Amazonian Soils - The Actual Science Behind Terra Preta - Dr. Kurt Spokas

Dr. Kurt Spokas discusses what we know about Amazonian Soils or Terra Preta. Read Kurt's research: www.ars.usda.gov/midwest-area...
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[@mrgrnjns1111]

I think although this USDA guy makes some good points. We do know that bio char creates lil protective homes for the microbial population. And the pottery shards decompose and increase the Cat-ion exchange. Both allowing the soil to retain nutrients much longer and simply not being flushed from the soil.... Being from the USDA he doesn't wanna say this will change the need for chemical fertilizers or a change in farming practices. IMO.......

[@TheTATERBRAINS]

My guess is that the Amazonians would see that areas that were naturally cleared by forest fires were more fertile and try to re-create by making there own fire. I agree that because of his USDA background he might want to downplay the anthropogenic origins

[@kategoldwater8196]

Any chance you could point me in the direction of readings about the pottery shards decomposing and increase in cat-ion exchange?

[@Mitutumuch]

exactly. the fact the limiting of efficient production for high yield is the single most detrimental monopoly weve adopted.

[@SlipMahoneyBowery]

They found pottery shards largely still intact. I wonder if they just absorb and hold water, and slowly release it which prevents a washout of nutrients? Amazon soils don’t have many nutrients because there is no fall to rapidly contribute to the soil. So anything to help hold the nutrients is an improvement.

[@kevintewey1157]

Yea.... Capitalism kills

[@The_Garden_Ranger]

It is absolutely evident that Tera Preta benefited the agriculture in that area. I use biochar in experiments organic farming/gardening. Of course USDA will discredit it because they are funded by big chemical fertilizer companies. You will always see them push anything organic to the background

[@ogadlogadl490]

Amen on your well put comment.

[@mojojeinxs9960]

Flea and tic meditation, can not wrap mind mind around putting that on a pet.

[@danieljoseph255]

sounds like another hit job from big organic, against a sweet, old midwesterner, who didn’t discredit “bio char” fertilizer at all in his comments

[@mikesubito2345]

Could it be an unintentional process of agriculture? Back in our province, it was but normal to dig holes about 6 feet or deeper as a means for garbage disposal. tree trunks and leaves and other natural materials like animal manure are thrown there and burned regularly.vwhy are they being burned? It is to reduce the volume of garbage therein and that process continues until it is full. And we know what to do when its full, that is to dig again in another spot. That process continues over time for EACH HOUSEHOLD. ang yes those filled holes we use it for gardening. The vegetables or any plant you grow there is much healthier, greener and grows a lot faster than normal gardening. These days its been prohibited to dig such holes. Closer to the metro where i live now, i still use charcoal and ashes in my pot gardening and they give acceptable yield...just sharing my experience here in the Philippines hoping it to be relatable to the topic...

[@stephseckold4324]

I have always suspected something similar. Slash and burn techniques are common clearing practices in tropical traditional gardening cultures (Papua New Guinea, Amazon) which possibly created char fields but it may also be that the old Amazonian cultures disposed of collective waste (including humanure) by burning. To burn via pyrolisis (minimal oxegen, burning the syngas but not the carbon content) also reduces smoke and odour so pits or kilns may have been used. They also fired pottery which may have created large volumes of charcoal. At any rate, as suggested, the benefit of adding charcoal to soil does assist with increased fertility, but this may have discovered accidently afterwards by simple observation of better regrowth in disposal areas. Amazonian terra preta is notable because in rainforests the soil is actually often poor due to high rainfall and leaching, so the charcoal with its accumulated biology captures and retains nutrients that would ordinarily be lost. Since the forest has reclaimed and grown back after civilizations collapsed those chargrounds have continued to absorb and lock up nutrients. Deliberate addition of charcoal as a soil improver should always include innoculating the 'biochar' first (with compost, urine, seaweed or similar) otherwise adding biochar will initially have a negative effect as it sucks nutrient from the soil in the same way as charcoal absorbs toxins etc when used as a water filter

[@sixrod3055]

That would make perfect sense...

