Black Magic

This is an extract from a gardening Australia shown in Nov 07 I have included it because I believe lessons learned are often those that we learn by example, and Pete’s patch is an excellent example of a garner sharing his knowledge and secrets. The charcoal mix I tried with my sweetcorn and they had excellent results. I'm trying it this season with broad beans and onions , both of which I added a good handful of dolomite lime as the soluble trace element. I have also used it as a side dressing rather than at planting. I purchased the charcoal at Bunnings cheap at $4 and used a heavy rock to pulverise. Please try and let me know your results..

Gardening is nothing more than a series of experiments - we have successes and the occasional failures and that's how we learn. I'm going to experiment with an ancient method of retaining and increasing soil fertility using charcoal that’s been impregnated with organic fertilisers and micronutrients.Charcoal or any kind of charred organic matter is a highly absorbent form of carbon. It does not decompose in the soil.

The recipe:Use one third of a standard bucket of pulverised charcoal Half a cup of fish emulsion, half a cup of seaweed concentrate and 4 teaspoons of mixed, soluble trace elements all dissolved into 2-3 litres of water in a separate bucket to make a strong, nutrient concentrate.

Method:1 Place the charcoal safely in a strong bag. Moisten a little for safety reasons. Use a hammer or similar implement to crush and pulverise it into a fine dust. Then place the dust into an extra-large bucket. Avoid inhaling the dust – you might wear a protective face mask or respirator.

2 Pour the fertiliser-based nutrient concentrate into the charcoal dust. Leave to soak for 3 days.

3 Then add one third of a bucketful each of dry river (pit) sand and ordinary soil (not clay). Mix together thoroughly.

4 Don’t use a stronger mixture than suggested.To use with tomatoes: Place a double handful of the impregnated charcoal, soil and sand mixture at each planting point and mix widely and deeply into the surrounding soil. Plant a seedling in the centre and water in.

To use with sweet corn: Make a 50mm deep drill or groove and widely dribble the charcoal mixture in and alongside it at the rate of a double handful per metre. Mix with surrounding soil. Sow sweet corn seeds into this and water. (When seedlings emerge they must be thinned so those remaining are spaced half a metre apart).

To use with seedlings of cabbages, cauliflowers, broccolis, kales, silverbeet and lettuces, add a good handful of the charcoal mix to each planting point and mix into the surrounding soil.In order to make the experiment more reliable, plant or sow some vegetables into soil that has not received any charcoal treatment.

Also try adding pulverised charcoal alone (without any fertilisers), to the soil around similar plants to help in arriving at more balanced results. The aim is to compare plant health, growth rate, yields and flavour.Don’t use the enriched charcoal when growing carrots or parsnips as it may cause wasteful root-forking.

This is purely an experiment. It is roughly based on ancient techniques used by the people of the Amazon Basin over a thousand years ago.We are asking interested Gardening Australia viewers and readers to try out this method and to let us know of any beneficial or other results.

NOTE: The charcoal we used in this experiment came from an old pile of burnt wood. Charcoal lumps (not ash) can also be retrieved cold from an extinguished wood-stove or fireplace.Please do not attempt to make your own charcoal. Doing so can be dangerous and also cause serious atmospheric pollution.