Source:
"Conventional wisdom has it that plant roots are the main imbibers of soil minerals and that plants can only absorb these minerals (fertilizers) if they are in a water-soluble form, but neither premise is true. Roots occupy only a tiny fraction of the soil, so most soil minerals—and most chemical fertilizers—never make direct contact with roots. Unless these isolated, lonely minerals are snapped up by humus or soil organisms, they leach away. It’s the humus and the life in the soil that keep the earth fertile by holding on to nutrients that would otherwise wash out of the soil into streams, lakes, and eventually the ocean."
~Toby Hemenway
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture - Second Edition - 2009
Chapter 4: Bringing the Soil to Life
Subsection: The Soil’s Mineral Wealth
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.agsurrection.com/2018/02/22/quotes-bill-02-22-18-2/
The ground that I deal with is volcanic, blow sand, pumice very aired soil must add nutrients lots of bio and animal waste. I also use biochar which is a sponge and keeps the nutrients in the ground for when the plant needs it, its there and keeps moisture and accelerates root growth. Biochar also filters many types of contamination with no adverse effects. It is the future. Nice post keep it up!
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Isn't biochar kind of alkalai? How does it work with acid loving plants?
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Its a soil amendment and is does matter what source it made from. there's many sources that are out there .Many are made from waste. Watch out for paints, oils, rubber and plastics. But made from clean organic matter works well. Ceder, juniper , pine needles does have some acidity? Carbon is just Carbon cleaner the source the cleaner the Char. I have been putting in one (1) cup per gallon of soil.
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In my experience, it CAN be alkaline depending how its made.
The alkalinity can be remedied by rinsing or integrating with compost/biologics.
But thats just my experience
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That's good to know. I suppose it depends on what its made from. Here its usually made of hardwood, and is usually about 8 to 8.5 on the PH scale before integration. It certainly isnt ideal to broadacre spread because of its dry alkalinity.
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I always rinse mine, but for non-agricultural reasons.
I use the lye water for stripping/tanning hides.
The near 7.0 pH char is just a very valuable by-product for me :)
Damn sure stabilizes soil and holds nutrients.
I tend to use scrap softwoods
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So you actually wash the lyes out of the char and leave almost neutral carbon? That’s an interesting point.
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I rinse it when I need lye water for hide processing. At that point i add it directly on the garden.
If i don't need lye water, I add it to the composting process for 3 to 6 months.
The biologics in the compost process tend to moderate the alcalinity for me.
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