Charcoal for Banana Plantation
While on a recent trip to Uganda, someone knew of my interest in charcoal and brought me a newspaper interview of a retired government agricultural worker. He was extolling the benefits of adding charcoal to the soil. He also mentioned sprinkling charcoal throughout his personal banana grove. He commented that it helped prevent banana wilt.
BXW or BBW wilt are the chief nemesis of banana plantations, so anything that can prevent or minimize the spread is a boon for both large and small plantations. Obviously, current practices are not holding back the spread of this dreaded blight, so if there is a local, inexpensive, natural method that can help in any degree, without adding more toxic chemicals to the soil, it should be widely promoted. Charcoal can be made from many local waste products – coconut shells, and other nut shells, corn stover, tree limbs, waste from sawmills [sawdust, and saw chip]…Pineapple
Years ago we sold 250,000 lbs of charcoal powder to a huge pineapple plantation in Hawaii that had been poisoned from toxic chemicals. A few weeks after applying charcoal through the entire plantation, the soil was decontaminated enough for them to start replanting.
More and more, the buildup of agricultural chemicals in the land has reached extreme concentrations, so much so that the pesticides, herbicides, artificial soil supplements no longer have any benefit AND decrease seed germination and sterilize soils of good biology…
More and more smart farmers and even agribusiness have discovered the power of charcoal, not only to restore sick, dead soils, but also as an aid in seed germination, water retention, to prevent soil compaction, for mineral retention, and for disease prevention. Is it time for you to begin your own charcoal/biochar experiments?
Charcoal (or Activated Charcoal) and Biochar are vital land management tools. Whether it is for detoxifying poisoned soils, regulating moisture in soils, improving seed germination, encouraging knitting of newly transplanted sod, or increasing crop yields, all these benefits and more are available to the flower gardener and the tractor farmer through the amazing chemistry and physics of activated charcoal and biochar.
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