Evaluating Performance of Ecologically Sound Organic Substrates under Different Temperature Regimes
SHAHIDUL ISLAM, U Arkansas, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE & BIOLOGY, 2008

ABSTRACT
Greenhouse trials were carried out over two years to investigate the high temperature (25ºC, 30ºC & 35ºC) effects on ecologically sound untreated organic substrates viz., coconut coir and rice husk charcoal, in comparison to that of rock wool using tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller) as a test crop. There were no significant differences in the root dry matter, stem dry matter, fruit dry matter, shoot and root ratio, ascorbic acid, total soluble solid, fruit acidity, leaf chlorophyll contents and pH of the fruit homogenate. Among the substrates, water holding capacity was larger in rock wool followed by coconut coir and rice husk charcoal. Bulk density and total pore space were lower in rice husk charcoal than coconut coir and rock wool. Regarding the chemical properties, rice husk charcoal and coconut coir had higher EC values compared to rock wool. Rice husk charcoal had relatively higher pH followed by rock wool and coconut coir. In the case of CECi rook wool showed significantly higher values than coconut coir and rice husk charcoal. It also appeared that rice husk charcoal and coconut coir gave similar and/or better crop performance and yield of tomatoes than rock wool under high temperature stress conditions namely 30oC and 35ºC as compared with 25ºC. Thus, rice husk charcoal and coconut coir can be used successfully as growing media amendments for producing greenhouse tomato as well as other nursery crops.

Key Words: Organic substrates; Temperaturei; Stress; Tomato; Quality

Islam, S., 2008. Evaluating performance of ecologically sound organic substrates under different temperature regimes. Int. J. Agri. Biol.,10: 297-300

Sustainable Technology: Biochar
Julie Major, Workshop presented to Sustainable Harvest International,Honduras, January 2008

Reported in La Cosecha (The Harvest), Sustainable Harvest International newsletter, Spring 2008, p. 4.

Black is the New Green: SHI Field Staff Learn the Benefits of Biochar for Agriculture

During the annual Board and staff meeting held in January in Honduras, field staff from Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Panama attended a workshop presented by Julie Major of Cornell University on managing soils with biochar. Biochar can be made simply and cheaply from any organic material, just by piling it, covering it up with soil to exclude air and setting it on fire. During the workshop biochar was made from rice hulls and pieces of pine wood for demonstration, but any crop residue or plant waste can be used to make biochar, such as coffee pulp, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, etc.

Sustainable Harvest International
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/

Julie Major, Cornell University
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jm322/

Sewage Sludge Charcoal
Michael Antal,University of Hawaii, April 2008
Sewage Sludge Charcoal
I am pleased and somewhat surprised to report that raw sewage sludge is a good feedstock for charcoal production. Details are available on the HNEI website below.

www.hnei.hawaii.edu
Flash Carbonization

Regards, Michael.

Michael J. Antal, Jr.
Coral Industries Distinguished Professor of Renewable Energy Resources
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute
POST 109, 1680 East-West Rd.
Honolulu, HI 96822

phone: 808/956-7267
fax: 808/956-2336
www.hnei.hawaii.edu

Sewage Sludge and The HEAP Trap
Folke Gunther, April 12, 2008

I was refraining from this, since I don’t think it is an item really belonging to the TP list, but now we are here.

1. Urine and faeces are excellent plant food. The reason we don’t use them directly is mostly cultural for the urine, I guess, but for faeces it is really an adaptive behaviour. Burning or charring cold be a good idea for faeces. The charring might make it sterile, and the non-gaseous nutrients, as phosphorus, would be returned to land, for a future production of new food. A large pat of the faeces is indigestible cellulose, why it could be a good thing to char it. The urine, which normally is sterile at the production site, could enrich charcoal very well.

2. Currently, the westernized wastewater behaviour is base on the MIFSLA (Mix First and Separate Later) philosophy This results in a mixture of high nutrient – high pathogen – high toxic – high water content mixture that is almost impossible to do something sensible with. Commonly, it is thrown away into the nearest lake or sea, where the harm it does is not immediately evident. On the other hand, avoiding the MIFSLA with a source-separating toilet is really easy, if you don’t live on the 21st floor and is forced to use the system, either you want it or not.