[@kicknadeadcat]

Unintentional is how most inventions happen. They dig a pit, burn all their waste and in time plants and trees would come stronger then before in those ares. Makes sense they would incorporate natures way. Or maybe a lighting bolt burns a section of land and 80 years or so later they would notice everything grows better in that area. And the USDA guy saying there were no settlements at some of the terra preta sites but they have recently found by using LiDAR hundreds of sites that have had what looks to be large populations. So there might have been people in the other sites.

[@Noidfpv]

Very cool dude. Loving these talks alot. This stuff is just so so fascinating. Keep up the good work. 😎👍

[@Warrior-In-the-Garden]

So true- in our search to optimize our growing conditions, we try to hone in on 1 thing that will tip the scales for us. I think we are a bit arrogant at times, to think with one thing we can duplicate what has developed over thousands of years. I like these shorter clips. Thank you for this series.

[@mohamedawang5859]

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[@mohamedawang5859]

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[@mohamedawang5859]

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[@mohamedawang5859]

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[@xikano8573]

Mmmhmmm... I say the same thing. 😂😂😂

[@richvandervecken3954]

Mr Spokas mentions only the addition of the biochar or charcoal as the proof of Human intervention in the soil. He doesn't mention the addition of ground up shellfish and pottery fragments. Maybe these ancient people discovered how to make this soil by burning their garbage dumps every year for several years and then noticed how much better the plants grew in those locations. Then over time they figured out how to use existing Terra Preta soil to transplant the process to new locations. This would explain the lack of Charcoal at some locations. It is clear to almost everyone who discusses this soil that their appears to be a symbiotic microbial interaction between possibly a fungus and a bacteria or several of both that are adding nitrogen and potassium to the soil over time. This is evident by the area's that mine down the soil to about 10cm then over time it grows back to a depth of at least a meter.

[@assmaster420]

Terra Preta sounds like the left overs from the local dump. Well a dump hundreds of years ago. Maybe it was the outhouse area that they spread charcoal on top of to keep the stink down.

[@joshwuf]

That might explain its incredibly rich and wonderful microbiology as well

[@curiousbystander9193]

yup, they pooped in clay pots, threw some fire ash with charcoal to keep the smell down, then dumped the whole pot and crap along with fish and animal bones ....... local sewage dump sites, just look at the way it;s piled in in pictures.

[@simonmathew6309]

You guys might be on to something. Reminds me of guano.

[@curiousbystander9193]

@@simonmathew6309 guano is way more pure really.... pretty much bat poop from the cave...plus I guess the local minerals from where the cave was, some anyway leached in .....

[@robmeglaughlin325]

Perhaps the pottery shards are a by product of the process of making terra preta? The jars for carrying waste from the settlement to the pits would routinely get broken due to attrition. The charcoal addition to their night soil and other organic waste provides multiple benefits, sanitation, foul odor alleviation and soil enrichment.

[@Codyyy473]

In Ecuador to this day farmers burn their land pretty often I saw it all the time driving through the country I’ve been seeing it for like 25 years they’ve been doing it forever a lot of the farmers are Native Americans they speak Quechua some Spanish

[@bubblegumray]

think this usda man takes his money from a company like monsanto ore so. so they would not be able after terra preta to sell theyr fruticicer. its nothink but a thinking i think

[@PierreDuhamel-lj1vb]

It seem so dangerous to be respecfull to nature...what are you gonna do with your billions of dollars in the garden...when every thing grows free ! ! !

[@babylongate]

Well the char is important but with fragments of broken pottery pieces that keep it moist and helps creating beneficial microbes colonization

[@julienrockingham-ip4co]

I believe that they also used sargassum Seaweed that washes up in huge quantities on the coast line even to this day. I feel like they would have mixed that with other things

[@davechristensen8299]

What does slower "CARBON TURNOVER" mean? This didn't help because you didn't explain it.

[@davidsutton4436]

I will admit that the scientist spent a lot of words to say very little. I will submit that "slash and burn" has historically and even recently been the way folks without machinery cleared jungle. Fertility from potassium goes up from the burn, but in a few years the soil depletes that and so . . . burn another plot; of course returning a few years later to burn the regrowth. Such back and forth cycling could well account for a significant part of the mechanism that created terra preta.

[@mineaalexndru-ciprian6068]

Now were getting there this in very interesting 👏 (Terra preta is mesing with my mind for a while now😅)

[@ForPropertyInvestors]

Could side by side study of naturally burned forest show a difference.

