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Thanks for the cool links. I believe he knows what compost is, he is just being lazy about using it interchangeably with what you find at most garden shops. Mo

Thanks for the cool links. I believe he knows what compost is, he is just being lazy about using it interchangeably with what you find at most garden shops. Most commercial bags of garden soil and compost both contain a lot of broken down wood. He is just suggesting you shouldn't really have any organic matter around your roots, except for at the top level. It's good to promote mycorrhizal fungi but only at the top layer etc I think he mostly ranting about how commercial gardening places just sell "soil" that is mostly always comes with added "compost" e.g. https://shorturl.at/mvwzG https://shorturl.at/mvwzG Where as they should sell more clay/silt/sand mixes and encourage top dressing instead. Most people just fill their pots to the top with those bags and it leads to adverse effects.

thatcat 6y ago
Yea, you're welcome. I'm watching it rn, he def knows what he's talking about. I just disagree about the deep organic matter being beneficial, obviously don't use rotting compost as your source in a non porous soil though. I started a company that fractures soil and injects organic matter deep, filling fractures to create drainage and sequester carbon, we use biochar - it has a sandy texture and doesn't break down very quickly because it's been pyrolyzed (anaerobic combustion that produces a charcoal/activated carbon like material that looks like black sand). Integrated pyrolyzed organic matter is how slash/burn ag works in the rainforest and is why Brazil has some soils that are black. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
- thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
  Oh that's such a cool company. I only recently got put onto Terra preta through my personal favorite gardener -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTaWiO5Eso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTaWiO5Eso (he's funny lol) I'm going to try make my own ad hoc terra preta plots for fun too. Are you able to share any more information on your company? Who is actually buying this service? I feel like biochar is going to hit the main stream this year or next. Going to make a compost tea and soak my bio char in it too. > anaerobic combustion that produces a charcoal/activated carbon I wonder if this is the trick though, not that there is organic matter down there, but that is already broken down and fully activated the charcoal. It would also be great to know if the beneficial fungal processes happen at those depths. So many questions aha
  - thatcat 6y ago
    That's awesome! The tea thing is a good idea. No one is buying it yet, but the plan is to have some micro rain gardens installed this spring using the tech to reduce the overall area required due to the increased drainage depth and moisture storage. It's essentially an erosion control measure until there is a carbon market and we increase automation. We will also be doing some testing with trees - remediating poor drainage with living trees that have been already been planted. Some of the organic material breaks down really slowly, providing some nutrients to bacteria at a rate that allows the gas to escape, but yea essentially the trick is the ultra high surface area and high compressive strength so that it maintains a porous structure instead of compacting into an anaerobic environment. Yes, beneficial fungi reach much deeper than roots due to the higher penetrative ability of hyphae and they can still extract stuff from whatever depth they reach. Long term I want to be able to do what the guy in the video is doing but with out all that shoveling...
    - thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
      Never heard of micro rain gardens, googled them, also a good idea for some places in my garden. And yeah seems like an awful lot of work aha I'd imagine just getting a bull dozer or something, digging a whole lot of deep rows. Then putting a sign in my neighbour for everyone to just come dump everything in the ditches, throw some wood on, light it up and repeat several times. I saw that they are attempting synthetic stuff too which I might research later. Some useful tips in this Reddit thread -> https://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/1558h7/terra_preta_we_need_more_people_to_know_about/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/1558h7/terra_... Bamboo sounds like something worth investigating.
    - jarmitage 6y ago
      If you don’t mind me asking, what is/was your educational/career route that led you to the knowledge that you currently have? It seems interestingly diverse, like you have biology, agriculture, but also some mechanical?
      - thatcat 6y ago
- coderintherye 6y ago
  Is it beneficial in anyway to use wood that burned in wildfires (very hot fires that burned most trees and shrubs down through the roots, but also left a lot of nearly fully burned trees and shrubs above ground) as part of the mix or is only pyrolyzed material useful?
  - thatcat 6y ago
    That left over bit is technically also pyrolyzed material because very hot fires create anaerobic conditions. Integrating it into the soil seems like a good idea.

thatcat 6y ago

Yea, you're welcome. I'm watching it rn, he def knows what he's talking about. I just disagree about the deep organic matter being beneficial, obviously don't use rotting compost as your source in a non porous soil though. I started a company that fractures soil and injects organic matter deep, filling fractures to create drainage and sequester carbon, we use biochar - it has a sandy texture and doesn't break down very quickly because it's been pyrolyzed (anaerobic combustion that produces a charcoal/activated carbon like material that looks like black sand). Integrated pyrolyzed organic matter is how slash/burn ag works in the rainforest and is why Brazil has some soils that are black. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta

thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
Oh that's such a cool company. I only recently got put onto Terra preta through my personal favorite gardener -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTaWiO5Eso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTaWiO5Eso (he's funny lol) I'm going to try make my own ad hoc terra preta plots for fun too. Are you able to share any more information on your company? Who is actually buying this service? I feel like biochar is going to hit the main stream this year or next. Going to make a compost tea and soak my bio char in it too. > anaerobic combustion that produces a charcoal/activated carbon I wonder if this is the trick though, not that there is organic matter down there, but that is already broken down and fully activated the charcoal. It would also be great to know if the beneficial fungal processes happen at those depths. So many questions aha
- thatcat 6y ago
  That's awesome! The tea thing is a good idea. No one is buying it yet, but the plan is to have some micro rain gardens installed this spring using the tech to reduce the overall area required due to the increased drainage depth and moisture storage. It's essentially an erosion control measure until there is a carbon market and we increase automation. We will also be doing some testing with trees - remediating poor drainage with living trees that have been already been planted. Some of the organic material breaks down really slowly, providing some nutrients to bacteria at a rate that allows the gas to escape, but yea essentially the trick is the ultra high surface area and high compressive strength so that it maintains a porous structure instead of compacting into an anaerobic environment. Yes, beneficial fungi reach much deeper than roots due to the higher penetrative ability of hyphae and they can still extract stuff from whatever depth they reach. Long term I want to be able to do what the guy in the video is doing but with out all that shoveling...
  - thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
    Never heard of micro rain gardens, googled them, also a good idea for some places in my garden. And yeah seems like an awful lot of work aha I'd imagine just getting a bull dozer or something, digging a whole lot of deep rows. Then putting a sign in my neighbour for everyone to just come dump everything in the ditches, throw some wood on, light it up and repeat several times. I saw that they are attempting synthetic stuff too which I might research later. Some useful tips in this Reddit thread -> https://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/1558h7/terra_preta_we_need_more_people_to_know_about/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/1558h7/terra_... Bamboo sounds like something worth investigating.
  - jarmitage 6y ago
    If you don’t mind me asking, what is/was your educational/career route that led you to the knowledge that you currently have? It seems interestingly diverse, like you have biology, agriculture, but also some mechanical?
    - thatcat 6y ago
coderintherye 6y ago
Is it beneficial in anyway to use wood that burned in wildfires (very hot fires that burned most trees and shrubs down through the roots, but also left a lot of nearly fully burned trees and shrubs above ground) as part of the mix or is only pyrolyzed material useful?
- thatcat 6y ago
  That left over bit is technically also pyrolyzed material because very hot fires create anaerobic conditions. Integrating it into the soil seems like a good idea.