Biochar Q&A Does it Work & How?, Pre-Charging (no thanks!), Grinding, Ash v.s. Char
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- Some talking points and addressing questions about biochar & rants about comments on biochar videos.
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I can confirm that a chipper works a treat just make sure the charcoal is water logged or it will make loads of dust.
Cool. I need to get mine hooked up. It's actually pretty heavy duty, hammer mill style. I'm sure it'll work great. I find if it's just the right dampness it's not too messy, but not too dusty either.
Great tips thank you so much for sharing this
Cool that you watch these smaller video channels.
Yeah, I also tried the compost shredder method out and worked really well. However, there is one problem: you gotta keep it really clean from stones, dirt and grit as it will ruin the knives in the machine. It will also use my shredder for other purposes so I want to keep it reasonably sharp
Is it corrosive or problematic on the equipment? I could imagine it being too wet it would be "cakey" but I suppose you could then just run dry materials through to clean it out?
I added a large amount of biochar into my new garden expansion, mostly because of your experiences in your previous videos. I did a nice trench burn that produced much more "coal" than ash, which was a great improvement over a typical bonfire brush fire for biochar production.
My new soil was built up last summer with alternating layers of top soil, leaf mold, biochar and compost (Lasagna style). I tilled this year to mix, and there was a tremendous improvement to the soil quality over the native clay/sand/crap. I'm excited to see the difference between the new bed (with biochar) and existing beds (with very little biochar).
I had some extra biochar at the end, so I also tossed it into my compost pile to inoculate. I'm really excited to see the results, so thanks for the inspiration
Good luck and look forward to hearing the results. I have a rather nice loam to work with. If I complained it would seriously be just ungracious. It's very nice. It is loam though and not sandy loam, so there is some clay and it will compact, especially if left bare in the raining season or dug up much, which wrecks the structure. One major benefit of the char beds, even at 5%, but especially more noticeable above, is the improvement in texture. It's really night and day. That alone could have a major effect on growth by allowing gas exchange.
A year on, are you seeing any difference between the beds with and without biochar?
@@Theorimlig Did you ever get an answer to your question? Cheers.
Try a no till or a very shallow till approach
@@mushethecowboycook9353 I practice no till generally. But I till a bed one time when I first make it because my soil is solid clay filled with large rocks. After I remove rocks (about 50% of the volume of my soil) I'm left with a hole, I refill lasagna-style, let it sit one year, till the following spring, and then never again.
Really appreciate how much you stress "context". I consider context to be the primary modifier/motivator in any discussion, on any topic. I understand why you don't inoculate your bio-char by first spreading it throughout your compost pile. You're structuring your own experiments to see what results you get in your local environment, and some degree of control or discipline is required.
My context is that I keep a fenced 800 sq. ft. annual veggie garden on utility right-of-way property. I have perennial flower beds and a mowed "lawn" area outside of the fenced area, though the lawn is largely made up of a variety of weeds. I primarily grow food as a creative outlet, and because it soothes my soul to have my hands in the soil. Besides feeding myself, I give away much of what I grow to family and neighbors.
After learning about the potential benefits of bio-char, I started making small batches. Minuscule batches compared to yours. I decided the best way to incorporate char into my garden was to mix it into my compost pile during the growing season. Hopefully, this inoculates the char with good bacteria, fungi, and trace nutrients. Then, the following spring, this finished compost gets spread throughout my garden, in all of my plantings. My small way of sequestering carbon, and improving the earth.
Perhaps you could get ahold of an old cement mixer, toss in some large rocks or bricks, your char, let it run a while. Possibly, you could run this mixer with a small electric motor.
I'm using it here in Thailand in a really heavy clay soil (at about 5% by volume), but I am going with a Back To Eden type of mulching atop the soil, so adding additional char later is going to be in auger-type holes around tree drip lines at most.
Clay soil do need sand...sand work even with snow.
Do you think adding wood chips to your clay soil could change it over time? I’ve been thinking about digging large holes and filling with wood chips, my clay soil, and biochar to see what happens.
How did it go?
@@johnfitbyfaithnet I literally just moved to another property back in September this year. Did not do enough documenting, but I planted trees in the area I worked after it rested a full year, and before I left they were thriving (and had been in the ground only 2 months).
@@NorthernThaiGardenGuy thank you for sharing this
Great video man! So much information from loved experience.
So I'm not much of a fanboy...I usually find a fatal flaw when I find a CZcams personality that turns me off. I found you a few weeks back so I am just now getting caught up on your videos. My first impression of you was that you were super dry with your humor and went at things with kind of a non nonsense approach. I totally dig it. You break shit down so that I can understand it and I appreciate it. This video was very informative and interesting. Thanks for the great ideas
TOM GRAY If you are down, I could always use a release. Don't forget your knee pads and chapstick...don't want you lips getting chapped and your knees getting sore.
@@daniel210julie ?
My grandfather used to say the best soil for growing tobacco was provided by walking into the middle of the woods, harvesting the trees and burning the understory. He convinced me when I was a kid but never saw him utilize it. I'm taking the brush from my cordwood challenge crowns to try it, I'm pretty excited about it!
CAC has a great synergy with making coal
Cool. Regular ash production slash and burn is extremely common all over the world. I'm curious about the overlap with char culture. They seem like opposite approaches with opposite goals. A guy I know told me he knew loggers in Northern California that would make charcoal for their gardens out of slash with dozers. Good luck!
I'm unsure how much of it wound up as ash versus coal, but I remember him saying they buried the fire, waited for a while and then came back and turned the ground. I can only assume this was done in order to leave some charred material in with the ash? I'm not sure what you'd call that, or the relevance of its application in a shade grown tobacco patch versus a vegetable garden. It always left me wanting to try it though.
Yes, sounds like char production to me. Why put the fire out with dirt if you want ash? Obviously, you still get some ash too. Do you have any idea or impression if that was to establish long term fields, or short term? I saw a cool documentary that someone linked on agroforestry/slash and burn in Africa, where they build forests on the Savanah, then slash and burn in cycles for farming. It's tropical basically, so stuff grows fast. But, they were very specific that the burns were as much white ash as possible. I still think that has been the goal most of the time, but sounds like your gramps might have been using more of a char culture approach.
I'm unsure of rotation (and location) as these methods were long out of use by the time I was born. I have to suspect they were mainly maximizing the use of available resources as they took their firewood. I'll ask my Dad more about it next time I talk to him and drop you an email on your website or something if you'd like.
i second the thanks about making biochar in a trench. I had timber bamboo 4 ft up to 20 ft long. I have sandy soil and it was easy to dig the trench with tractor front-end loader. Burn was good almost 100% char. Driving the tractor on a concrete slab one front end loader scoop at a time worked fine. Yielded 300 gallons crushed from a 16 ft trailer load of bamboo. Charged with home made fish emulsion and micronutrients. Mixing 10% with a high quality home made compost. Thanks again for the advice I may try burning land clearing wood in trench next time.
So cool :)
I am doing a test.
I have two gutters with dirt in them as planters. 5" deep, 5" wide, and about 8 feet long.
One
will have mixed in 'short timed' biochar (only let it sit in water
containing a little molasses, some urine, and organic fertilizer, some
apple cider vinegar, and a little wood ash for 2-3 days), then strained
it and sprinkled a little wheat flour on it and mixed well, and will
mix that into the soil.
Other one we used straight charcoal but put a 1 inch layer at the bottom of the gutter then topped it off with soil.
I plan in watering with well water when needed and let rain do it the other times.
Well water has lots of dissolved minerals in it.
I crushed my charcoal to very small pieces about the size of grains of salt you would see on a hot pretzel or smaller.
Hot sun in the summertime with well water should make both draw up the minerals pretty quickly.
I plan on planting something in both. Same plants for each to see the difference.