[@Davidzxcv1]

Question: It is possible that if an accumulation of various organic waste on the ground is set on fire to "clean" it (a theory I read in several places) the biogas produced by the waste would produce pyrolysis to a certain degree inside the waste pile due to contact with the fire started on the surface?

[@ogadlogadl490]

I wanna buy some soil from the Terra Preta soil directly from the original source. Any ideas anyone? I think a gallon would be a good start to inoculating my barren soil.

[@leoscheibelhut940]

I want to do this too, but am worried about extreme temperatures or lack of oxygen exchange through the packaging killing off all or most of the biolife during transportation to the US.

[@raphaelheimgartner904]

May be they used the same area for a long time to grow crops and they cleaned the area with fire every year.

[@bossdog1480]

Australian Aboriginals used fire extensively to clear forest debris, (preventing out of control bushfires), to cause new growth in grasses, and trees to germinate.

[@raphaelheimgartner904]

@@bossdog1480 yes sure but the outcome is not the same. When i think more about it they had probably a few different areas...at least two. a growing area and a waste area...and all few years they chanched the two and the fire was not only to clean but also to kill of pathogenes. Also they could have used the rain as control. Thats because it has a lot of coal left. But thats only my theory

[@bossdog1480]

@@raphaelheimgartner904 Interesting theory, probably right for the most part. What do you mean though by "it has a lot of coal left"?

[@trevorwesterdahl6245]

I think it would be wiser to focus on learning the methods they used, not focus on specific elements found in the soil. I'm sure its actually quite complex: what plants did they grow, what biodiversity exists (worms, insects, bacteria, etc), and was it integrated with animals (I.e. chickens, goats, cows, pigs). I suspect they developed a complete eco system. It wasn't something simple-minded like add bio char and pottery shards to dirt and suddenly a magic, self-sustaining soil forms.

[@xikano8573]

Sure, ahat about the climate in that region. You know, temperature, relative humidity, exposure to sunlight, and how about lattitude/longitude? The other thing is time. How long did those ingredients sit there undisturbed before they are able to produce something?

[@apexdriversclub5925]

Has anyone done in field research? And recorded the evidence?

[@johnthompson6656]

Everyone wants to be the first to "solve"the mystery. They will even claim the answer without proving it.

[@harisrani9106]

It's simply dug out a hole comprised of household waste which was burned to maintain your waste management. One can see samples of this still practised in rural areas in Malaysia. There is no proper collection of waste in these areas this type of method is applied.

[@kicknadeadcat]

And what they found was plants would grow back lush in those areas in time. It makes perfect sense that they would incorporate the same system into growing food.

[@TrevorIsCommenting]

Then please recreate it. It's not just fertile soil

[@wewenang5167]

@@TrevorIsCommenting WE ALREADY DID EVERY DAY EVEN TODAY AT MY BACKYARD LOL, IT WONT HAPPENED IN JUST A FEW YEARS IT TOOK A DECADE. WE HAVE THE SAME SOILS HERE WHERE SETTLEMENTS HAS BEEN THERE FOR A 1000 YEARS AND WE CAN FIND TERRA PRETA ALL OVER THE VILLAGES IN MALAYSIA, PHILIPPINES AND INDONESIA. GO TO ANY TROPICAL COUNTRY WITH HEAVY CLAY SOILS AND YOU CAN FIND TERRA PRETA IN EVERY HUMAN SETTLEMENTS. THIS METHOD ONLY WORKS IN TROPICAL COUNTRIES WITH HEAVY RED CLAY SOILS LIKE THE AMAZON, INDONESIA, THE PHILIPPINES, SOUTHERN THAILAND, CAMBODIA, MALAYSIA AND CENTRAL AFRICAN COUNTRIES. A RAIN FORESTED COUNTRY WITH HUGE RAIN FOREST AND HUGE SUPPLIES OF FAST GROWING WOODS. IT WONT WORK IN A FOUR SEASON COUNTRIES LIKE IN US AND EUROPE AND IT WONT WORK IN JUST A YEAR OR TWO.

