Amazon secret - charcoal in soil - would it work here?

Did anyone see the documentary (History channel?) on how the amazon people fed their vast civilized area before the Spanish invasion? The people may have died off because of the new diseases. They had huge areas of raised beds with 'black' earth that turned out to include charcoal. The scientists said they thought the raised beds kept the fertilizer in place with the charcoal. They thought the regular beds were too sandy and the watering drained off the fertilizer. They made test fields of some grain crop and the new beds with charcoal had 880% yields over beds without it.

Soooooo, I was thinking that maybe I would try to add crushed charcoal in one place in my garden on the hill and see if it helped at all. What do you think? I like to experiment. I tried Ruth Stout's method when her book first came out. It would be much easier to try adding a little charcoal. Carol

That is fascinating information. I'd give it a try were I you. I have to think about how that works, I would think the charcoal would act like a "binder" with sandy soil and help hold the nutrients?

I love the history channel, myself. I saw one show on there where they had found both wheat and corn in an Egyptian tomb and were able to grow plants from that seed. That is just amazing.

I was looking into charcoal recently for some reason but it didn't pan out. I think it had something to do with carbon. But you have to be careful with commercial charcoal because some of them contain petroleum solvents and residues, especially the easy light type. I remember something to do with containers and aeration but decided perlite might work just as well.
But what it will do is add potash. I burned a large brush pile and had tree seedlings come up and get to about 3-4' last year.

I have been saving activated carbon and diatamaceous earth from my diatom aquarium filter as well as spent carbon from my aquarium canister filter. Have not decided what exactly to do with this stuff. Hopefully this thread will yield some additional input on the subject.

The spent carbon probably holds some nutrient material which may or may not be useful if it can be utilized by whatever plants are grown in the area it's applied. I can think of no reason to believe this material to be toxic in any way.

KC Carols comment about the raised beds with charcoal sounds really interesting. I would presume the Amazonians aquired the charcoal from the burning of materials where they cultivated so they probably use quite a bit of it in their raised beds. We have a number of forest fires each year and it's amaizing how the new growth is stimulated by these fires.

Lets here more on this subject y'all...typ.

At the bottom of this link http://www.clt.astate.edu/elind/charcoalvalentine.htm
give info as to how the wood brakes down and unwanted parts are released.
Sounds like a good additive to garden soil .

I know that the potting soil for my orchid has charcoal in it.

Shall we burn down the Amazon forests for charcoal?

Bring your shovel Indy...we have plenty here after last years forest fires.

If I'm not mistaken charcoal and activated carbon although similar they have different adsorbing capabilities and properties. I believe activated carbon is processed in a vacuum, while charcoal is simply burnt wood or other living flamable plant materials. I too have seen potted plants with what looks like activated carbon in the potting mix. There is probably a number of reasons for adding this material if you stop and think about it.

here is a few links about charcoal and what benefits it might have for gardening
http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/fertilizer
http://www.eprida.com/hydro/ecoss/background/charbenefits.htm#5
http://www.championtrees.org/topsoil/TerraPreta.htm

carol mo the soils are called terra preta.
from what i gather it is basically charcoal or potash, high in carbon, and they also had pieces of terra cotta and manures. I think the terra cotta added the porosity and perhaps aeration, and seems like microbes really feasted in this environment. It also reminds me of the carbon fuel diesel and what's been said about diesel that the first year it is a weed killer and the second year it acts as a fertilizer. Diesel engines sometimes get the problems of microbes in the fuel or filters, so i suppose it all leads to microbes and carbon??
http://www.pfs-pros.com/page15.html

Len123: Thanks.

I had seen the Amazon documentary before, maybe one year ago, and this time saw only part of it. I just read all your references. Why didn't I pick up on this before? It is amazing. The soil is still fertile after many centuries and replenishes itself (how?). The documentary did mention the possibility of special microbes also being important.

Anyway, I just read up the difference between lump and briquette charcoal and that lump was better, and could be purchased in 20# bags at places like Walmart and Home Depot. One of your articles states 20-30% by weight in the planting soil, or about 30% by weight in the top 6 inches, would be good. I am going to try it on both foods and flowers (just because I want to). I will have to try to crush the lump charcoal, and may also add organic fertilizer (composted manure?). I am not sure if I also need to add sand or something like it. I will let everyone know how it turns out. All the articles were about food crops. I want to see if flowers are affected too. What fun. Carol

Just be sure not to use 'briquette' type charcoal. Kingsford is NOT what you want to use in your garden. Binders, petroleum distillates, etc. are included. Definitely want to go natural or 'lump' in this case.
Ive been including a bit of charcoal in my soil for a while now. Very difficult to separate its effects from the overall improvements Ive been making (inclusion of organics, etc.), but Ive seen no ILL effects. So, I dont think it will hurt, and it could quite definitely help.
DD

I just added one bag (20 lb) of lump charcoal in 14 patches in the main flower garden. I tried to smash the pieces with a hammer. Some smashed easy, others did not. Then I covered the patches with mushroom compost. When I plant vegetables or whatever, I will try to smash the pieces more, using a brick this time. I will let you know how things work out. I plan to add some vegetables to this flower bed. I know the tomatoes and peppers in the flower garden did better than the containers, which I put to improper watering of the containers. I have a water meter now and will use it. I will also put the same flowers in charcoal areas and non-charcoal areas, just to see what happens. I keep coming up with more work every time - wish I would stop this bad habit. ;) Carol