High GD community
Week 16,
Zuchinis all around, tomatoes getting ready on a daily. Cucumbers are getting almost mature proportions. Everything going well.
Terra preta
Location: center perma garden
Surface: 125cm x 105cm
Depth: 115cm
The hole was dug out over 3 days, it were very sunny days. 😅
Theres mostly loamsand with a small sandloam bottom that was very hard. The sand was also very compressed and hard. The top layer is this grey dusty soil of about 40cm deep.
At the bottom theres pure sand thats soft, easy drainable.
First step is to fill up the entire bottom with fine chopped wood, progressively using bigger pieces of wood. I try to use some hardwood like oak to for its extra K (potassium = pot ash). A bit of charcoal to.
This will take the entire first day, bcs it needs to have a minimal ticknes of pure ashes of around 5cm. Otherwise, after compressing it with the upcoming layers, the ash-line would almost disappear. Not all the wood needs to be burned entirely. Its a first layer with lots of N and K. Bones can be used to in the fire making the NPK complete. But it can be added also as a separated layer. I dont have that much bone material because my 2 dogs, or eating, or burry them somewere.
Little warning at the end, be aware of your local laws applied to open fires. 😅😉
After a good burn ive got between 8 and 12cm of ashes in total over the entire surface.
A small layer of soil (5cm) is put on top of that. Theres no need to harden out that layer, pressure will to the work and the layers will compress over time into ideal circumstances.
On to the next layer!!
Next is a layer of the compost, but the part that isnt allready decomposed. Its green/brown/yellow of color. And a bit of everything, grass, weeds, leafs and some thin branches.
Another layer soil to cover that up.
Now i formed a thin layer of chopped(10mm) wood(beech), just enough to make a thin,almost 1 piece high, layer. On to this i added a complete wheelbarrel of compost(black) with small pieces of still not completly decomposed materials. Lots of worms here.
On that, you guessed it, an other layer of soil. I try to have both types of soil in that mix, the almost pure sand and the more grey type.
Next, back to the beech. This time the rest of the bag follows. Theres a good layer of around 3cm deep. On this ive layed down some new small woodsticks to make a small fire again. Starting at the center and adding some last branches i found. It turned out really smoky!!
Half way the burn ive opend the core of the fire, trying to spread the small pieces of char over the complete surface. After that, i added for the first time some water here.
And an other layer of soil again, this is just covering up each time. Max 5cm!!
Now we are at the upper half of the pit. Still 50cm to go.
Now ive added some compost again, the green/brown/yellow one, with on top of that, a 15 liter bucket with compressed bokashi fermentated kitchen leftovers. Making a layer out of that and some fresh bokashi juice with 10 liters of water to drain those benificial bacteria into to compost layer just underneath it. This layer is almost 20cm tick.
Again, yeah, soil, 5cm.
Ive bought some blond peat to at to to toplayers. Last 25 to 30cm of soil, is a mix of the peat(20%) and the two other types of soil. First ill do tiny layers of each, last 10cm i try to mix it.
And to finish the job, ive took some 100% reused and composed soil with some perlite in it from past use.
I havent watered a lot, but the meteo predicts a good amount of water in the upcoming days.
The soil that stayed and didnt get back to its original place, ive used to make a new top layer on the rest of the mini field.
I havent used clay because it was hard to find or just to expensive. Beside the peat(250l), i didnt buy anything. So its labor intensive, but real cheap. If you dont get a sanction by the community ofcours! 😅😅😅
Feel free to comment and give your toughts.
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Thats it for this week boys and girls,
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Grow safe buds and feel free to check out my other ladies doing fine thanks!
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