Terra Preta
Vital Links
Introduction:
There are eight sets of containers in all or a total of 32 boxes. Two of the sets are just switchgrass compost hence no charcoal. They are the two containers at the very left (front and back), as can be seen in the above thumbnail. In order to see the full sized picture simply click on the thumbnail. This is the control group. The remaining six sets of containers are about one part charcoal and 5 parts switchgrass compost for a total of six parts in all.
Certified seed tubers were NOT used. Pick outs from a local farmer was used as the seed tubers for this trial.
I call this a project and not an experiment because I have never grown potatoes, much less in this type of container configuration. Also my charcoal supply is a combination of wood, paper and house trash. I plan on making more consistent charcoal in the future but one has to start somewhere. So this is more of a learning experience for me and I plan on doing a better job of this next year.
Update 6/24/2007
In the above picture
you will
notice that an electric fence was erected. We had a major pest problem
in the form of some kind of varmint digging up the potatoes. The two
non-Terra Preta containers were hit the hardest. Sometime the varmint
would not touch the Terra Preta containers and sometimes it would
bother one or two and and stop but always the non-Terra Preta
containers were bothered the most. The varmint didn't eat the seed
potato so it must of been rooting for something like grubs.
Update 7/01/2007
Now our potatoes have
developed an
insect problem. The insects eat many small holes in the leaves and it
has become a major problem. The problem is now somewhat under control
now that I am spraying them with a mixture of water and apple cider
vinegar. About 2 to 3 tablespoons of vinegar to one one gallon of
water.
Update 8/12/2007
At this time wood vinegar produced from the Gas-of-Fire 1000 was used as an insect repellent. One tea cup of wood vinegar was mixed with three gallons of water and sprayed on to the leaves of the plant. It did seem to work and the plants seemed to perk up after the insect attacks. As confidence, with this treatment, increased the soil was also sprayed with no negative apparent results.
At this time wood vinegar produced from the Gas-of-Fire 1000 was used as an insect repellent. One tea cup of wood vinegar was mixed with three gallons of water and sprayed on to the leaves of the plant. It did seem to work and the plants seemed to perk up after the insect attacks. As confidence, with this treatment, increased the soil was also sprayed with no negative apparent results.
Update 9/9/2007
Unfortunately, lacking the necessary time to keep up on spraying, a new wave of pest developed, the slug. The slugs did major damage! I simply did not have the time to care for my plants and they paid the price. When the wood vinegar was applied the slugs did seem to retreat and new healthy leaves grew fast.
Unfortunately, lacking the necessary time to keep up on spraying, a new wave of pest developed, the slug. The slugs did major damage! I simply did not have the time to care for my plants and they paid the price. When the wood vinegar was applied the slugs did seem to retreat and new healthy leaves grew fast.
Harvest
Container Location & Information Map
MORE SUN LIGHT END
* Level 1 is ground level or the first container. The picture has these potatoes marked/highlighted.
Unless you know what you are doing I would forget about multiple high containers. In the above container map you will only find two containers that had potato tubers in a level other than level one. Furthermore I feel that this leads to delayed harvest and MORE chance for insects and blight to set in. The extra wood of the containers may also attract slugs. Moreover plants are about solar energy, sun light, so it would make more sense to have more leaves per potato, in other words multiple high containers have less access to sun light because of less leaf area.
By far these were the best tasting potatoes I've eaten, maybe because they were so fresh.
Container Location & Information Map
MORE SUN LIGHT END
| Back Row | ||||
| PIC 6 lbs 3 oz No charcoal. |
PIC 5 lbs 3 oz 5 @ level 3* |
PIC 5 lbs 12 oz |
PIC 3 lbs 12 oz |
PIC 2 lbs 8 oz |
| PIC 4 lbs 12 oz 1 @ level 2* No charcoal. |
PIC 6 lbs |
PIC 5 lbs 8 oz |
N/A | N/A |
| Front Row | ||||
LESS SUN LIGHT END
* Level 1 is ground level or the first container. The picture has these potatoes marked/highlighted.
Conclusion
This was much more a learning experience than a Terra Preta experiment!
When the plants were first planted they had about the same amount of sun light. That did not last for long. The plants toward the left hand side received much more light as time past and can be seen in the increase harvest yield. This is because of the trees in the background.
This was much more a learning experience than a Terra Preta experiment!
When the plants were first planted they had about the same amount of sun light. That did not last for long. The plants toward the left hand side received much more light as time past and can be seen in the increase harvest yield. This is because of the trees in the background.
Unless you know what you are doing I would forget about multiple high containers. In the above container map you will only find two containers that had potato tubers in a level other than level one. Furthermore I feel that this leads to delayed harvest and MORE chance for insects and blight to set in. The extra wood of the containers may also attract slugs. Moreover plants are about solar energy, sun light, so it would make more sense to have more leaves per potato, in other words multiple high containers have less access to sun light because of less leaf area.
By far these were the best tasting potatoes I've eaten, maybe because they were so fresh.