parts per million of oxygen. The threshold of going anaerobic is 6 parts per million. So we’ve gone from normal oxygen concentrations of about 11 parts per million oxygen out here in the atmosphere and that oxygen is being used up so rapidly that by the time we get here about 3 to 4 inches into that pile, we’re down to about 6.5 parts per million oxygen. We are going anaerobic, and so these particular organisms, these particular bacteria are a very clear indicator of your going anaerobic and you really better do something about this if you want to have healthy soil. If you want to use this compost to inoculate beneficial organisms into the system: you better do something about this because you’re growing pathogens in this pile down here in the anaerobic part, no good guys at all.

So pay attention. This white ashy layer is telling you something. So yes, this may still be aerobic but look at what this compost pile is actually made of. There are a lot of woody chunks in there. Yeah, so some of them are way too big. That should have been ground up a little bit better. But a lot of this woody material was ground up too fine down to the sawdust micron size particles, and when you have something where you know oxygen—any gas trying to move through, any water trying to move through has to follow a path you know around all of the—each of those little tiny particles. It’s going to take days for oxygen to be able to move into that pile. How fast are you going to go anaerobic? Very fast: especially if you’re getting growth of microorganisms.

But why would you be getting growth of microorganisms in here? Well, this pile was made out of basically 50 percent woody material, straw—you can see some of the strands, some of the threads in here—and wood. So

there was a little bit of straw and quite a bit of woody material. And the other 50 percent was manure. Just manure. So this is a compost pile made out of 50 percent manure, 50 percent woody. Oh, that’s bacterial food in there. That’s some party food for your bacteria, and they’re growing so fast on that party food that here we are going anaerobic within 4 inches of the outside layer of that pile: eleven parts per million down to 6.5 parts per million. By the time we’re moving through that ashy white layer, when oxygen and temperature start limiting the growth of these bacteria, we are at 5.5 parts per million of oxygen, we are anaerobic. Pathogens are growing. Really bad things are happening in the middle of this pile. So whether it’s the middle of the pile or it’s that compacted zone that we were looking at, here and you’re seeing that black, black coloring along there, they’re both telling you certain very specific things and I want to go through those certain very specific things.

When we move from the outside of this pile, bacteria and fungi start growing very rapidly, starting to go anaerobic. Oxygen is being used up on this gradient and temperature is rising. When we stuck the thermometer in here, the temperature was already up around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. As we moved down towards the center of the pile, we were already at 170 degrees Fahrenheit. By the time we were in the middle of the pile, 175 degrees Fahrenheit, and when I’m looking at that thermometer and that needle on the thermometer goes up and up and up, I’m starting to back away from this because this is dangerous. It’s anaerobic and one of the things that are only produced under anaerobic conditions is alcohol, and what’s the heat of combustion of alcohol? It’s not the carbon in the pile that’s going to spontaneously combust. It’s the anaerobic waste product from a whole bunch of these anaerobic bacteria. The anaerobic yeasts are growing in that pile. If alcohol has been produced and the temperature in the middle of that pile hits 180, it’s going to go kaboom. And if I’m standing too close to it when that pile goes off, I’m going to be dead, fried. So I’m backing away and I’m telling everybody else you know—really, you’ve got to fix this.

Let’s go through exactly what’s going on. As this material starts to get black like this, it’s not the nice rich dark brown color. It’s black. And so here’s a piece of misinformation that they were giving often, very often. Really good soil is black in color. Absolutely wrong. No, not true. We want the color of the soil, we want the color of our compost to be the color of humus of humic acid, 70 percent cocoa color. Well, if you’re in lights like we’re in here in the classroom, that chocolate bar is going to look black, but if you take that chocolate bar outside in natural light,

you’re going to see that it’s a nice rich dark brown and that’s really what the pioneers were looking for was that nice rich dark brown color, not black. Fix your definitions on these sorts of things because when we go black like this, what’s really going on? Well, as we get to low oxygen, high temperature, what’s happening to the carbon in our compost pile? -- All of that carbon—or in our soil—all that carbon. High temperature, low oxygen, we’re turning it into charcoal. And so all that carbon is being crystallized in forms that your microorganisms can no longer use.
This organic material is okay, maybe it’ll be sequestered in your soil for a long, long time, but it’s not going to benefit your plants. It’s inert. You might as well put more sand, more silk, more clay. How much carbon is in a sand grain? -- In a clay grain? -- In a silk grain? Lots. Why don’t we just put that back into the soil? It’s not going to grow your plants. It’s not going to help your microorganisms have a source of food in order to continue doing nutrient cycling and helping your plant grow. So we’re turning our carbon into a crystallized form and it’s got that black color is what we see. "