I am doing this mid winter right now in hopes it will stabilize by mid spring, ready for planting.
No competition between plants right now (none since it is winter time) and the biochar/charcoal.
The moist biochar might freeze and crack making pieces even smaller.
Sounds logical anyway.
Any suggestions?
Oh and a tip for those who make it in containers> Use acorns or some kind of nuts in your pyrolysis container.
They pack in just right. Great air gaps and fast conversion.
Charcoal nuts are very easy to smash (basically they are hollow shells).
Tree bark is even faster but you only make small batches due to packing issues.
Tree bark also has the lion's share of minerals in it vs the 'woody' part of the tree.
gotta love that spoon in the middle of everything
I've had pretty good luck with hugel kultur mounds. I think biochar would be a good additive. Great video, always enjoy the discourse. Cheers
Yes, I think they are a natural combo. I would probably char all the solid wood and add a lower proportion of wood to char if possible. That's just because the char lasts and the organic matter will go it's way over not that much time. Throw in some dead animals and whatever else is lying about and you have the mirror image of my catch pits!
I chop up charcoal with a flail mower attached to a tractor via the 3-pt/PTO drive. Works great. Do it soon after putting out the charcoal fire when the cold pile is still wet, then no dust.
many thanks for all the advice.
Like your thinking.
I made a mixing barrel for greenhouse soil mixes. 1/3rd yard. How do you break up peat moss without shreading it? Bowling balls. Gaint hammer mill.
I have a wood stove with a grate. Each morning I "shake down" the coals. I cool these ashes and then sift out the charcoal. This charcoal is used to fuel the next new fire.
Have placed ash on the lawn and charcoal on the garden, but, with little rhyme or reason.
Cool, I tried a garden compost tumbler, but it was too weak. I think it really pays to save the charcoal and add it systematically, both for results and data.
gréât vidéo. i live in the city and have a small garden in the back yard. this summer i will plant one tomato plant with raw biochar, another with seasoned biochar, a third with wood ash and a fourth without. results should be interesting.
Cool. Let me know what happens.
This video is pure gold, you have a great #getshitdone attitude.
I did a raw biochar experiment as well and totally agree with what you're saying about applying it raw without adding it to compost for the sake of knowing how much end up in a particular bed.
Having said that I do throw most of my char in with my chickens and ducks and it creates the most amazing compost that way but not knowing how much biochar ends up in the garden exactly really bugs me because by now I have raised beds that I took from pure clay soil to something amazing but have no clue how much is actually due to the char and how much is due to the compost. One advantage of tossing it in with the animals is that crushing becomes less of an issue, especially my Muscovy like to eat the char and in their drinking bowl I even get a build up of fine biochar that can almost be considered to be colloidal.
The animals are on deep litter and after harvesting the compost it gets sieved with a large electric tumble sieve, which goes as fast as I can shovel the compost into it. Everything that doesn't fall through my 10mm mesh just gets tossed back in with the animals.
Have you come up with a way to crush it since this video?
And have you looked into making biochar in a retort to also be able to harvest wood vinegar and wood-gas to run a generator or other engine on?
Wood vinegar is my next endeavor after having successfully taken biochar production indoors to cover my heating and cooking needs during Winter.
There is so much possibility for making char while heating cooking, making electricity happen etc. We need some good minds to tackle that subject. I have some ideas, but it's on a long list of other things.
I have enough char now that I'm less particular about how I use it and putting some out in smaller quantities. especially for animal bedding, it really makes sense. though the dust can be unhealthy to breathe. There is actually a pretty long history of feeding it to animals on purpose to increase health and weight gain.
I had a small track hoe run over a big pile for me on a big tarp, which took about 10 minutes or less. It was awesome. a commenter recently showed me a vid he did using a lawnmower to run it over. Great idea. I actually had recently acquired one thinking I could turn it into a shredder, but he just made a pile, ran it over and collected it in the bag. Otherwise, no. I do have ideas though.
thanks for the long and thoughtful comment :)
I put my oyster shells in a old cement mixer and it works great. The gap between the paddles and the barrel is about a inch I think it would work great on the charcoal
5:02 I can totally confirm that one doesn't strictly need to pre-charge the biochar. If raw biochar is used one should also add green grass (or something else high in N) in the middle of the soil before planting in it, water it so the microbes can digest the grass and then plant what have you.
For example, this year I put ~20% of raw (corn stover) biochar 1.5 feet deep and in the middle I put 4 inches of green grass and planted the corn kernels 2 inches deep - the corn is growing great and looks healthy/green.
I cannot say for certain because I have not tried this, but I would try simply taking some type of reservoir that can hold liquid and fill it with water then dump in some bio-char and let it sit. Not sure how long but it will decompose/dilute in the water at some point. If the time for this to occur is reasonable, weeks to months, then it's a win win. This is essentially all that is occurring when it is buried whole. Then you can simply get a bunch of reservoirs and make sure they have spouts. Maybe add a screened filter to prevent chunks coming out. Then when you want to improve you soils you can simply fill a watering can, etc and water away.
Bio-char will work it is just a matter of looking to nature. Think of how a forest fire, while devastating, is a self sufficient manner to replenish what is missing/lacking in the soil. After the forest burns down there will be bio-char left over and after it is saturated long enough it eventually works it way down through the soil and it does its thing. The above idea basically uses natures way, although you would be assisting the process to occur at a faster rate.
Additionally to the bio-char, I would mix in some manure with the soil, or the bio-char water. This will compliment and add to the overall nutrients. Then when you water with the bio-char water you know the nutrients are spreading into the soil as evenly as you pour. They should also be more readily absorbed by anything you plant since they are broken down already. Then use this enriched bio-water as natural fertilizer then water as normal. Theoretically one could begin fertilizing at the end of the season up until the see is sown. This would give ample time for the nutrients to settle. A nice little stir of the soil in the spring before sowing seed to allow more oxygen in and make sowing easier and then your set.
I'm running a little experiment myself; I recently got some inoculated biochar which I intend to use in a terrarium substrate mixture - one that will house isopods and springtails for breeding purposes. I've used beneficial microbes for years in my garden with great success and a very noticeable improvement in plant health both above and below-ground, so I figure making my substrate bio-active with beneficial bacteria and fungi, along with the springtails and isopods, will lead to an overall healthier and more productive miniature ecosystem.
I will be able to see some results after I receive the critters in the mail and introduce them to their new home. Hopefully they find conditions favorable and breed quickly!
Sounds interesting
Speaking of the advice about grinding up biochar on the driveway, I don't think the person who suggested it has tried it. If they had, they'd know better.
I spilt a few chunks on my gravel driveway. A few bits crushed to the underside of my shoe, and left some decent marks on the carpet. It was a pain in the butt to wash off the shoe completely. Terrible terrible idea. If someone had a concrete slab, maybe it could be hosed it away. Even then I'd be hesitant, it'd get in all the treads on the wheels, and from there..
If i had the resources to, I'd be doing exactly what you're doing. Biochar is it. I cant wait to see what higher percentages of char will do in the soil. I also plan to experiment with depth. Subbed.
That's great. I'll look forward to hearing the results.
If you can BBQ then you have the room to make small scale char.
They make a cook stove version bio- char makers, for use overseas.
Dude your channel is awesome
I added about 10% of biochar following your earlier biochar videos (all cut with axe/saw before being burnt from the top like you demonstrated). I didn't bother to crush it much I did stamp on the pile for a while and crushed it with a stick but when I was mixing it into my clay-loam I noticed there were a good few lumps of char left over. Whenever I came across them I just pushed them as deep into the soil as I could as I figure those ones might benefit someone else in the future... I didn't mind as I figured the volumes I was using it wouldn't really matter that much anyhow.
Crop return is heavy on the soil I added the biochar to. Not sure I will do that much experimenting - I think I'm just going to add it to the other two beds next year - I have another big fire ready to go.