3. Living in dense communities (e.g. towns or cities) put another invisible restriction on you: As you use the MIFSLA system, you put the used nutrients on a smaller area than the food production area. It is like filling a glass of beer, when the glass is full, he leakage will equal the import. Normally, you stop the beer-filling process then, but you can not stop eating. It will end up in a steady state, which I call the HEAP trap.
I will add a ppt, trying to explain the HEAP effect and its cultural background.

YS
FG

Folke Günther
Kollegievägen 19
224 73 Lund, Sweden
home/office: +46 46 14 14 29
cell: 0709 710306 skype: folkegun
Homepage:
blog: http://folkegunther.blogspot.com/
folke@holon.se

Improving wheat production with deep banded Oil Malleei Charcoal in Western Australia
Paul Blackwell1, Syd Shea2, Paul Storer3, Zakaria Solaiman4, Mike Kerkmans5, and Ian Stanley6
Agchar Initiative Conference Terrigal New South Wales. April 29 - May 2, 2007

SUMMARY
• There can be benefits to wheat income from deep banded oil mallee charcoal in the low rainfall areas of WA; the trials on acid sandy clay loam and acid sand in 2005 showed up to $96/ha additional gross income at wheat prices of $150/ha; especially when applied with mineral fertilisers and inoculated soil microbes. Much of the yield improvement can be explained by better grain survival, associated with reduced drought stress.

• There were encouraging effects of charcoal on arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) colonisation. Banded oil mallee charcoal improved AM colonisation of wheat roots by 3 fold, when used with mineral fertilisers and AM is inoculated with the seed in the acid sandy clay loam with a low population of indigenous AM. Early phosphorus uptake was not improved by AM colonisation; P supply from the soil and applied fertiliser was already adequate.

• AM colonisation in spring was related to effects of charcoal application on grain survival in inoculated mineral fertiliser treatments. This infers AM hyphae may have improved water supply to reduce drought stress and loss of grains in these treatments.

• The true economic value of oil mallee charcoal will be clearer when the cost of charcoal production and application is better known and long term effects of charcoal, especially with inoculated AMs and mineral fertilisers is better understood. The potential to achieve a commercial return from the sequestration of charcoal as an offset for carbon
dioxide emissions in broadscale agriculture will also help calculate true economic value.

• More research is worthwhile on the long term effects of incorporated charcoal in a range of soil conditions and seasons, from various sources and how low the banded charcoal rate needs to be to encourage better yields from mineral fertiliser with inoculated AM.

INTRODUCTION
Oil Mallees are the first native woody perennial species to be promoted as a commercial crop in the lower rainfall areas of the southwest land division of Western Australia, primarily stimulated by the need to ameliorate salinity caused by the clearing of native vegetation for agriculture (Bartle and Shea, 2002). Mallees are hardy plants that are well suited as a perennial crop through their ability to re-sprout from the large lignotuber after the above
ground mass has been lost through fire or harvesting. In 2000 a group of Oil Mallee growers from Kalannie (300 km NE of Perth, Western Australia) began producing eucalyptus oil for the Australian market (see the Oil Mallee Association www.oilmallee.com.au ). Integrated processing of mallee biomass to produce electricity, activated carbon and eucalyptus oil in a central processing facility has been the main emphasis of industry development since the late 1990’s. Western Power, Enecon and the Oil Mallee Company have successfully developed a ‘test of concept’ Integrated Wood Processing (IWP) plant at Narrogin. Bell and Bennett (2002) estimated that the NPV of the net benefit to landowners of planting mallees in a local catchment area to supply a 5MW IWP would be about $6.2 million over 20 years. Charcoal is a valuable by-product of such IWPs and a possible by-product of farm based distillation of eucalyptus oil.