Holistic Regards,

Renald FLORES

Agriculture Financial Analysis & Optimization

Holistic Management Practitioner
Permaculture Design Certified

Soil Life web

 

Cel: +41 76 755 9807

Skype: renald_flores

Before printing, think about our environmental responsibility!

[Brian Cartwright]

To Erich and John,

I'd agree with Seth's comment that Elaine Ingham's opinion about biochar doesn't matter very much. I do follow her ideas somewhat through the Yahoo Compost Tea group where she has a lot to contribute. I don't see her making gratuitous attacks on biochar there at all. It's just not her field.

When she emphasizes that biochar is lifeless until it's properly inoculated, I think we all agree that's right. So let's concentrate on what we have to learn from her which is a lot.

Brian

[Steven Schwartz]

Dr. Ingham, in response to my question about her opinion of the value of adding micronized minerals to soil (testing the validity of remineralization vs. her statement that every soil type already contain the full spectrum of minerals soil organisms need to thrive), said, “It would be very valuable to do an experiment where plots were treated with compost tea plus minerals, and others without the minerals and see what the results are.”

 

Steven Schwartz

 

 

 

From: soil...@googlegroups.com [mailto:soil...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Brian Cartwright
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2015 10:16 AM
To: soil...@googlegroups.com
Cc: John Bonitz
Subject: [soil-age] Re: [SeBIG] Elaine Ingham's antipathies

 

To Erich and John,

 

I'd agree with Seth's comment that Elaine Ingham's opinion about biochar doesn't matter very much. I do follow her ideas somewhat through the Yahoo Compost Tea group where she has a lot to contribute. I don't see her making gratuitous attacks on biochar there at all. It's just not her field.

 

When she emphasizes that biochar is lifeless until it's properly inoculated, I think we all agree that's right. So let's concentrate on what we have to learn from her which is a lot.

 

Brian

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 11:11:03 PM UTC-5, erich wrote:

O The Muck & The Mystery,

Adding Soil-Age to this latest convolutions of Elaine's thinking.

I'm quite astounded she would use such an analogy as anaerobic muck to make "her" points about elemental raw char being lifeless.

What mental gymnastics she must go through to come up with that?, and for what?
How confusing for her students?,

Cheers,

Erich

Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd. McGaheysville, VA. 22840

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[Gary Shapiro]

In reading Renald's posted text from Elaine's online class, I noted the following statement:

"So we’ve gone from normal oxygen concentrations of about 11 parts per million oxygen out here in the atmosphere and that oxygen is being used up so rapidly that by the time we get here about 3 to 4 inches into that pile, we’re down to about 6.5 parts per million oxygen."

Correct me if I am wrong, but normal oxygen concentration in the atmosphere is nearly 21% (20.95% for further accuracy). Since 1 percent is 10,000 ppm, my basic math skills tells me normal oxygen concentration out here in the atmosphere is 210,000 ppm.

Perhaps I am missing something about the micro-atmospherics within the confines of the compost which has pulled down the concentration from gaseous O2 to something much lower, or via diffusion within the liquid-surface interface to this 11 ppm value. Can anyone here clarify her statement?  or did she just make a simple mistake?

Gary Shapiro

Carbon Drawdown Solutions

[Barry Carter]

Dear Friends,

Here are some articles that I have put on my web site that cite
Elaine Ingham's work:


<http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/fungi.htm>Fungi - Subtle Energies

www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/fungi.htm
Apr 18, 2010 - These included extensive conversations with Dr. Elaine
Ingham at the University of Oregon . In 1994 Dr. Ingham wrote the
following which was ...