One thing I did do was to leave the char for about six months covered in cut grass (with a scythe). The grass seemed to go to nothing leaving the biochar which looked a little different. y reading is that the carbon in the wood is sucking up nitrogen in the soil when it first goes in - hence your statement about the peas doing well makes sense. The grass should at least mop up some of the free carbon on the surface.
I have been growing cabbage in one of my beds - which is a heavy nitrogen demanding crop - and they are growing very well. The beets in the other are doing likewise. My main concern is to raise productivity of this soil. Sadly I have a major problem - infestation by the NZ flatworm - which seems to have killed most of the teeming earthworms which were through this soil when I first put in the char and other amendments (compost and manure). I wonder if maybe biochar might make up for their absence - but it is a sad thing to know nonetheless. I have been trapping them flatworms but I doubt I'll ever get them all.
Good to hear some feedback. It will be interesting to see how it holds up over time. Consider still putting in real simple experiements like 10% in half and 15%in the other. That could yeild very valuable information and it's not hard to set up. The carbon is not really available the way that raw organic matter is, or the char would be used up over time. Char holds nitrogen, but the carbon is not taken up with the nitrogen into the plant. The nitrogen sink has something to do with the charcoal charging up to a certain point I think. Not sure how that works.
It's like when a massive apartment building Is built. In the beginning it is a massive void ,there are massive volumes of things going in to the building, then after a while it peters out with things balanced flow coming in-and-out of the building/char. An evan ebb and flow, as generations on micro biology thrive and die.
I haven't been nearly so careful or scientific as your tripart test beds. I've been saving out whatever charcoal I see from the ash when we barbecue with wood (ash goes into sand for chicken dustbaths) plus bags of natural wood charcoal bought on end of season sale. Saves so much labor when you can pick up big bags of mesquite or oak charcoal for $5 -7 a bag. That
means pretty random wood types and different types of charcoal production and huge variation in size of the chunks. I think it's probably 2-3 % of volume when it goes into the kitchen compost, lots of different size pieces. Whenever I move the compost bin, I knock over the old pile and rake out the really big chunks of charcoal and throw them into the new pile as a further inoculant of good fungi and bacteria. I'd benefit from doing a dried-prunings pit burn here, but I'm concerned that the neighborhood is too tight and full of dry wood structures and neglected dry weeds.
I learned so much from that one bed. I think it is an excellent base experiment to do a bed like that with a control and no extra fertilizer. I'm too interested in results to use the stuff randomly in my garden. I have to say though, that as a result, I don't have that many test beds in, because I'm always waiting to have time and energy to put together the next experiment!
How much digging do you do for those pits? You mention time and laziness for not precharging the biochar. Ive seen experiments of top dressing with the compost/biochar mix and letting the subsoil network draw it down. Have you tried this lazier approach with just biochar? Or for perennial plants or trees mixing just the planting hole?
There's double Patreon support waiting when you get that rim of the car wheel belt system hooked up. I'd love to see that in conception and action.
I knew a dude that pumped all his water that way. He was a poor seat of the pants jack of all trades guy. Once or twice a week, he'd jack up his muscle car, put an empty rim on the back wheel and fill the tank with a janky pump. Pretty cool. It's a hassle, but if you did it once a year, not really a big deal and talk about power! I would probably build something that bolts onto the lugs with a standard belt pulley on it instead of a rim. My only real concern would be working the engine too much with too little load. Honestly, hooking that up to the hammer mill shredder I have, which already have a belt pulley on it, might be the easiest high volume thing I could throw together. I might even be able to put it together without welding anything. I could definitely make it and have someone do a quick weld for cheap. hmmm.....
* dangles $10 bill tauntingly *
chomp chomp
Love this info dude
Thanks dude girl :)
Interesting video. I think you bring up an important and often overlooked point about biochar - that it may not "work" in every soil environment. I've always been "skeptical" of the effects of biochar but I never thought of it in the way you mentioned ... that is, applying it to barren soils. I'm a home gardener and I work with a normally healthy soil, so I haven't really researched methods of improving low or no-nutrient soils. I think there are many home gardeners that miss this point: that is, biochar probably is not worth the effort beyond regularly adding compost to the home garden.
I don't think it's safe to assume anything about where it will and will not be effective. My point was that results may vary by multiple factors, including the amount of fertilizer and care applied and of course the base fertility of the soil. Only way to find out is to try it. So far everything I plant in the bed shows a much better apparent use of the nutrients that I do add. Some crops were more well cared for than others, I suspect that the more nutriment and care the plants are given, the more likely the benefit gap will narrow, but that is purely speculation. In this soil, the improvement in texture is probably reason enough to add it, even if there was no other effect.
I think the benefit comes from the sustainability of biochar and its ability to support the biomes and provided needed NPK over an extended amount of time that would generally leach away during a normal year's farming cycle. It will not necessarily provide a boost in a nutrient and biodiverse soil, it can and will harbor those nutrients and biomes and provide them when the soil is low or even depleted. Happy farming and best to you.
@@antoinem.al-aziz3521 There is a lot of speculation about biochar in terms of how it works, why it works and/or if it works at all.
When I first started gardening, in the first few years, I adopted many strategies that sounded good to me at the time. One day my wife asked me why I needed molasses and an aquarium pump for my garden. I was making aerated compost tea at the time. She thought it was weird.
I explained to her all the reasons and after I did that, she said something like "Ya, but how do you know it is worth it?"
That got me thinking a little bit differently. The next gardening season, I decided to use only compost and resolved to do nothing else unless I could find somebody that uses a strategy proven to work. This led me to searching for evidence-based field trials (in domains like *.edu and *.agr). If a particular strategy appealed to me, I would Google something like "Myth 'name the gardening strategy' to get opposing views on the method. Finally, I would try to find out if any successful commercial growers had adopted the approach.
While I still like reading about different gardening practices, I haven't gone beyond using only compost in my garden. The only significant change I've made is to go "no-dig" or "no-till". This particular tip at first seemed too good to be true but I wanted it to be so.
I am aware of "confirmation bias" and in order to ensure that this practice was in fact useful, I converted two of my eight raised beds to "no-dig" and planted similar crops in these beds and in my traditional beds. I did this for two seasons.
The first "trial" season I didn't see much difference but the second season, clearly the "no-dig" beds were the winner. I'll be the first to admit that this wasn't a truly scientific trial but it was good enough for me to convert all my beds to no-dig.
So far, I haven't found any similar examples for using biochar - that is, beyond claims or testimonials. If you know of any, please let me know. Cheers.
@@priayief Indeed sir. I was referencing the USDA's Biochar Initiative Group and the Australian Govt Biochar Research when I wrote my comment. It isn't the panacea but more of a long term preventative measure Farmer's can take to help to improve their long term success. I use it here in Japan at about 10% of my total amended soil and have no complaints so far. Interestingly, we buy from a family who's sole business is Biochar and they have been in business for nearly 55 years. In Japan, Biochar is considered a traditional soil amendment, officially recognized by MAFF with a ministerial ordinance designation (fancy way of saying the product is made in such a way as to be deemed uniform in quality) because of its improvement functions to soil properties. It's an interesting subject that continues to be researched in the global Ag community.
sounds good, i just have to reconcile new ideas with no-till. experimental space disappeared decades ago so i hope to tweak with minor amendments to improve or maintain performance and balance. coal and its ash from last century is a hard limit at 18" in some of the flower beds.
Charcoal is good for soil and can be added a bit at a time to benefit the soil over time. In this way the small amounts added each year will not require pre charging as the charging is done naturally with out any noticeable lowering of fertility. Adding large amounts of untreated charcoal to soil will make it less fertile and may take a while to recover the ability to exchange nutrients. Coal ashes have the same effect and were used in some areas in England as a fertilizer in small amounts.
