GROWTH OF BEANS IN TERRA PRETA

After sowing beans and when observed after one week, it is seen that 9 sprouts have emerged from TP pots and only 8 sprouts emerged from control soil(10 nos of bean seeds were used covering 5 TP and 5 control pots, with 2 bean seeds in each pot). The plants are taller and are healthy in the Terra Preta pots as compared to the control pots. The watering to the pots was erratic, i.e., not a particular timing was followed and two days they were left with out water.


TERRA PRETA AND ANTS

One or two red ants were seen today in the TP pots, they have not burrowed the soil, they were found trespassing the pots. It means that ants are more repellant to the freshly added charcoal and over a period of time the charcoal impact on ants becomes mild. This is good, because we can repel ants with fresh charcoal when needed as we dont want to completely expel ants and other beneficial insects from our fields.