It has become well recognised in Japan and some other parts of Asia that charcoal from forestry products and rice hull can stimulate indigenous soil microbial activity (Ogawa, 1994; Nishio, 1996). Charcoal has especially encouraged arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) which can help supply phosphorus symbiotically to many agricultural crops (Ogawa et al., 1983) and rhizobia, which can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere to supply leguminous plants (Nishio and Okano, 1991). Field experiments in Indonesia (Yamato et al. 2006) showed charcoal made from tree bark applied at 10 L/ha could increase the yield of maize by about 50%, to 15 t/ha, when added to 500 kg/ha of NPK (15:15:15) fertiliser on an acid highly weathered infertile tropical soil; associated with increased AM fungal colonisation. Lehmann and Rondon (2006)
also identify numerous benefits of bio char to plant nutrition and microbial activity in the humid tropics. Benefits of charcoal to soil microbial activity have also been recognised in temperate forest environments (Zakrisson et al. 1996; Pietikainen et al. 2000).

Charcoal seems to assist microbial activity by having a porosity that provides a favourable microhabitat, weak alkalinity and by being a substrate unfavourable for saprophytes (Saito and Marumoto, 2002). AM fungi easily extend their extraradical hyphae into charcoal buried in the soil and sporulate in the particles (Ogawa, 1987). Postma et al. (1990) show evidence that rhizobia in pores <50 _m are protected from predation by protozoan predators; this
could be an important microhabitat property provided by charcoal in soils with low clay content.

Encouragement and establishment of AM fungi in Western Australian soils has encountered many challenges. “The objective of identifying procedure for managing mycorrhizal fungi is more appropriately restated as managing conditions to suit the growth and activity of beneficial populations of mycorrhizal fungi” (Abbot and Gazey, 1994). Introduced AM fungi can suffer competition with indigenous AM fungi and be ineffective for crop phosphorus supply due to high levels of background soluble P (Gazey et al. 2004). Australian native grass species can also be much more efficient at accessing insoluble forms of phosphate than introduced wheat varieties; whose rhizosphere colonies can be very different (Marschner et al. 2006). This may be an adaptation to the low clay content environment of many Australian topsoils; low clay content reduces the amount of small pore space to help some microorganisms prosper. Charcoal in suitable amount and form may provide the missing microhabitat in WA topsoils to help introduced AM fungi and other microbes survive and colonise introduced agricultural crops.

One commercial fertiliser company (Western Mineral Fertilisers; Tenterden WA) has developed products which minimise the abundance of readily soluble phosphorus to encourage symbiotic and other processes of inoculated soil microbes. Zeolite was initially included and intended to provide enhanced ion exchange capacity, and also a micro habitat
within the zeolite pores; however the pore volume may not be sufficient. It was a reasonable hypothesis that charcoal addition may improve the microhabitat further than the use of zeolite.

The opportunity to test hypotheses about charcoal effects on soil and use of soil microbes to improve crop nutrient supply came about in 2005. There was an intensive research effort to examine the efficacy of very wide rows of wheat on shallow soils in the low rainfall areas east of Geraldton (Blackwell et al. 2006; Blackwell 2007). With some support and encouragement from the Oil Mallee Company and Western Mineral fertilisers we developed the following experiments using no-till methods for crop establishment and very wide rows to minimise drought stress. Attempts to follow the long-term effects at Pindar failed due to a very dry winter season in 2006.

See complete paper attached and at:http://www.oilmallee.com.au/pdf/Improving_wheat_prod.pdf
See oral presentation at:
http://www.iaiconference.org/images/Blackwell_-_Improving_Wheat_Production_with_Mallee_Charcoal.pdf

1Department of Agriculture and Food, Geraldton WA, 2 Oil Mallee Company of Australia, 3Western Mineral
Fertilisers, 4University of Western Australia, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, 5Oil Mallee
Association of WA, 6 "Bungadale", Kalannie , WA

Bamboo-based Charcoal Production
National Mission on Bamboo Applications, InfoSheet IS 03 09/05, India

Charcoal made from bamboo finds ready uses and markets. It has been made for thousands of years in pits and even shallow depressions. Specially designed brick kilns, developed and tested by the National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBAi), provide an opportunity to make high-quality charcoal from bamboo in an efficient, safe and reliable manner.