I generally recommend that peoplen use it in measured quantities. I'm sure it has some effect in small amounts, but putting in at known percentages has it's advantages. I do okay with not precharging, but I do have to add extra fertilizers the first year, or buried with the char.
My take on the "how" is that, by providing a sponge like place for water, nutrients, microbes and fungi, the microbes and fungi populations are increased. The microbes add to fertility since some eat others...microbe manure. The fungi extend the root system, among other things.
A good experiment might be to not crush the char and see any difference. Maybe for veggies it's better to crush, but how about trees?
I put my biochar in old extra long pillow cases-designed for the body pillows I use-tie it up with zip ties and drive my truck over it. It works great for me. I didn’t charge mine either but a few weeks later, I did use compost tea. Of course, I had been using compost tea long before I used biochar. I have a friend that urinated in hier biochar for several days before putting it down and she had great results. I don’t know how much biochar she used though.
That is similar to an idea i had to make large tubes of canvas and either drive on them, or lay them in commonly used pathways. I've tried just driving over it with the truck, but the tires are so narrow for the quantities I have. Good to hear that works for you.
Please don't listen to the armchair commenters!
You're ACTUALLY doing the work, they're just flapping their jaws. We appreciate your info and experiments!
Very interesting, I love the biochar videos.
Good to hear.
Just made biochar using your burn brash technick, love it
:)
Thx for ur insight 👍🏻
After 3 year of adding as much char as we could make to hard pan clay , this years initial till was far more enjoyable. PH improved . I had nematodes and club root. So far I'm happy to report my cabbages look good and strawberries exploded!! We soaked char in urine all winter. Do what you can.
Neat :) Look forward to long term reports. Only possible problem I noticed with very high char (30%) is water seems to not be as available maybe. I can't be sure, but seems like maybe.
The char crush challenge. I learned the finer the particle can be crushed ,the more permeable and accessible the tiny little plant root can grab on. I grew a few starts in clear plastic cups to see the root hairs migrate into char. Leaf mold and char I solely used as a starteing mix this year I'm sick of hauling potting mix from the store.
I use a black plastic tub that they use to mix cement. There available at Home Depot and Lowe’s for a reasonable cost. I put in a layer of biochar and use a tamp, also available at Home Depot to pulverize it. I put it through a hardware cloth screen to separate the big pieces. Put them back in the tub and tamp it down again. For a little investment I have equipment that will last for years.
I wonder have you tried dropping some round river rocks in there and rolling it? I tried something like that with a compost tumbler, and with a barrel, but the scale was too large.
Thank you
very useful thanks!
i use a kitchen sink disposal I think I found on the curb to grind charcoal currently. it's hooked to an old sink and set on a quicky cinder block stand. it goes through a decent amount of charcoal pretty fast and grinds it all rather fine. I do it wet so it comes out as more of a slurry which was weird at first but since it flows it offers some different techniques for application. I like that I can insert a broadfork or similar all over a bed and the charcoal slurry will both cover the surface and flow to the depth of the holes at the same time. Then I'll work in the charcoal on the surface and have a reasonably good depth spread that will wiggle around and even out over time. harder to get a measure on the variables but that don't worry me none. This has been an improvement over my earlier physical labor based crushing but it's still too slow when you want to crush hundreds of gallons at a time, been looking for an old pto driven hammer mill for grinding feed to test out. I'd love to build a waterwheel driven ball mill, something that could crush charcoal or rocks and maybe bones would be ideal. some day maybe...
I tried that and it didn't work out too well. I did it dry though. I think the unit still runs though, so maybe it's time to try it wet. A major problem for me though is rocks and dirt that it wouldn't handle. I'd have to use cleaner char or sort. I tried floating the char and scooping it and that got rid of rocks, but not the nails. It's also kind of a pain. On my scale, I'm still thinking the hammer mill shredder. Both are hammer mills of a sort though. I hadn't even thought much about hammer mills made for PTO in the first place. I think with under a couple hundred, i could. probably get the parts to drive the old one I have with PTO. It's a nice unit,old and rusty, but not the average wimpy garden shredder. I thought before of a wind driven self sifting hammer mill type of arrangement. it would be random and slow, but you'd just come by once in a while and fill it. I got an old treadmill for the motor (by all accounts very good efficient, powerful DC motors) but haven't been able to puill off playiing with that. The drum might end up being one of the bigger problems to deal with in making a hammer mill. I'd probably start with an average 60 gallon steel drum but I'd guess it might not hold up that well using any but light balls. BTW, if I use the hammer mill, or the ball mill, I'm planning to put speaker magnets inside on the wall to pick up nails and screws.
I dropped some small rocks and broken terra cotta in it when I first set it up to see right away if it was viable at all. Eats little ones fine. I'm in the city so my charcoal pit was sited where I could get away with it but I have to transport the charcoal a decent ways afterwards. I shovel it out into big brute trashcans which after moving I fill with water and a scoop of chicken shit or spent brewery grains or use em as urinals for a while, charges it and tends to move larger rocks to the bottom of the can. I've avoided wood with nails but am going to burn up a bunch of pallets at the end of their useful life and just cover the whole lot and dig a new pit. I've had a few pea sized bits of melted aluminum from someone throwing a beer can/cap in the fire stop the disposal in it's tracks though. Overheats I think after a while too, not designed to run continuously.... I'd like get a steel trough charcoal kiln fabricated to avoid altogether the dirt/rock contamination, I think if I could drag it a bit while doing a burn I could maybe kill off Bermuda grass and such the same time.
the magnet idea is great. I've wanted a pto driven chipper for my tractor for a while but too much $$$, you've inspired me to see if an old heavy duty one I was gifted (not running) could be converted. One more project on an endless list....
PTO parts are a bit expensive. The hammer mill I have seems worth it though. I also plan to use it for shredding bark for tanning exentually. I tossed the char into a large tub of water and skimmed the floating char off the top to get rid of the rocks. One could control feedstocks to avoid nails, but I do end up with old lumber and it's nice to not have to sort it all. I am still planning to try using the disposal as an apple grinder (it's original use) but I'm going to hack it with a fan on the side to force air through the motor. It overheats on apples too, even though it is 1hp motor. Good thing for those overheat trip switches!
BTW, my thought was to mount the unit on a trailer, so powered and transported on the tractor. I just have a little tiny Kubota here. It's not mine, but it's the ranch tractor. Enough to do that job and it would be handy for a portable shredder when I want to shred a few light limbs.
n the FallI charged my biochar in 5 gallon buckets that i have left outside until Spring. I'm in Wisconsin, so the contents will eventually freeze. Will this kill the microbes or lessen the effects?
I wouldn't know. I doubt it.
I have not come up with a great way to crush my biochar, but this is what I've come up with so far.
I take my partially crushed biochar (1-2 inch) pieces, fill up a 5 gallon bucket with char, water and urine, I let it soak for a few days, after day 2 or 3 I top it up with water and urine again for 2 more days, then I toss it in my almost ready compost. When I sift my compost, I find the big chunks are usually very very easy to crush with my hands. They usually just crumble into bits. As I said, it's not a great solution, but it's a little easier, little less work and I consider it pre-charged.
You said you make up to 75 gallons of char in your other videos, wow, i guess you can have several buckets going at the same time. Instead of shovelling it into a wheel barrel, shovel it into pails, toss them in a shed, and every time you need to pee, run into the shed and fill a pail. LOL .
Thanks. The last trench I unloaded, I just walked on it and hit it with the back of the shovel and it actually worked surprisingly well. I'd still like it smaller, but it's a lot better.
@@SkillCult Considering how much biochar you are creating, would it be worth it for you to pickup a wood chipper and toss the finished biochar through the chipper?