<http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/turbo-vortex.htm>Turbo-Vortex
Tea Brewer - Subtle Energies

www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/turbo-vortex.htm
After hearing Elaine Ingham on compost teas I began to use my
knowledge of water dynamics to build compost tea brewers. [These
devices are also useful for ...


<http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/Dirt_First!.htm>Dirt First! -
Subtle Energies

www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/Dirt_First!.htm
Oct 24, 2010 - Some things that Elaine Ingham mentioned in her talk
at the Natural Resources Institute suggested that most of the biomass
of a given forest ...


<http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/soilcmts.htm>Detailed
Information on Soil - Subtle Energies

www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/soilcmts.htm
Elaine R. Ingham in a recent Forest Service supported seminar on
Soil: The Foundation of the Ecosystem cited research which shows that
soil disturbance ...


<http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/keep.htm>Columbia River
Bioregion Campaign - Subtle Energies

www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/keep.htm
by CRB Campaign -
<https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_epq&as_oq&as_eq&as_nlo&as_nhi&lr&cr&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=subtleenergies.com&as_occt=any&safe=images&as_filetype&as_rights&gws_rd=ssl&um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&q=related:Smphgq8aHRuY6M:scholar.google.com/>Related
articles
Recent work by Ingham and others suggests that measurements such as
the ratio of fungal to bacterial biomass and the Maturity Index for
nematodes may be ...

--

With kindest regards,

Barry Carter
<bca...@igc.org>
2319 Balm
Baker City, Oregon 97814
Phone: 541-523-3357
Web Pages:
ORMUS - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/index.htm
Forest - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/index.htm
Donate - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/donate.htm

"What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind
you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thought be good
or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you
keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what
you do not use atrophies. The more you think of grievances, the more
such trials you will continue to receive; the more you think of the
good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you."
--Emmet Fox from Make Your Life Worthwhile, 1942

[David Yarrow]

On Mar 7, 2015, at 6:46 PM, Steven Schwartz <ste...@mediacafe.tv> wrote:

Dr. Ingham, in response to my question about her opinion of the value of adding micronized minerals to soil (testing the validity of remineralization vs. her statement that every soil type already contain the full spectrum of minerals soil organisms need to thrive), said, “It would be very valuable to do an experiment where plots were treated with compost tea plus minerals, and others without the minerals and see what the results are.”

Steven Schwartz

is this ingham’s admission that she herself hasn’t yet done the basic research yet to have a valid position?

assuming this is true, how might we induce her to do the research?

for a green & peaceful planet,

David Yarrow

dyar...@gmail.com

573-818-4148

www.dyarrow.org

http://dyarrow.blogspot.com

[Thomas Goreau]

Presumably they have not tested compost tea with biochar, or compost tea with both biochar and rock powders?

Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
President, Biorock Technology Inc.

Coordinator, Soil Carbon Alliance

Coordinator, United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Small Island Developing States Partnership in New Sustainable Technologies

37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

gor...@bestweb.net
www.globalcoral.org
Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226

No one can change the past, everyone can change the future

On Mar 11, 2015, at 4:46 PM, David Yarrow <dyar...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mar 7, 2015, at 6:46 PM, Steven Schwartz <ste...@mediacafe.tv> wrote:

Dr. Ingham, in response to my question about her opinion of the value of adding micronized minerals to soil (testing the validity of remineralization vs. her statement that every soil type already contain the full spectrum of minerals soil organisms need to thrive), said, “It would be very valuable to do an experiment where plots were treated with compost tea plus minerals, and others without the minerals and see what the results are.”

Steven Schwartz

is this ingham’s admission that she herself hasn’t yet done the basic research yet to have a valid position?

assuming this is true, how might we induce her to do the research?

for a green & peaceful planet,

David Yarrow

dyar...@gmail.com

573-818-4148

www.dyarrow.org

http://dyarrow.blogspot.com

<_WakeTheFolkUp_160.jpg>

[Steve Diver]

Ingham's statements that molasses creates sufficient competition against
(human) pathogens in compost teas were mightily remonstrated to the
early compost tea industry, but her findings were never published; her
lectures and interviews on Dr. Teruo Higa/EM/Bokashi are made-up stories
vs fact; she conveyed a total misunderstanding of clay in Luebke
humified compost; her lectures on soil biology providing all the
minerals you need on any soil in the world is bunk; her spin on "all
grasslands are bacterial" is bunk; her diatribe on actinomycetes are
nasty microbes is bunk; etc

Elaine is a wonderful teacher of soil foodweb processes, no doubt, but
use discernment and do your own research.