National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA)
Vishwakarma Bhawan, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg
New Delhi 110 016, India
Telephone 91-11-26566778 Fax 91-11-26962267
Email bamboo@bambootech.org
Website www.bambootech.org

Effects of Charcoal on Manure in a Temperate Forest Ecosystem: A Greenhouse Study
Clarice Pina, Project Train 2005, University of Montana, 2005 with Tom Deluca.

http://www.umt.edu/projecttrain/posters/2005%20Posters/Clarice%20Pina.ppt

Abstract
A greenhouse study was conducted for and eight week period studying the effects of charcoal on manure within a temperate forest ecosystem. Charcoal posses properties that lead us to devise the creation of a unique synergy between manure and charcoal, a land use treatment used in ancient Amazonia. A negative effect was observed with respect to overall biomass per treatment caused by manure application but this effect was eliminated with the addition of charcoal. Manure significantly increased the amount of available phosphorus. Fresh manure may have cause a microbial inhibition to occur yielding unexpected results with ammonium and nitrate concentrations. Altering the rates of both manure and charcoal may help us to locate the source of these unexpected results.

Results:
Salient findings:
Additions of charcoal and manure individually did not have a significant effect on the amount of available NH4+, but the Manuchar treatments were found to have a moderately significant effect on available NH4+ (refer to Figure 1).
All treatments (charcoal only, manure only, as well as manuchar) have a highly significant effect on the amount of available NO3- (refer to Figure 2).
Manure significantly decreased the total amount of NO3-.
With regard to the amount of available P, the manure only treatment had the greatest concentration measured as mg kg-1 PO4-.
Manure applications had a very highly significantly effect, increasing the amount of available-P by almost a factor of 2(refer to Figure 3).
Manuchar treatments were also found to have a highly significant effect on the amount of available-P.
Significant differences were found between treatments with regard to biomass obtained, and manure applications were found to have a negative effect on biomass (refer to Figure 4).

Effects of mycorrhizal fungi and biochar 75 Days
Robert Flanagan, Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.
(SAFFE), February 5, 2008

I just got to visit my biochar trial at BIOTROP today so I took a few photos to give all you some idea of the profound difference biochar makes to subsoil
Control

Rice Husk Charcoal

Rice Husk Charcoal + VAM

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvo1w8gFSts

What we're seeing is the plants treated with VAM fungi + biochar are a lot darker green and show more plant growth at the 75day mark so I'll push on up to day90 and see what happens.

Robert Flanagan
Chairman & President
Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.

Skype "saffechina"
Tel: 86-571-881-850-67
Cell: 86-130-189-959-57

How to Make Charcoal
Robert Flanagan, SAFFE, January 30, 2008

I've just been playing around with my natural draft stove to see how easy it would be to use it for cooking and making charcoal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZDtXOiGLE .
I fed some extra fuel in the side so show the pyrolysis reaction taking place.

Phosphorus Speciation in Manure and Manure-Amended Soils Using XANES Spectroscopy
S. Sato, D. Solomon, C. Hyland, Q.M. Ketterings, and J. Lehmann, NSLS Science Highlights, February 9, 2006

Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
It is important to know what inorganic phosphorus (P) species are being formed in soils subjected to high, long-term poultry-manure application in order to understand P accumulation and release patterns. Phosphorus K-edge XANES spectra of fresh manure showed no evidence of crystalline P minerals, but did exhibit a dominance of soluble calcium phosphates (CaP) and free and weakly bound phosphates. Soils with a short-term manure history contained both Fe-associated phosphates and soluble CaP. Long-term application resulted in a dominance of CaP and a transformation from soluble to more stable CaP species. However, none of the amended soils showed the presence of crystalline CaP. Maintaining a high pH is therefore an important strategy that can be used to minimize P leaching in these soils.