I havfe a small one I'll hookup to a tractor or something eventually. Renting them is rather expensive. For a good one anyway.
I am thinking that you could just screen out a pile as you need it, using 1/4 inch or 3/8 wire mesh, and just shake it onto a tarp or box til you get what you need. Then you have way less to crush... Make a simple tilted mesh table with an angled runoff chute so that the bigger stuff rolls down into buckets, with a vertical levered handle that makes the shaking easy... Using bags made for sandbags, fill with the buckets of bigger biochar and driving over it sounds like a good crush. Those bags are durable...I screened out some rocky ground off a bank to sort out the finer soil and make some drain rock...It wasn't that hard, and pretty fast..I had a lot of rocks, that part wasn't so easy. Be way easy with Biochar.....
Some great advice.
What is the average size of the charcoal produced from the way and type of wood you burn? I just wonder if pre crushing is a necessary step. If you turn with a shovel perhaps while those that use a rototiller perhaps not.
Pretty small. I couldn't say average, but there aren't even that many pieces that are 2 inches. those high oxygen methods make weak coals that fall apart. Much larger harder pieces can be had from retorts and clamps and such. a shovel wouldn't have much effect. Possibly a rototiller over time in the char is only in that top zone.
Totally jampacked information really appreciate it thank you. !
Thanks, I appreciate you and all your support and nice comments Joe. :)
I'm w/ you on working smart not hard... I do hose my char down w/ pure protein freeze dried fish aminos, its an excellent source of nitrogen!
I'd love to see an experiment where biochar is crushed into different sizes. I have seen many sources only saying it has to be crushed without any actual statistical backing. Maybe 4 beds. 1 for a control, 1 with no crushing, 1 crushed to powder, and 1 crushed to pea size. Leave all other parameters the same (soil type, pre-charging vs no pre-charge, crop grown, etc.) Wish I had the space and time to carry it out!
Yes, I agree that would be a good one.
great vid......what type of soil (typical) do you have Clay, sand, silt and what is the typical PH ? thanks
The soil I actually work with is all loam, from pretty much straight up classic modest clay content loam, to a slightly sandy loam. We have a ton of clay soil, but it's everywhere I don't want to garden. The PH is low, 5.something. I don't recall exactly. Consistently acid. Probably mostly from fairly high winter rains. I use woodash and oystershell a lot. Most crops get a sprinkling of wood ash. The PH in the gardens may be higher after years of that, but I have not retested.
I know about an overgrown huge heap of charcoal that was left in the forrest at the end of ww2 not far from where I live. Think I gonna go there and have a look and perhaps bring some with me. I was there last year and it is alot of coal under the trees etc! :)
Wow, that's awesome. Take a truck and get it all if it's clean. What a ground score! do you know what the use was? Make sure it wasn't used to filter something toxic.
Yes it was not used for something toxic for sure!
Hello I visited the place today and shot a quick video of it. I uploaded it on my channel. The heap is big, only "small" parts of the charcoal is visible! Brought back about 50kg already crushed (and precharged for 60 years!!) it dint even leave a dent in the heap...
OH: With your biochar crushing.... First, why not run it through a big sifter with 1/2" or 3/4" hardware cloth. Filter out the useable size, quickly. Then you have far less to processes, and maybe it could be done more efficiently manually at that point? Step one being a good old stomp beneath the boots... Then maybe a hand tamper, and then a round of sifting?
I've done that before. Most of it has still come out too big, but it's something.
For thous working on a smaller scale a great way to break up the charcoal is to add it to an empty feed bag, fold the opening over and pound it with a hand tamper.
Great video. I have young fruit trees that are heavily mulched. Would be much easier to top dress with biochar and let the rain wash it in. Would you at least get it under the mulch if it were you or even dig holes around the trees to get it down deeper? Have you used in on existing perennials on your place?
I always think of digging it in, maybe in post holes. With young trees you might get away with digging an actual ring trench completely around the tree and amending that. You'd cut some roots, but it might be made up for as new roots grow straight into the amended area. Just throwing it on seems kind of iffy. If it's fine, maybe it would wash in, but it would probably take a while to really get down. If you have a huge active worm population, that would help. Darwin did studies on earthworms over many years showing how much soil was displaced and how rocks would sink into the ground over the years by their action. Another possibility is to create conditions that encourage worms and rodents to work the ground. If I leave any object on the ground for a year here, it becomes undermined with rodent activity and starts sinking into the ground. I think most of it is moles. That could be a cool experiment. It could encourage gopher and vole feeding on the roots, but it might be worth it. Maybe I'll try that. Throw on 3 or 4 inches of char around a tree, toss a piece of plywood or two on it, keep it watered all summer and the moles will show up to hunt and voles will burrow and nest in there for sure.Then in two years dig in and see how much the char was redistributed. I've seen the question of how to treat existing perennials come up a lot. I just haven't done it much. There is one tree I've dumped a lot on, but I've never checked to see if it's working into the soil.
Thanks for the thoughts. I'll get it into the soil as much as I can. That reminds me of metal detecting videos where people sometimes have to dig pretty deep to find an item that can't be too old.
Is it possible that the carbon in the charcoal is creating a weak bond between the organic acids and nutrients in the soil and chelating them, making more of those nutrients available to the plants? I think this is what is happening.
Are you referring to cation exchange? I don't really understand chemistry. If you mean chelation as in the carbon is bonding with the nutrient and being taken up with the nutrient into the plant, I don't think so. I think the carbon is holding the nutrients, but as with clay holding nutrients, there is a varying level of exchange where the nutrient is available to the plant. I'm sure there is a bunch of science on that if one cared to look.
@@SkillCult Years ago I watched a CZcams video about a guy who used charcoal to filter water of his aquarium. He mentioned that the charcoal didn't remove anions or cations but mostly large cyclic organic compounds like the ones that are responsible for the colour of the water in the aquarium. Also he warned to remove the charcoal filter if there's need to add drugs to the water in case of a disease as this would be filtered out. Fertilizers are split into cation and anions as NH4+ and SO4- - for example. The fact that charcoal isn't a cation filter was confirmed to me by a Canadian agronomist. I'm a biochar fan but still don't understand how it works. Also it is confusing to me that some people prefer biochar made at lower temperatures and others at high temperatures?? Some pretend that agrichar made from hardwood specious are better for nutrient retention and from softwoods better for enhancing water retention capacity...
Grass clippings could work as an addative to the soil to even out with the nitrogen in it. For what i understand in a compost, to much grass clippings bringing way to much nitrogen in a compost that needs to have a certant carbon to nitrogen ratio. Just a thought.
A pavement roller would crush it into a powder.
Precharging just avoids that first year reduction in crops.
Many use a compost tea (has the bacteria in it and other goodies too).
Using some plain sugar in the tea or water will speed things up :-)
The % of biochar depends on your soil, what you plant, and your environment.
For me, I have to make my own good soil and watering is a big issue. Hoping that the biochar will satisfy both issues.
% probably also depends on char qualities I would suspect. I dont' get first year reductions, but that has to do with how I apply and how much I add, as well as some additional soluble first through the first season.
I have sandy loamy soil, so biochar is a great fit to help store minerals.. Biochar is easy to make in a wood burning stove too..
I have something close to beach sand. It gets into the high 90's most of my summer. So building soil is a never ending process. I have to add compost every year. If I didn't. It would go back to just sand in two years , or less.. Hoping this char will build soil.
@@charlescoker7752 I am new to gardening and live on a sand bar on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I did 4 foot deep Hugelkulture under the beds and a foot deep inside the beds using stuff I found nearby. Using seaweed for nitrogen. I am thinking that is what they did in the Amazon Basin. Charged with seaweed would be the best way. All the nutrients and minerals in one place apparently because the rivers wash all the nutrients and minerals into the Ocean where the seaweed absorbs it. So inoculating the biochar with seaweed tea or compost is what I am going to do.
