The entire production area will be planted with different species of non-tracing bamboo, such as Bambusa blumeana, Bambusa balcooa, Bambusa bambos, Bambusa polymorpha, Dendrocalamus asper, Dendrocalamus latiflorus, Dendrocalamus giganteus, Dendrocalamus strictu. In addition to their use as construction material, as food for humans and animal fodder, bamboos, placed there, will have different roles:
1. Windbreaker – fence: The density of bamboo foliage over a height of about 20 metres will greatly reduce the penetration of continuous wind and squalls within the growing areas. In addition to damage to the structure of trees and woody plants, wind can have a significant impact on plant growth and yield. A plant exposed to strong winds will be more likely to grow smaller and to invest more of its energy in secondary growth rather than in floral and, therefore, fruit production. On trees exposed to high winds, fruit may be pulled from the tree before ripening. The wind could also have an impact on the gas exchange (H2O vapour, CO2, O2) on the leaf surface and thus impact the photosynthesis performance. The density of bamboo will create a visual and mechanical barrier to reduce incursions of large wild animals on the production area. If this natural barrier is not enough to sufficiently reduce the visits of monkeys who come to enjoy too much of the fruit harvest of La Evidencia, we will be able to arrange the space so that 10 meters separate the bamboos from the first trees of the nourishing forest. A row of spiny plants and/or shrub could also be installed. With this configuration, monkeys will not be able to penetrate the production area by moving from tree to tree. It should be noted that the majority of monkeys do not walk on the ground, for fear of terrestrial predators. However, a strip of thorny plants (such as pineapple or agave) can be densely planted to prevent their progression.
2. Soil stabilizer: Bamboo rhizomes firmly anchored to the soil surface stabilizing soil and preventing erosion of the upper soil layer. Thanks to bamboo, the rich and living soil that will be created over the entire production area of La Evidencia will not risk being lost by wind or water erosion.
3. Energy source, biochar: Dry bamboo leaves will be regularly harvested for use as fuel for biochar. The leaves will be placed in a pyrolysis tower for use in the kitchen. This closed tower allows the pyrolysis of the leaves which generates a lot of heat and whose product of the pyrolysis is coal. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of organic material (here: bamboo leaf) under low oxygen concentration or in its absence. During pyrolysis, the carbon (C) contained in the material decomposed by heat does not have the opportunity to combine with oxygen molecules (O2) and will therefore not volatilize on the form of CO2 as is the case in a combustion event. The result of pyrolysis is called "biochar" which is composed of 65% carbon in the case of bamboo leaves.
Producing biochar is a very environmentally friendly way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. CO2 is captured by the photosynthesis process and stored in plants. Carbon is then solidified and stored inside biochar for long term instead of being volatilized to the atmosphere during the combustion and decomposition processes of organic matter. Innovative scientists claim that climate change is still reversible if we start actively producing biochar around the world (Ute Scheub et al. 2016).
Everyone could easily produce biochar and, thus, stored carbon in soil, agreat way to compensante our own daily CO2 emissions. The three simple ways are the following:
-) Dig hole or a trench in the ground, fill the trench with some dry organic material (wood, grass, leaves, rice husk,...) and set fire on it.
You can stop adding feedstock at any time; you must stop when the trench is completely full of biochar. When you want to stop, simply stop adding feedstock. Watch the flames. For a minute or two, the surface of the char will be covered with dancing orange flames. When these die down to almost nothing, your char is ready. Place a roofing metal sheet over the trench. If you don't have metal roofing sheet, when the hole is absolutely full, push the dirt you dug out of the hole back on top of the hot char. Spread it out carefully to leave no char exposed. If you see any smoke escaping from gaps under the roofing sheet, put dirt over them and pack it down. Your object is to seal the trench, or hole, so that no air can get in. Now wait – a long time. Biochar is stubborn stuff. A trench can take five hours to go out.
-) Use kiln for making your biochar:
Fully load the kiln with dry kindling. Start the fire at the top and watch it burn its way down. Once a large enough fire has started inside the kiln, one needs to keep loading wood.
The loading rate can be determined by the amounts of smoke and ash forming. Too much smoke means too much wood is being loaded too quickly. Too much ash forming means to little wood is being loaded too slowly. Load wood and charring when ash can be seen. Keep doing this until the kiln is almost full. Once the kiln is almost full and the process is complete, cover with soil. If you see any smoke escaping from gaps, put dirt over them and pack it down Let this sit overnight and unload in the morning. The pyrolysis process is complete after sitting overnight.
OR
-) Make a Biochar oven: watch this video.
4. Soil Amendment: Biochar will allow us to accumulate Terra Preta within La Evidencia. The ancient peoples of the Amazon obtained a very fertile soil by mixing soil with coal. Terra Preta 's technic disappeared with the disappearance of the peoples of Amazon because of the European diseases introduced during the conquest of the Americas in the 16th century led by Fransisco de Orellana.
In the soil, coal acts as the argilo-humic complex [To learn more about the definition of humic argilo complexes, I invite you to read the following posts that will deal with the Mandalas Gardens here] being a highly porous structure offering plenty of space to store and retain water, nutrients and micro-organisms. Since the structure is neutral and cooked, it is necessary to “activate” (fill it with nutrients and micro-organisms) before mixing it with soil. The elders did this by mixing biochar with their excrement, plant and animal waste, their potteries, etc. At La Evidencia, we will use bamboo biochar to make Terra-Preta and we will activate the biochar with the juices flowing from the compost-BSF bins [To learn more about the Terra Preta and BSF, I invite you to come and read the following posts here]. Liquids produced by the compost are the part containing all the nutrients mineralized during the process of decomposition of organic matter by the micro-organisms. Thanks to its porous structure, bamboo biochar (like that from other organic source) in the soil will allow water to seep into the soil rather than flow to the surface resulting in a loss of this vital elements for ecosystems. Water and oxygen will be stored in the pores of the biochar, making it more readily available to soil roots and micro-organisms. The latter also benefit from the oxygen stored in the pores of the biochar.
Once you have been making your own biochar, we could make your own Terra Preta by mixing the biochar with your kitchen waste, compost. You can now use this very nutritious earth to cultivate your vegetable garden or simply add to the soil of your garden.
Here is an example of how you could culivate with Terra Preta even in an appartement:
* Note that the microorganisms of following instructions can easily be replace by a non-pasteurised youghurt.
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