Hi Jose, Charcoal will change the pH of soils. If you can find it, zeolite added to the soil as an amendment, is much better for the VAM fungi. Zeolite is also longer lasting and will do a cation exchange. It will also absorb things that are detrimental to the VAM fungi. For example, if one happens to have a lot of organic material in the soils that is not very well decomposed, there can be an excessive amount of etheline gas emited. Zeolite will absorb that gas. Excessive etheline will stop the VAM fungi from growing and it can stop any further colonization of plant roots.
Zeolite also makes a great cation exchanger and can be mixed in with manure and will help hold down leaching. It will also stop the smell rather quickly. Zeolite is my preference over charcoal. I have two German Shepard dogs that pee and poop in my crushed granite gravel drive way. We use it as a dog run. It used to reek like crazy! I put down three 30 lb bags of zeolite just once in the spring and there is no odor at all from it. The zeolite will recharge in the sun light. If you have pigs or chickens or horses, put zeolite down... the odor stops and you now have a significant value added to your manure. Zeolite is also a product mixed into the carrier material of our BioVam Mycorrhiza inoculum. It absorbs gasses given off by the bacteria in our inoculum and helps keep our bags from puffing up. It is also a great amendment to have around plant roots and has anti-pathogenic properties while helping the VAM fungi. The zeolite gets along with VAM fungi quite well. Odly, zeolite is used as a soil amendment in China and Japan, but not much in the USA, although it is available in the US and Canada. I also have about 3 pallets of it sitting in my garage. LOL. Best Regards, Thomas Giannou - zone 5 - Spokane, WA http://www.tandjenterprises.com - home of BioVam Mycorrhiza. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jose Luiz Moreira Garcia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 4:50 PM Subject: Charcoal and VAM > Dear Fellows, > > I would like to bring forward the discussing on the > utilization of Charcoal ( wherever it is available - not > that we are going to make intentionally charcoal for > that purpose) specially the pulverized one to increase > soil VAM. > Please read the article : > Microbial Fertilizers in Japan > http://www.agnet.org/library/article/eb430.html > > Here in Brazil the utilization of charcoal to increase VAM > and to control nematodes is a fact. However, I see other utilizations > for charcoal as well. > If it has the ability to increase VAM to create a hospitable place > for microrganisms, then why not utilize it to make compost ? > It would have also the extra ability to absorb odours. > I am going to use it in my next compost pile. > > Jose >
