Links to Wicking beds
trailer_katie keeps her cool.wmvwicking bed history.html
wicking worm beds.pdf
Links to water management
About this site
Some thirty five years ago Australia suffered tremendous dust storms losing millions of tonnes of top soil. I realized at some time in the future top soil would be critical for feeding the world and set up a series of experiments to find out how to regenerate top soil (soil_regeneration). I learned that the key was microbiological action which required keeping the ground moist at all times and continuously growing plants.
We now know that the mycorrhizal fungi take energy from the plants and form aggregates the soil so it can better hold water and nutrients. I searched for better ways of keeping the soil moist (but not saturated) which lead to the development of the wicking bed system. This has proved very popular with environmentally sensitive and water conscious growers. wicking_bed_technology.pdf
However the threat of global warming made me realize that this system has the potential to mitigate climate change by absorbing large amounts of atmospheric carbon. I therefore had to develop a way for using wicking beds on a large scale. This was achieved by linking wicking beds together, (adoption). However for the wide scale usage necessary to absorb the tens of billions of tones needed to offset man made emissions meant that farmer had to receive revenues from carbon trading. innovation_in soil_carbon.pdf
This requires convincing Governemnts, at the various United Nations conference on climate change to recognize that by changing our agricultural system we can both absorb carbon and also safeguard our future food supply. We are already seeing how the flood and drought cycles of climate change are damaging agriculture and leading to rising food prices.
queensland floods and climate change (qfldfloods.html)
safeguarding_future_food _supply.pdf
I felt that an international consortium of research institutions could provide the hard evidence to convince Governments and also provide a simple mechanism for soil carbon trading.
Invitation_for_joint_research.pdf
preface about a sustainable world.
In a few days I leave for China to discuss this consortium. china,flood.pdf
Over the years I have written many papers which at first sight could be overpowering, however they are easily accessed by going to index where the files can be accessed in either data or subject order. Index
The wicking bed is an innovative technology, essentially a new agricultural system. They give increased food production, with significantly less water, recycle organic waste to provide plant nutrients, reduce chemical run off into our rivers and sequester carbon into the soil, helping to reduce climate change.
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An underground water reservoir is filled with organic waste and
water. Nutrient rich
water, essentially a compost tea wicks upwards to the root
zone. The soil is
maintained moist, not saturated giving increased food production.
Water can also be harvested by directing run-off into the wicking bed. see "wicking_bed_technology.pdf" |
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Significant quantities of water are stored in the reservoir so watering can be less frequent and making the beds better adapted to erratic rainfall. Production is higher than conventional systems with less need for external inputs of water and fertilizer. |
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Any water applied is contained in the reservoir so run off into aquifers or the river system is reduced. Instead urban waste, sewage and forest trimmings to reduce bush fires can be recycled, preserving nutrients. |
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Significant quantities of atmospheric
carbon can be sequestered and embedded into the soil. Carbon is
embedded into chemically stable humus by micro biological action
which thrives in the moist conditions. This removes on of the major impediments to obtaining a global agreement on climate change. see carbon_capture_in the soil and resolving_climate_change.pdf |
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Wicking beds are well suited to developing countries improving their food security while allowing then to expand their economies while controlling emissions. This removes on of the major impediments to
obtaining a global agreement on climate
change. |
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Wicking beds are widely used in
How to achieve this scale is discussed in |
Wicking beds were initially developed as a way of managing
an erratic rainfall. Experience showed then to be a highly
productive growing system.
The wicking bed enables us to grow food with a lot less water, it can be used to harvest water otherwise lost and particularly it can actually capture carbon from the atmosphere.
The wicking worm bed is a highly productive growing system which not
only produces more food from limited water, but also recycles waste
organic material to provide plant nutrient and capture
carbon.
The essence is to form an underground reservoir of water or pond
contained by a waterproof container or liner below the surface.
vision.pdf
Summary - This report presents a technology
designed to improve food security and offset climate change by taking
carbon from the atmosphere and embedding in the soil.
While plants absorb many times man-made emissions
most of the carbon is returned to the atmosphere by degradation and
decomposition so there is only marginal benefit in reducing atmospheric
carbon. This technology diverts this stream of returning carbon back
into the soil to regenerate top soil to simultaneously enhance food
production and reduce atmospheric carbon.