Steve Diver

[Erich Knight]

Well,... Elaine seems a little less scornful about char here, although you can still see her rolling her eyes;

http://soilfoodwebcourse.com/live-webinar-2/?inf_contact_key=8899e1fa692b8c33d36b90ff438c9abf6119b94897c2841511a8ca93a4e3fbe8

She actually called it a "condominium" for microbes.

Cheers,

Erich

Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd. McGaheysville, VA. 22840
  540-289-9750   

Policy & Community Chairman
2013 North American Biochar Symposium
Harvesting Hope: The Science & Synergies of Biochar
October 13-16, 2013 at UMASS Amherst
http://pvbiochar.org/2013-symposium/

On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 8:33 PM, Gloria Flora <gfl...@biochar-us.org> wrote:

Greetings All,

 

I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Elaine Ingram at a 3 hour workshop earlier this month in San Diego (Permaculture Voices 2).  Pleasurable except for about 5 minutes.  Like many other ‘other-subject’ matter experts, she feels compelled to diss biochar as if she knows what she’s talking about.  Sadly, she doesn’t. 

 

She didn’t go off completely half-cocked but close enough.  She lamented bokashi as adding too much bacteria (too much for what? and not all bacteria are created equal, she should know that).  She whined (literally) about biochar decrying that it was incorrectly called biochar because it didn’t have any biology associated with it.  I’ve made sure from this point forward to point out that biochar is charcoal created from BIOmass and made with the intent to recolonize it with BIOlogy and BIOta.  It strikes me as odd that she laments biochar not having nutrients in it when no one is marketing uncharged biochar as a fertilizer, it’s a soil amendment, Elaine. 

 

She thankfully didn’t make any inane reference to anaerobic goop in the middle of a compost pile as being biochar.   

 

Sigh.  But, look at it this way, she can say whatever she wants but it’s her face that’s going to be red when she’s repeatedly proven incorrect about biochar.

 

Nice beds Phil!!

 

Best,

Gloria

 

From: e.phili...@gmail.com [mailto:e.phili...@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Philip Small
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 10:32 PM
To: Simran Raphael
Cc: Gloria Flora
Subject: Fwd: [soil-age] Re: [SeBIG] Elaine Ingham's antipathies

 

Hello Simran:

Also cc-ing Gloria.

 

Thought of you as I read this. The OP John Bonitz is a friend I met through Gloria and Kelpie at the soil science societ. All three of them presented on biochar in Long Beach the week before Biochar School. As you can see, John gets it on the bokashi. Biochar. Bokashi. Both bring out the bat shit crazy in Elaine. Sad. We know so much more about the soil food web because of her inspired technical leadership, but the momentum she fostered has swamped her - too much new soil ecological information for one person to keep in front of. I see dissing on bokashi and biochar as a defense mechanism, and my heart goes out to her. I catch myself tracking along the same line.

 

On a more positive note, let me tell you of my plans for the biochar-bokashi: I will layer in the multiple wicking beds I need to build. To keep voracious maple roots out of my beds. But also beause when wicking beds work, they are amazing. Ultra-high water use efficiency, and nute use efficiency too. 

 

There are several wicking or subirrigated designs out there, of the ones I could find, mine will be more like this: 

 

http://www.veryediblegardens.com/about-us/recent-projects/25-design-and-implementation/348-custom-wicking-beds. 

 

Design bits: 

 

1) the lined raised bed gets a 5 inch bottom layer of unwashed (rock dust!) play sand. To increase storage capacity, reduce the hassle of moving so much sand, the sand is bedded around as much perforated 4 inch drainline as you can pack in. The drain pipe is sleeved with filter fabric.

 

2) You plumb in a vertical fill pipe into the 4 inch drain pipe AND and plumb a horizontal excess water relief tube. 

 

3) Level the sand layer.

 

4) Layer in 12-18 inches of soil. << bokashi-biochar goes in near the base of this layer. Base mix is 5-10% biochar.

