Terra preta

[nkycarbon]

This is related somewhat to the Sustainability post.

Read
here about the use of charcoal in soil dating back to 5000 BCE.

Read here about biochar which is the term for modern use.

I know suggestions are supposed to be sperated but here are the steps.

>>>Charcoal from any fire<<<
Anytime you burn wood you make charcoal if only by accident. Kilns of course are a machine when your actually trying.

Charcoal from a small kiln is

Output per day of labour

100 grams of charcoal
Maximum output

8000 grams
Required resources

300 grams of wood
Required tools

none
Skill

none

Would it be fair to say that you get a precent of the wood back as charcoal anytime you use wood?

So for the 275 grams of wood for girlling meat you get back 2 grams of charcoal?

Would it be fair to say that any place you can use would can be used like a kiln but only a tenth as effective as a kiln?

small kiln .. 300 grams of wood = 100 grams of charcoal
firepit ... 300 grams of wood = 10 grams of charcoal

The exapnded availability of charcoal won't deblance the game as making the kilns would still be much more porductive.

>>>charcoal in the soil<<<
Biochar/charcoal in the soil is not a fertilizer. It has longer term effects of promoting growth. Every soil is different.

Adding charcoal to soil could boost some food growth. It would be a large project that perhaps creates a Terra preta [food].

A carrot harvestor makes 4000/5300 carrots a day.
A dung fork makes 1600 carrots a day.

A "Terra preta carrot plot" would make 2000 carrots a day and require a dung-fork?

[marginoferror]

Charcoal is not the same as burnt wood. My understanding is that it is a huge pain in the ass to prepare because it must be heated more or less in the absence of oxygen. Although you don't necessarily need a kiln.

[Gran]

Indians didn't used a kiln, they opened a space in the forest cutting it down and burned the logs together in a big and dense pile. The low quantities of oxygen and the heat produced charcoal, that would be later mixed with the soil.

You can't produce effectively within a lifetime "Terra Preta" with a fire pit, mostly because it produces much more ashes, not charcoal. You have heat large quantities of wood.

[nkycarbon]

You are both correct to some extent.

It is just burnt wood but it is hard to produce in quantity without a kiln.