@@JennySimon206 Sounds like you have it figured out.
@@charlescoker7752 cool, yeah I have been using red alder wood (Have an Earthwise chipper) chips and dried reeds to soak up the seaweed juice but biochar is really exactly what I needed. Cool. Seaweed tea and biochar on the menu to make.
@@JennySimon206 You heard of LAVA SAND?www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Lava-Sand-Newsletter_vq13161.htm
I would just drive over your burn pile for a few minutes and then just shovel it through a .25" sv. Use the larger chunks later. Roots and worms will break it up as well. Simply till it in the soil. Definitely boost EF worms.
I throw my char on a sheet of plywood and drive over it with a large zero turn mower. I installed a cheap garbage disposal into a plastic 55 gallon drum. It empties into a 5 gallon bucket, then I dump it into a woven plastic feed bag to drain. The drainage is pure carbon infused water, and the rest of the carbon is super fine.
I used a garbage disposal for a while, but I used it dry and the bearings went bad. I also had trouble with nails. I recently had a mini track excavator drive over most of my char. That worked great.
Beetle larvae process compost extremely fast. If you know your local beetles. Collect the adults and throw them in you compost. Just know your Beetle. They will remain in the system indefinitely after one inoculation. Adults will return to the site due to the pheromones present. Man. Beetle larvae is a miracle. I know from long time use.
Right there with ya, buddy. Buy less, live more.
When you talk about percent of charcoal added...what does this value refer to? Volume down to a certain depth?
it's rough volume. I'll usually measure it by the bucket if I dig out all the soil first. a simple way for shallow stuff, like a digging fork's depth, is to figure it by inches and just lay the crushed char on top of the flattened bed and measure the thickness, then dig it in.
You might try demo clean up bags to put it in and crush on your road. They are incredibly strong, you can load them all the way up with jagged tile and carry it around no problem. The tips of the sharp pieces will poke through but I have never had the hole propagate. They are about 2 bucks a pop, but I bet if you only filled them halfway you could get several uses out of one.
I'm not familiar with those, they sound great. maybe something that is just available free and disposable for re-use, like feedbags and then just toss them after one or two uses.
If I can get one for a couple bucks, maybe I'll just pick one up and try it. I could put down a piece of plywood or something, but one bag at a time is actually kind of slow too. I was thinking more like a huge bag, or tarp. I also thought of just paving an area with broken concrete pieces and spending half a day running over piles and sifting them. Then it's just done with minimal loss. I can always sweep up the dust at the end. I have other ideas. I should do a video on that. I just wanted to mention a couple of things. thanks for the idea.
Pre charging fills the char with goodies. If you put raw char in virgin ground it can exorb the nutrients out of the ground also if you use some of the methods on the net using a fermentation process helps balance the ph. This tho if its working go with it
I'm familiar with the theory. If I add extra nutrients to the soil, it just seems to take the nutrients from there instead. Seems to work fine.
I liked the comment about people believing in the 'microbes' aspect is just taking it on faith. That one always gets me when I see videos on youtube. I love when people do their own experiment and show me something easily demonstrable, like yield. That's easy to measure, and easy to show in a video. But when people tell me that they've made some amendment and it is improving the 'good' bacteria or something, I think, "How can you know that? Do you have a microbiology lab in your back yard? Petri dishes lying around?"
Anyway, thanks for another good video.
yeah, I agree. It probably doesn't hurt though. I think soil systems are pretty resilient and will more or less wright themselves most of the time after a while. The long term question is really of interest to me. I think a lot of thinking around biochar is actually about immediate results, which is not at all what I think about. I can innoculate, but is it worth the hassle the first year. I'm not willing to go through the experiments I'd need to right now to start to answer that question. Also repeatability is an issue when growing random microbes at different times of year. Start to control all that and relevance starts to decline. I like my shotgun approach. I could see brewing a diverse tea including some forest duff and meadow soil ahead of time and using to innoculate, but there is a difference in doing that because it might help and doing it because I believe it will help.
I use the driveway method to crush it with my car, but I use an old blanket to wrap it up so it all stays together.
I hadn't considered that! Excellent idea!
Decent experimenting, interesting. How about an old tractor tire inner-tube for your crushing sock?
I recently laid some out on an old bilboard tarp and had a mini rubber tracked excavator run over it for me. Worked pretty good. that is an interesting idea though. someone recommended demolition bags too.
Fortunately I live in the lump charcoal capital of the midwest so I don't have to make it. There are companies that claim they only use hardwoods. The stuff tinkles beautifully when poured. They may give or sell small paricles/dust. I think this is the source material for most bagged and/or pelletized biochar that is not small batced by niche producers.
Crushing is the issue. I will be laying down old large landscape tarps on a relatively flat concrete/asphalt parking area. Then thinly pour out the lump charcoal. Cover wilth another used tarp & old plywood sheets. Then park/drive. I think as long as the plywood over extends beyond the two tarps & the bottom tarp is turned in about 4-6 in, run off won't be substantial. I plan to then screen with 1/4 in hardware cloth. Since I'm in no hurry, this should work.
I had a mini excavator drive over a bunch on a big tarp this year.. It probably took less than 10 minutes.
Maybe one step to use instead of adding the extra fertilizers with the raw charcoal you could just start each raw area with a legume to sink some nitrogen into it. Might save you a step? You had mentioned that your legume did fine with the raw coal.
I like it. When I dig up beds now for biochar addition, I see it as an opportunity to improve the soil overall with longer term amendments. But my approach now is generally to excavate and then layer and mix as I put the soil back. For doing larger areas and just tilling the stuff in, That makes a lot of sense. Maybe a couple consecutive legume veg or seed crops and/or legume cover crops dug in would deal with the nitrogen sink. On my scale, it's not hard to add enough extra nutrition, but on a larger scale it could be expensive or inconvenient.
SkillCult I will say your apple videos led me to starting several apple trees from seed. I've got about 5 that are a few inches tall, with at least 12 more about to sprout. Thanks
Cool, good luck with those. I'm hoping to have seed of specific crosses available this year. Lots of blossoms pollinated, they just have to make it through the guantlet of animals.
regarding crushing charcoal - my neighbor had this tool for flattening his lawn, like a big concrete cylinder that had a rotating metal pipe handle through the center of it. i wonder if something like that on a hard surface like a driveway would work?
I know those, but not sure what they are called. Some are a metal cylinder that you can fill with water. I'm sure it would work pretty good. maybe a little slow, but not as slow as stomping it with your feet.
works but not that greate. You have to spread the char thin for it to work.
thanks, good to know. The rollers for compressing leather were made of bronze, very heavy. Maybe something heavier.
Sounds like anaerobic bacteria is made more airable with the charcoal. So the natural smell in the forest is because of the aerobic activity in the soil.
Kind of hard to go wrong composting organics with char.
Or...grow legumes in the first year after treating with uncharged biochar
Maybe store it in sacks, crush it in there passively, and then it is easyish to move around because it is in bags too
Someone recommended demolition bags from a hardware store. I'd like to try that and just put them where I can walk on them sometimes.
Have you ever used charcoal in a liquid fertilizer? I just got this idea of making nettle water fertilizer and putting a bunch of ground charcoal in it and then just spraying a diluted mix on crops during growing season.
I don't really see the advantage there. If anything, it may inhibit foliar absorption by binding nutrients. The usefulness comes from it's being in contact with roots, which can extract the stuff from it. it will work into the soil eventually if spread on the surface, but until then, it would be inactive on the surface of the soil or plant I think. It could even be seen as counterproductive in that way.
@@SkillCult Hah, formulated my question the wrong way. Of course you would spray it on the ground, not the leaves.. But you might be right about it being counterproductive in the soil, as you mentioned in the video the charcoal reduced yield the first year so it would probably do it in this case too.