Climate change - capturing carbon in the soil
With the
rapid growth of the developing countries, particularly coal burning
countries like China and India we are not going to be able to reduce our
carbon emission adequately to control global warming.
The only solution is to extract carbon from the atmosphere. Plant already extract 30 times more carbon than total and made emissions. The problem it that this carbon rapidly en-enters the atmosphere. This chapter shows how we can retain this carbon in the soil
Wicking beds and climate
change
climate change
-obstacles to getting a global agreement
food production and climate
change
plants absorbing carbon
dioxide
wicking_ bed_
technology (pdf)
Review of Copenhagen
(pdf)
The future of
agriculture (pdf)
Tests carried out over 30 years ago showed that soil could
be rapidly regenerated by controlling the moisture level in the soil
to encourage the right type of micro-biological action.
Today this technology is important as it captures atmospheric carbon and so can offset climate change. However it does require water to maintain the soil moisture levels - in a dry continent like Australia this presents a major challenge. Subsequently technologies such as improved irrigation scheduling, local water harvesting, subsurface irrigation and the wicking bed were developed for the more effective use of water.
Improved irrigation
scheduling is the easiest and cheapest way of making more effective use of
water. Traditionally scheduling has been a hit and miss affair
which was marginally improved by using crop factors and evaporation
data. However this is an open loop system with no in build feed back
so significant water is still wasted. Here we look as closed
loop systems taking advantages of improved instrumentation for soil and
plant moisture monitoring to control irrigation depth
Subsurface and improved flood irrigation
Subsurface irrigation was initially seen as way of saving
water lost by evaporation. A wide range of experiments
however led to the conclusion that practical difficulties severely limit
its application. The experimental focus was then switched to
developing a computer simulation of flood irrigation to improve its
efficiency.
Technically successful but with limited commercial uptake this was not regarded as a success but it did lead onto the highly successful wicking bed technology.
Australia is often considered to be a dry continent,
in fact it has reasonable rainfall. The problem is excessive
evaporation so much of the rain is lost by evaporation before it can be
used by plants or captured in our dams.
Here we look at how local water harvesting can capture water but minimizing this evaporation.
17 August 2010
Buy on line
Books and DVD's
Solving the Water Crisis (DVD)
Water and the Whistle blower (DVD)
Katie keeps her cool -
wicking worm beds and
global warming
(DVD)
Recently
added files
discusses the basic principles underlying the wicking bed
00
James Bond adventure thriller about a beautiful Euro-Asian girl plan to
capture James to protect the secrets of soils which give a healthy and
long life. Pure fiction but based on a factual village in China
where people normally live into there nineties or hundreds free of
cancer, daibetes etc.
The next great change.pdf
(added 16 July 2012)
xinxiang12june.ppt (added 20/6/2012)
soil_maker how to create quality top soil (20 Feb 2012)
Report on wicking beds and weather released 1st Feb 2012
vision.pdf looks at soil regeneration
Many gardeners around the
world are now using the wicking bed system which I developed over ten
years ago.
My belief is that the wicking bed system has much
wider application than hobby gardeners and can be used on a large scale
in agriculture to ensure food security and to help resolve climate
change. Soil can absorb very large amounts of carbon and can offset
greenhouse gasses for many years. This has been the subject on my recent
research which I believe has global importance. I have written 3 books
on resolving climate change at resolving climate
change.
I do have patents on the wicking beds system but I want to encourage
environmentally sensitive people to adopt the wicking bed system to
promote the concept and how important they could be in fighting climate
change, this is a message I want to get to the powers that be that are
responsible for combating climate change.
The only thing I ask is that users of the wicking bed system should
wherever practical promote the wicking bed system as a way of combating
climate change.
I have financed the development of wicking beds
from my own resources now for many years without any external help
because I believe in working for food security.
If you feel like making a contribution you can make a
donation here.
See new youtube videos
Introduction to wicking beds www.youtube.com/watch?v=35TU5aWRNjYwicking beds and global warming www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-dkv1Au-8.
New wicking bed site www.easygrowvegetables.com
Access more files from index use
date order to check for new files, by subject for specific
topics
DVD links
solving the water crisis
DVD links wicking
beds
china.ppt
wicking bed.ppt
