I have heard of the ancient terra preta deliberately created by pre-Columbian indiginous people of The Amazon. Is that what you're referring to?

Modern-day agriculturalists attempt to create something similar by creating and using biochar in their soil.

Surely you're not going to tell us someone is making biochar, mixing it with soil, bone meal, manure, etc. and then bagging it and calling it 'terra preta' and selling it. I hope not. They can make and sell anything they choose, but I'd hope they would honor the tradition of the Amazonians who used it and not use the name 'terra preta' for a commercial product.

Dawn

Fascinating! Sounds like permaculture!

I haven't had time to digest this whole article. But they do mention that true terra preta is not available to folks in North America.

This post really caught my attention because I used to visit a village, in Mexico, called Tierra Prieta, which is the same name, only in Spanish.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Here is a link that might be useful: Modern investigation of Terra Preta

George,

I think it is/was permaculture in its purest form. I think that for far too long, our modern-day culture has failed to appreciate the sophisticated agricultural knowledge used by indigenous people long before Europeans came here and "discovered" this part of the world. There's really nothing new under the sun, is there? It would be fascinating to take a time machine back hundreds of years to see how they grew things back then. I imagine we'd learn something new.

I'd love to work with biochar in soil building here on our property, but my fire chief spouse doesn't like it when I play with fire on our property which always seems to be so ridiculously dry. : )

Maybe if we ever have a normal wet winter I can experiment with biochar then without him having to worry about me burning up the place.

Dawn

I've been fascinated by this. I'm terrified of doing it wrong. I asked someone well versed in microbial soil and he would not divulge. I think he's selling something like it. No harm done. I did ask him about doing it wrong and said it's possible to screw up and leave a permanent mark, too. Nice link, George.

bon

Dawn, yes, I was talking about ancient terra preta. I'd never heard of this before this last week, and am awed. Was reading Charles Mann's books 1491 and 1493.

Thank you for the link, George.