Would duck canvas work for the fabric
Have you considered using a tarp? You mentioned wanting a fabric tube but you could fold a tarp into exactly that. Also, you mentioned that the ash is so beneficial but only for a short time , you mentioned 1-3 years. Does the ash need to be turned into the soil or will pouring it on and watering it in boost plant growth?
The nutrients in ash are water soluble, so you can put it on and water it in. I am doing exactly that right now! I have a big tarp in the yard, folded it up from the sides into a long tube and ran over it a few times.
@@SkillCult cool. Thanks for the reply
Wonder if you spread it out, wet it Just before a hard freeze. Would that break it up?
I dont' think it does here, but if it were super saturated maybe?
I break up the big pieces but I don't worry to crush it into powder. I don't think that has been a mistake. I do prefer the powder and really small pieces for heavy clay though
I like about corn kernel sized and down, but I don't obsess over it. I don't like too big of chunks, I just don't think the roots are getting in and using them.
I just found this video very well spoken my friend I like that you are keeping it simple do you have newer videos
I added 10% by volume, 1/2” charcoal to amend 5” topsoil, of somewhat pulverized homemade charcoal to my butterfly and herb garden this winter. I haven’t quantified it but this years growth seems much more vigorous and plants more resilient. The existing soil was very high in organics, almost like potting soil, so maybe the charcoal had enough time to season and “charge” so I escaped your first year problem of using raw charcoal? Party on, Dude
I do it that same way for rough measurement and shallow amendments. In inches per depth dug. You could also be seeing an effect from ashes, but that will be temporary, so you might know more. It is hard to quantify much though with a direct control. Then things become very obvious.
I don't know how practical it is for the amount of work you want to invest in a char grinding set up but maybe you should look into an oversized mortar and pestle. Like the old school way of how they did wheat (bowl+ big rounded stone).
It would be a lot easier than stepping on it. I have a hammer mill I need to set up somehow. The old gas engine is gone off it, but I could run it off the car or maybe a big 220 motor if I can find one.
I make my living as a brain tanner and do about 150 hides a year. This year I’m burying all the hair from last season in my new garden area along with large amounts of bio char, duck poop, and sheep carcasses. The bio char comes from our wood fired bathtub and gets extinguished a few times a week with salty magnesium water and washes down a short little arroyo I built to channel everything to sit in a hole right outside our front gate. I’m sure it’s full of magnesium salt so hopefully not too much 🤷♂️
Wow, respect on that tanning. Hair makes awesome fertilizer. it actually breaks down pretty fast. biochar and tanning waste seem like a great combo.
From my research. It takes 3 years to really start seeing results. I see you have been at this for over 3 years. Can you do an update? Thanks. I bought the craftsman black rubber hose you reviewed.
At some point, I'll talk more about char and results, but I find that it is very difficult to determine a lot without doing controls that are actually treated the same. I intended to set up more, but now I'm not sure if I'm going to stay here, or where I'll be gardening.
Steven, another CZcamsr mentioned Rock dust. Have you heard of this and it’s benefits in the garden as a soil amendment? Thanks Sam
Yeah, it sounds cool. I've used very little, but it's a long term solution to improve the soil base. Over time, soil activity breaks the rock down releasing nutrients.
I add my bio char to my animals deep bed system. Then it all goes onto no dig vegetable beds. Bloody fantastic super fast soil building.
Ya precharging probably does need long term trials to see if there’s a difference. I do think though if ya got worms it’s probably simpler to just add your worm castings to your biochar, mix and then add to the garden. It’s what I plan on doing next year since I got like three IBC totes cut in half full of worm castings. Like ya said everyone has a different context, perception and parameters.
I'm not sure worm castings will counteract the nutrient sink effect. You need a good dose of nitrogen for that.
You’re right. I’ve looked more into it. I saved a lot of videos I still need to watch. The Korean natural farming has some biochar videos and some by pacific biochar. One of them mentioned people can use biochar with say chicken manure. I guess when manure is composting the nitrogen can be lost and biochar may help store it. So I think I’ll try to make a compost pile and add some biochar. I really was just adding the worm castings to add microbes and things. It’s funny how azomite is used I guess by loads of people. My dad used to have truckers haul azomite from their pit in Utah. And I got chunks of it left from cleaning out trailers so I figure I’ll try adding some. Have you found any value in adding rock dust type products or ground basalt?
Another thing I don’t understand yet but there’s nitrogen fixing bacteria that exists. So maybe doing half manure with some alfalfa leaves and adding nitrogen fixing bacteria to a worm composting pile would increase the nitrogen level of worm castings. You’re probably right it’s still lacking in minerals and things like nitrogen. I just was wanting to find a way to do it without buying commercial fertilizers. You’re right worm castings are low in npk values I’ve read and are Mainly to boost microbes in soil but do know of any alternatives to commercial fertilizers? Thanks for the advice and you’re great videos. It’s helpful in learning new topics.
I know some add human food scraps to compost, but I use all that for feeding chickens. You’re right about the ancient soils with biochar in South America. They weren’t made with compost teas or worm castings, adding microbes etc. But I do know at least where I tried to grow in a new spot it was horrible. The biochar might have helped with holding water but there was no life there for years. It’s great if one lives by a forest or pasture where it’s green and not just a dirt patch. That was my main reason of getting worms and learning about microbes. But perhaps biochar would overtime allow diverse microbes and soil life to build in arid areas without inoculating it. I’d love to try a small plot test with just biochar and one with biochar with some worm castings on a field at my grandpas farm that’s just an empty dirt field cause they don’t water there.be interesting to see if there’s native microbes that still live in dirt that’s not been farmed in decades or if adding em would help. That’s super cool ya get food waste delivered to ya. I know people used to use food waste from our local schools for pig food but that was shut down.
One experiment I did watch was by Cody’s lab on CZcams. He made charcoal from a cone pit and one in a huge drum with no oxygen. He did a iodine test or something and showed the porosity or absorption of open pit made charcoal was able to absorb like ten times more than if it was made in a barrel.
I think your right about not adding biochar to compost cause if you just add biochar start to your field you know how much you add and you can record it. One thing that makes me wonder though is if manure really does lose nitrogen and other things maybe farmers could save some by having some char in their manure piles. Or I suppose they could add manure to their fields and then add biochar on a second pass. I’ll have to read some more about it. Like I do think biochar could help some towns. North of me is norbest turkey coop. They supply like 10% of the Us turkey. But the valley kind of suffers from ground water in some parts I read having lots of nitrates or run off from farmers using bird manure.
Have you ever heard that the main thing is to make it hydrophilic which means water retaining. Basically it's hydrophobic until it sits in water or steam it which is what I do.
I think steaming opens it up more porous.✌️
I have heard that, but it's just hearsay to me. I"m not sure I'd do anything about it. I suspect that over time in the soil, it will become less hydrophobic.
Have you considered the option of throwing it some kind of tumbler with large ball bearings inside?
Yes, like a ball mill for ore. Using cement and mortar mixers has come up and I've thought about using a clothes dryer with no heating element..
I appreciate that people should test. But certain aspects of bc are well established. Activation is saturation with microbial culture. Use live casting tea or compost bin juice. I can't think back when I wasn't using char. The char is a soil ammendment for surface area, breathability, and carbon source. The plant minerals are also present. Introducing food is important as well. Teas, castings, top dressings. And I culture EF worms in the 10ks. They till the ground. It's always soft.
Maybe rent a cement mixer for a weekend and mix it with big rocks and large ball bearing. I think that will probably do the trick for crushing the charcoal.
An other thing that popped into my head is an old snow blower. Its basically a large mixing device if you can weld the ejection port closed and use it in a tub I am sure it would crush anything.