 

The bokashi will be placed in a 1/4 inch thick layer 2 inches above the sand layer. Thus a 1 cubic foot of the bokashi-biochar will cover 48 square feet of bed. I think I have enough bokashi-biochar for 100+ SF of bed at that rate. I can so 70 SF at a full rate, 70 SF at a half rate (1/8 inch thick layer), and a control (zero) rate. Beds are 36 to 48 inches across, so square plots will be between 9 and 16 SF each - 4-5 plots per treatment, more than enough to randomize. 

 

Simran: If you think I should do a higher rate (higher than 1/4 inch thick) to be assured of an observeable effect, let me know, can do. 

 

Soil moisture content in the resevoir will fluctuate between saturated and field capacity. The sand is intended to discourage biological activity - no nutes, no compost to feed biology - so that anaerobic microorganisms don't generate the toxic compounds that give cattails their competitive edge. I am thinking that as much as effective microorganisms are aligned with no-oxygen environments, in the fluctating water table, in the sand, is not the place to invest the bokashi-biochar.

 

Better to be just above the water table. Here the soil approaches "field capacity" and stays in a comparatively narrow range of water content. But that water content is on the move, flowiong, always working its way up to the plant. 

 

field capacity means that soil pore volume will be about 50:50 air:water. This is normally more than enough air-filled porosity to support sufficient gas exchange (O2 in CO2 out) and prevent going anaerobic. Richly amended soils don't always fit this normal.Enough alfalfa meal, or bloodmeal, or unfinished compost, I could certainly swamp the gas-exchange ability of field capacity soil. 

 

Regardless of the degree rich amending, the just-above-the-fluctuating-water-table zone where I would place the bokashi-biochar is certain to be the most oxygen challenged part of the soil column. Placing then in this zone should give the effective microorganisms some niche opportunities. 

 

Once the bokashi-biochar is in place. the water wicks up from the water-table in the sand resevoir, and wicks through the bokashi biochar picking up beneficial organic compounds and soluble minerals. These flow with the water to the growing roots. This water elevator will also spread the growing population of effective microorganisms upward through the soil mix. 

 

Also: Beds are topped with thick mulch. I avoid wholesale turning the soil, or leaving the soil bare.

 

In some of my beds I lay a deep but thin layer of intersecting stems (pencil thick shrub prunings, dry seedstalks from the previous fall). Inspired by Jeff Lowenfels, Teaming with Microbes, I call this layer my myco-highway - use it to encourage hyphae to propogate acroos the bed. Not sure if I will do that for these wicking beds.

 

Welcome any thoughts. 

 

Warm regards, Phil

 

 

 

 

Philip Small, Soil Scientist
Land Profile, Inc.

1412 W 7th Ave

Spokane, WA 99204

509-844-2944 cell * 509-838-9860 office

Email:philip...@landprofile.com

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erich Knight <erichj...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 8:11 PM
Subject: [soil-age] Re: [SeBIG] Elaine Ingham's antipathies

To: "se-bi...@googlegroups.com" <se-bi...@googlegroups.com>, Soil Age <soil...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "biochar...@yahoogroups.com" <biochar...@yahoogroups.com>

O The Muck & The Mystery,

Adding Soil-Age to this latest convolutions of Elaine's thinking.

I'm quite astounded she would use such an analogy as anaerobic muck to make "her" points about elemental raw char being lifeless.

What mental gymnastics she must go through to come up with that?, and for what?
How confusing for her students?,

Cheers,

Erich

Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens

1047 Dave Berry Rd. McGaheysville, VA. 22840

[Renald FLORES]

I raised the question to her in the webinar number 6 or 7, and she said: 

« we need to do some work on it », «  could be interested to come up with some experimenting » 

As a reminder her message is about « bringing the biology back into the soil » & « remediate damaged/raped soils », and she proved her method works. She did that work.

Besides that, she may have no time to develop that, which is fine considering all the good work she already achieved. Lets not put the evil in her.

Holistic Regards,

Renald FLORES

Agriculture Financial Analysis & Optimization
Holistic Management Practitioner
Permaculture Design Certified
Soil Life web

 

Cel: +41 76 755 9807

Skype: renald_flores

Before printing, think about our environmental responsibility!

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