[@lostpony4885]

The few bits of in-situ sherds ive seen on video do not look randomly buried but carefully arranged in a flat layer.....maybe accudental but only surveying many more sherds will show if theres a pattern....fired clay provides more ph stability and some passive lifting potential possibly critical is creating air in the preta.....please gather much more data

[@daleval2182]

Human urine in char , from humans that eat right

[@josephevans5703]

Sounds like first till with biochar then absolutely no till

[@QuiChiYang2]

The biochar these Amazonian created held millions upon millions of micro-biota of bacteria & fungi. If you didn't find it in some and did in others could it be that those areas had been fully integrated or plundered by ignorant farmers? This tera preda soil is the most interesting science ever discovered. Done by ancient civilization. ACIENT CIVILIZATION! MIRACULOUS!

[@kicknadeadcat]

Every piece of land has its own diverse set of indigenous microorganisms. There’s may be unique to that area but they all function they same way, they eat, they poop, they die and it all feeds the plant life.

[@coinbot174]

Diego's mic looks like a bong.

[@MqKosmos]

Nearby settlement doesn't mean they created it, it could also be that settlements arose where soil was fertile. 50/50 could go either way

[@radleysmith7528]

I've heard you get a good mushroom crop after forest fires

[@rjdholcum5181]

I was watching something several years ago and it said one inch of coal like wood burn coal like wood had the amount of space of a football field layout

[@lostpony4885]

"Turning carbon over slower" do you mean carbon sequestration? If soil was so rich that it returned all the carbon to its growth that would maximize food production would it not? Sequestration takes carbon out of the cycle, preventing its sequestration would be a petroleum-minded sort of increase-production tangible result.

[@lostpony4885]

Point is if hes saying less sequestration then that would fit therefore support the human engineered origin.

[@kicknadeadcat]

USDA guy is saying there were no settlements in some of the areas they found terra preta. But they recently found that are hundreds of sites not unearthed but have been discovered by LiDAR in the Amazon. Meaning where he says there were no settlements there just might have been we just haven’t been unearthed yet. And the Amazonians may have gotten there knowledge of terra preta by noticing how the land would come back lush after a Forest fire. It could take century but it does come back and even more fertile. So it would make perfect sense that they would copy nature and make terra preta.

[@jonerlandson1956]

I've heard it said that burying a bunch of biochar may disrupt the natural carbon cycle... But then you consider that if man learns through observation of nature... The ice age floods that existed up until 14,000 years ago or so may have taught man something about a bunch of buried carbon...

[@kicknadeadcat]

Carbon buried in soil will at first soak up nutrients making them unavailable to the plants. In doing that they become a home and food source for microbes. A home stocked with food. In time those microbes eat, poop, and die. The nutrients are leached out and made 3:06 available to the plants. They’d why they suggest you put only about 5 to 10% biochar into a compost pile and like it sit a few months. After that it can be worked into the soil.

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@kicknadeadcat carbon in a fixed form like biochar... is fixed... it becomes a sponge... carbon in a free form... like a stump... limb... or... log... will become a sponge... that will break down over time... no nitrogen robbing... because... it... is not green... and green... is what is lacking nitrogen...

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@kicknadeadcat hügelkultur is good for a hillside... however... it is not good for flat surfaces... you can use the idea in a raised bed planter though...

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@kicknadeadcat biochar can last thousands of years buried...

[@davidmckay9558]

Either way, they definitely cultivated food. There was 20 million-ish people living there.

[@nowaistedspace4946]

I figured they were "waste burning" dumps to be 9 meters deep.

[@lostpony4885]

Natural fires simply dont fit multiple feet thickness of char unless theres some volcanism or something? How do natural fires explain it...find the evidence or its ruled out as probable explanation.

[@V-ANews]

Its crazy how advanced they were. A hundered or ao years ago there was an explorer who traved thru the amazon and wrote about this hige advandce city in the amazon. And 70 years or so later when other exploers came thru to see this city there was nothing there so they asumed that the guy had made it all up until recently when they started scaning the amazon with LIDAR they could see thru all the folliage and see masive man made structures and estimates say its poplulation was about 1million or more people streets had been taked over by the jungle. And the main theory os that there was a massive small poxs outbreak that killed off the majority of the population and the forrest took over everthing so thats why the people never saw anything when they came. They even discoverd a man made soil called terra preta or amazon black soil and its extremely fertile they have found some of this soil fron that peroid and planted a dying plant in it and they plant got healthy and was able to grow the soil was still fertile after all this time and they still dont know exactly how they made it. They needed it to be able to have enough food for tge size of their population as the soil in the amazon isnt very good or have many nutrients in it ti grow.