Or if you can find a hand crank crusher like they have in funeral homes to crush bones after cremation. I bet that would go though a big pile in no time.
I actually have an old corn, shell and bone crusher. It's cool, but definitely slow. It could be okay with a motor on it, but never fast. I like the cement mixer idea. If I could find an old electric one for free and mod it, that would be cool. I'm thinking of an heavy expanded metal cover, to screen out the fine stuff as it was crushed, or if it's a permanent solution, even holes in the drum, so it would be continuously screened and could be continuously fed without having to dump, screen and replace the rocks. Great idea. In think it may have come up before, but if so, I forgot. I'm going to post on Freecycle and craigslist to see if I can find one.
Yo Steven. I've been making char from newspapers rolled up inside oil cans.
It makes a super fine dust that coats the soil turning it black. No idea yet if it works since no pore structure like wood perhaps but it's good at holding water
I'd be concerned about heavy metals. I'd do some research on metal content of newspaper. Dioxin would probably be destroyed, but who knows. I would certainly not use anything with color.
some plants will take up metals and have an affinity for certain ones. they use some plants to reclaim mininig sites for their affinity for certain metals.
Thanks. From what I've found most black and white newsprint uses soy based ink.
I'll keep it isolated to one bed and report back in a few years haha
Any observations about root depth increase/changes, when using bio-char?
No, not so far. I haven't paid much attention
Default to the easiest. Some biochasts say size does not matter. Stepping on the big chunks is probably just fine.
I think size probably matters a lot, but that is just based on thought mostly. I just don't see roots penetrating very far into big pieces of char. I prefer about corn kernel size and down.
I'm curious to know what kind of soil you have mostly sandy, loamy or clay? Thanks
the part that I actually work is loam, varying in spots to sandy loam. It's a very nice base, but natural fertility is not high, not like valley soils.
The reason I asked is that I talked with a local agronomist who was not very impressed with biochar. He said "It would have the same effect as any other organic matter - essentially a sponge that would adsorb and retain nutrients. It might be great in a Sandy soil like Maine but here in Quebec most of the soil has a lot of organic matter alreadt so it wouldn't have a big impact".
I'd never heard that argument before and my guts are telling me that he is not seeing the big picture but it was kind of a let down.
In any case we're committed to trying it in our garden and time will tell.
BTW I liked your argument against adding it to compost and put it directly in the garden to make it possible to measure and compare amount of biochar per sq foot.
Just set up trials, because otherwise, you can't observe that much. The way I set up that one bed, it's glaringly obvious. It sounds like he is speculating. There is more to char than organic matter for sure. I think it probably affects soil texture differently. It has a high affinity for holding at least some nutrients, it is permanent (try keeping a 10% organic matter content in any soil I've dealt with and it's a lost cause). I do think though, as I said, that other factors, such as current organic matter content, regularity of water and fertilizer, base fertility and the like will probably largely determine the efficacy. For me, I'm a lax gardener, barely keeping up with water and fertilization (actually not keeping up most of the time) and I rarely dig my beds. It's not like someone who normally grows everything super well already is going to realize the 400 to 600% increases I'm seeing. But, it could certainly still cut fertilizer usage, which should matter to almost anyone. Lots of speculation there too. Only way to find out is do the experiments. I think 0% -5% - 10% in a long bed is a good place to start. If beds are short, one bed at 5% - 0% and one at 5% - 10% would be a good set of tests.
Maybe soaking the char in water in the winter would be worth a try. Hopfully the expension of the ice will chrush the char for you. Has anyone tryed that?
Neat idea. I've left mine out all winter of course, but if it were super cold and very wet, who knows. Report back!
I've mass-produced during winter, but they don't break up noticeably much from being soaked, then frozen.
All the charcoal I have made has been quenched which helps with the hydrophobic qualities of burnt wood, it cracks the charcoal when quenched and allowed water uptake, which I think would be key for microbiome habitat. Perhaps the freeze thaw cycle in snowy winters allows the wood to be soaked faster than charcoal not quenched.
yup-a lot of f--------around to smash it. A hopper with steel rollers would be better than the garden chipper. It flies everywhere. The barrel roller for lawns fillled w/ h20 on plywood and a snow shovel gives you a lower back ache. A mechanical sifter we tried..... -You tube Home-made sifter with Brien-
If I ever build a good sized retort, I would just burn sawdust and paper/cardboard. I have access to unlimited amounts of saw dust. Then I would not have to worry about crushing it. It worked well on a smaller scale. Two soup cans fitted together, and a couple venting holes and put in my wood stove. I can make biochar in empty soup cans or tin cans all winter, but the scale it too small to make any difference in my garden.
did you see Edible Acres woodstove method with the food service trays? They can produce quite a lot in a winter. czcams.com/video/jxBUqk2M3Y8/video.html
I did see that. that was what sparked it initially. I think you referenced it in another video addressing the wood chips.
I knew about the method, but the quantity impressed me. My friend makes coffee can char, but it doesn't add up that fast. I think if you had a stove with a lid opening on the top, you might be able to build a drop in pan with holes drilled in it for gas escape/off burn. changeable from the top, so you could swap in another pan easily any time.
I have a couple different soup can “pairs” ready to go in, I can take one out once all the gasses have vented off, and put a new one in. They are no bigger than the logs I’m feeding into the fire, I could even put two in at a time if i wanted. It is pretty easy, but it can get messy in the house. And like you said, it doesn’t add up very fast. It’s better than nothing, and the wood stove is going anyways. It’s a valuable resources for minimal effort.
I'm always extremely interested in what you have to say about biochar. I think if the benefits are even just enough to justify the work and expense of making and burying it, it's a net win. It seems like one of the few climate change remediation tools we have that we may actually use.
I'd particularly love to see a biochar producing combined heat and power (CHP) station. Potentially carbon negative, soil restoring, fertilizer runoff reducing, power generation. A guy can dream.
That is absolutely possible right now. Affordable or not etc, who knows, but a gasifier that dumps out biochar and runs engines for power of various kinds for sure. It doesn't seem like rocket science, but someone has to be smart enough and care enough to put it all together and keep working out the kinks. It may already be out there, but the pieces are all there. One important feature I think would be the ability to run on varied stocks, from chips to nut hulls, wood chunks of various sizes, sawdust, and whole long pieces of wood. The more versatile it would be regarding the handling of feedstock the better.
I hadn't considered the feedstock issue but you make a lot of sense. There would be a seasonal component to feedstock availability and you'd want to be able to get as much material as possible within the radius where it would be economical to transport the fuel to the plant.
I know organic farmers who will buy or rent land to farm based on proximity to manure sources. It surprised me how close the manure has to be to the farm for it to work financially. I'd think the same dynamic would apply to a gasifier plant. Proximity to feedstock and to buyers of finished char.
I just put the stuff in my soil idk maybe 5% idk I guess I’m not very scientific I’m just going for results which I’m happy to say my garden did better then it did without it.. also I know this one truth .. diverse soil is healthy good soil... so you’re bound to find anything in my soil because I add all kinds of stuff to it. Today I found a T bone from a steak 😂 there’s peanut shells coffee oyster shell leaves grass clippings on and on and on... so I would say if you’re like me and not really interested in “experimenting” just add it because it works...
I find it pretty hard to judge results with so many variables changing every year, unless I have some kind of reasonable control. It does take some planning though.
@@SkillCult I understand that especially if you’re trying to repeat the process. I just see so many videos on here with folks trying to make growing food into “science”. Bio char works and maybe some folks do need to know amounts so they don’t go crazy and ruin there soil because they lose sense(its not common so I won’t say it). Like I said I add lots of things to my soil and it all by eyeball and I think by the number of worms and such in my soil I’d say it’s healthy. I got amazing results this year but weather was good too and I had lots more spare time to care for it with the way things are so like you said variables.