[@VeeKayGreenerGrass]

The first guy must have killed them all off with new diseases he brought with him.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Try 500 years ago.

[@user-mu5po6tg9k]

@@VeeKayGreenerGrass Yeah exactly

[@jaybestnz]

I'm curious if the terracotta holds onto the water.

[@thomassiegfried5409]

Yes

[@TheEmbrio]

Well, if you see the improvement of soil a natural incomplete fire makes, (to leave char) one might continue the process to farm the land. And they're are quite uniform, so they were tilled up probably. The fact that they are self healing and renewing does seem strange, could you go into that? 5hat lead to the thought they could ba natural in origin. But, you know, however it came to our knowledge, now we know charcoal, inoculated, is a great soil amendment ... if it works, why stress out about the origin ? Let's focus about making it work.

[@trolltracker]

The origin of everything we use matters. Impacts can be devastating and that matters. Are you trolling?

[@TheEmbrio]

@@trolltracker not I am saying it is quite interesting, and adding that we can use this technique because we can see its benefits, even without knowing it's complete origin. While we research some more. Like perhaps prehistoric people purified iron without in depth knowledge of atoms.

[@wanderingghost7324]

@@TheEmbrio Well the origin of things can be used to discover another earth shattering truths that may change our society as we know it. I agree we need to make it works out now but without certain information we couldn't advance beyond if we ignore the origin ideas of what is. Its like trying to created something without the foundation. We will be wasted a lot of years trying to prove it could and people would not wait for something that might not exist.

[@wewenang5167]

@@trolltracker GO TO ASIA OR ANY OTHER TROPICAL COUNTRIES...YOU WILL FIND SIMILAR SOILS. WE KNOW WHAT THEY DID. THEY SLASH AND BURNED THE FOREST. THAT IS IT, NOTHING SPECIAL. I LIVE IN A TROPICAL COUNTRY AND MY GRANDMA HAS DONE IT FOR GENERATIONS. LIVING IN A TROPICAL COUNTRY IS AN ADVANTAGES FOR MAKING TERRA PRETA BECAUSE WE HAVE TONS OF HUGE WOODS AND TREES TO BURN AND TREES HERE GROW FASTER. IT WONT HAPPENED IN JUST ONE OR TWO YEARS, IT TOOK DECADES. TAKING CHARCOAL AND PUT IT IN YOUR GARDEN TODAY WONT MAKE IT A TERRA PRETA BUT JUST A SOIL WITH CHARCOAL. DO IT AT LEAST 10 MORE TIMES AND LET IT REST FOR A YEAR FOR EACH PIT AND USED THAT PIT FOR TOILET AND DUMPING KITCHEN TRASH AND DEAD BODY OR WHAT NOT AND WHEN ITS FULL YOU PLANT ON IT, BUT MADE ANOTHER HOLE ON OTHER SIDE OF YOUR PROPERTY AND REPEAT IT AGAIN UNTIL ALL THE LAND IN YOUR PROPERTY ARE DONE, THEN AFTER A DECADES ALL THE LAND AROUND YOUR HOUSE WILL BECAME TERRA PRETA. IN A VILLAGE OF 100 HOUSES EACH HOUSE HAVE AT LEAST ONE PIT SO OVER A MILLENNIA THE WHOLE VILLAGE WILL BECAME TERRA PRETA. YOU WONT GET A GOOD CROPS ON SECOND OR THIRD YEARS IN SAME SPOT...YOU HAVE TO ALTERNATE THE SPOT AND LET IT REST. WHY DO WESTERNERS THINK THIS IS SOMETHING GROUND BREAKING? NO PUN INTENDED LOL...LITERALLY WE IN ASIA HAVE BEEN DOING IT SINCE ANCIENT TIMES IN ALL TROPICAL COUNTRIES NOT JUST IN THE AMAZON, IM STILL DOING IT NOW ON MY BACK YARD.

[@rodareego7019]

Not necessarily true what he says about land not being cleared because there were only small groups of tribespeople settling the land. There's now evidence of old massive civilizations in the Amazon.

[@user-eg6ku4sd6i]

i made hard yellow clay soil black like char without adding a char.... easy i unlock it....

[@pierrereynaud784]

Fires in the amazon? It's too humid and wet for wildfires

[@kicknadeadcat]

One lightning bolt has enough energy to boil a lake so a wet forest is not out of the question.

[@lostpony4885]

Chars only part of the ingredients. The pottery sherds hold the key....

[@mikenewman4078]

Pretty empty. Where is the citations of research. This video seems to say, "Nothing to see here folks". Surely some governmental authority has performed some documented research, either cite the research or take the video down.

[@hopefully.]

Hi, African Dark Earths : kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5m8n6GGaLOlbZI Soils similar to Amazonian Dark Earths (Terra Preta)?

[@PierreDuhamel-lj1vb]

It seems so hard to even imagine people having a healthy relation with the soil of this planet...that our current way of thinking makes it inconfortable or even ridiculous to imagine a large human population carring, having respect for what actually feeds them !! Life wisdom is such that they had to ascend to another reality before the European pigs invaded their gardens. Universal Slavery of Destructive Agriculture

[@user-iq6cy9yn2w]

So Charcoal doesn't occur naturally? I've got news for you. Has it occurred to anyone that observing naturally created charcoal, and it's effect on soil might be what introduced the Amazonians to the technology? When you do the experiment, it's very important to pick the poorest yellow clay shit you can find. Preferably semi arid. Chuck the uninoculated char on top, three to four inches thick, do not incorporate into the soil. Now get the hell out of it, and leave it alone for 18mths. you won't believe what happens.

[@user-iq6cy9yn2w]

Raw, untreated charcoal, don't dick around with it, just chuck it on, and wait.

[@timothyblazer1749]

Terra Preta is amazing. It's not just about char. The microbial life is totally unique. We have not figured out how to replicate the soil. We can use bio char to create better soils, but we can't make terra preta. It is NOT true that there is evidence these pits are natural. The pits always have pottery in them. No pottery, no terra preta. These fellows do not know the current research.

[@brianmorris364]

Perhaps the pottery shards once held fermented compost teas? Surely the clay alone would be a good amendment but the unique bacteria leads me to believe it was introduced from a separate source. Perhaps a particular swamp water, spring water, or a man made brew.

[@brianmorris364]

I also believe that one could reproduce terra praeta by making an identical soil composition and then inoculating it with microbial and mycorrhizal elements from the original terra praeta soils. By feeding the bacteria it would certainly reproduce and perhaps thrive? Almost identical conditions would be necessary one would assume so although difficult, it is possible.

[@VeeKayGreenerGrass]

@@brianmorris364 yes. When you add it to less fertile soil it improves it.

[@kicknadeadcat]

Every piece of land has its own indigenous populations of microbes. There’s may be unique but they all function the same way. They eat, they poop, they die and it all feed the plant life.

[@timothyblazer1749]

@@kicknadeadcat true. However Terra Preta can do things no other soil can do.

[@SlipMahoneyBowery]

The USDA guy used a lot of words to say nothing. My spidey senses tell me that the USDA would have a political reason to shut up and keep farming going just the way it is. Do you know how many jobs would be lost if they allowed breakthrough knowledge out. The farm chemical companies would quit paying for vacations for USDA employees for sure.

[@holli4962]

So they could build pyramids, floating crops and amazing sculptures and pottery, but they just never could figure out how to chop down a tree?

[@joshwuf]

There's a lot of evidence that they planted most of the trees, and then when the population was desicrated (probably through disease) the jungle grew wildly, rather than in what was essentially a big ass garden. This is just a theory though I guess

[@stephseckold4324]

not a theory, more recent study has revealed that much of what we now think of as impenetrable forest was once largely cleared. The forest has grown back and reclaimed huge areas kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGq8qJmKmtd0mqM@@joshwuf

[@baldseagul]

I make living soil for a living in fact my company does. I'm telling you right now what they did there was not a natural process. They literally work hard to create that soil! I know because I do it for a living 😅