2 Garden VIPs Very Different, Very Useful
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- I'm often asked, and see a lot of misunderstanding around, charcoal vs ashes. Both are extremely useful, but very different products of wood and fire that have very different uses. Ashes are an excellent fertilizing material, containing all the minerals that plants mine from the soil, mostly potassium (potash) and calcium as lime. Ashes make slash and burn agriculture possible. Charcoal (aka biochar) has special properties that seem to be able to improve soils for centuries and may help in developing a more long term, sustainable agriculture.
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Good overview. Based on your videos I’ve been adding biochar from brush to my garden for several years. The garden has been at the same site since 1966. It produces amazing growth and seems to get better and better. I am forever grateful to you for this and more teachings and that is why I support you on Patreon.
That's great to hear. I am starting work on a new place in town. I'm honestly considering digging up my char beds here and taking the soil down there lol.
@@SkillCult I would. Most homes, including mine, clear off the topsoil when they build it then sell it to others as top soil and they replace it with fill dirt and similiar. I found the tops of rusted oil filters in my front yard and other garbage in the back. Even if that is not the case I would still take as much char and soil as you can from your hard work. At least it would give your new land a head start in revitalization. I'm in N Florida in a very sandy soil region. I'm amending new planting areas with char and some clay. My goal was originally to get a 5% amount of clay in the sandy soil to get a sandy loam because my compost while good is in small quantities and just doesn't last and gets leached from the root zone with all the rain we get.
After finding your content and others I believe the missing factor is biochar so I have been also adding homemade biochar (5%) to the topsoil 5% clay and mulching everything with compost and aged arborist mulch to mitigate the rain runoff and protect the soil and organisms. Seeing how it can produce the terra praeta in South America for thousands of years I'm willing to give it a shot in my yard. I've only done it for about 9 months so it will take a while. It is easy to make and will continue to be a part of my soil amendment process.
@@charlesbyrneShowComments4all I might. this place in town is not unlike what I hear about in florida. It has virtually no clay, maybe 1/16 of an inch on top in a shake test, if that. It is largely gravel the rest is sand and silt. It dries out so fast it's hard to grow anything except perennials that tap into the clay a few feet down. I'll be looking for clay or digging it up from deeper down, and importing as much char as I can. The good news is I can measure for micronutrients and engineer the soil I want. I'll also have all the gravel I want too! The bad news is it's an incredible amount of work.
@@charlesbyrneShowComments4all You know of david the good? ua-cam.com/video/ZYikWBnf4dQ/v-deo.html
@@SkillCult yes sir I do. I've got a few of his books and subscribe to his channel and yours.
Anything about charcoal you teach me, I listen. I saw grandparents letting ash and charcoals in wear and tear weather. And then using them for growing plants, vegetables.
Charcoal is making it's way into small scale market gardening now but I heard it from you first years ago. Good stuff man!
This is partially off topic but you raised a point that I have been wondering a lot about recently. I have made quite a lot of charcoal in the past year and I have this "feeling" that the stuff made by heating it up in a chamber sweating out the smoke makes for a better and more dense charcoal than that produced by setting it on fire and quenching it once everything has been set on fire. Note that I am talking about charcoal for forging not biochar.
Have you seen Jon Jandai's videos on charcoal production in a homestead scale? I have followed his instruction and he makes both the chamber produced charcoal and the method where it's set on fire. I have only tried the former method and it's seems to be working fine, but the charcoal lumps from high quality hardwood are kind of small but still fine for blacksmithing.
Almost all the char I produce is rather soft and low density. And it's not as good for smithing for sure. I've made a little bit of somewhat denser char by letting big top lit burn piles fall and spraying the outside to maintain a hot interior with low oxygen. But it took many, many times longer, than just raking it out and quenching earlier. Not worth it for me. The claim is certainly that it makes better biochar, but I've not tried see if there is any science or compelling anecdotes. I'll chedk out Jandais stuff. thanks.
Thank you Stephen for all of your hard work and persistance. You are making a real difference in the world that I suspect will be lasting and influential.
Thanks Mike :)
Good stuff. I just started playing around with this too although I have been reading about it for a few years.
I use both charcoal as a soil amendment and ash as a fertilizer supplement
Yep, me too.
I didn’t have to run tests I watched yours but I do know that my garden compared to my neighbors who are mostly compost and and peat users does better. I also put a lot of other amendments in my soil to try to make it diverse as possible. I’m a firm believer in the more diverse and healthy your soil is the better it grows.
If your char sounds like glass or metal, that's great.
Excellent advice!
Another great vid of info....one thing I would like to add to the conversation that I do is...save your piss and when your making your biochar quenching it with the nutrients you want the biochar to absorb...doesn't have to be piss...can use a sea weed, cow shit , comfrey brew aswell
yes, big fan of urine as fertilizer. Glad to see it's finally catching on.
Nice video. Thanks
as ever and always, comprehensive and sensible overview; many thanks.
What's more efficacious, the information or who's delivering it? Hopefully, like in this video, both are. I've got sandy gravelly soil that's acidic, perfect for biochar and ashes. I'm planting apple trees from 4 gallon buckets into this well drained soil with a thin skim of alder enriched good soil, and I have chopped up char, not bio. Should I throw a shovelful in the hole and mix it in anyway? I need it for drought proofing. No animal manure available. If the trees die, I have plenty more. Thanks for the tip about the pear slug, never heard of it. Oh, and the biochar for me would work really well with a compost tea setup, because I put too much biochar into my tunnel beds, and it was on the dry side (low water pressure) the results sucked for a few years, now there myco threads everywhere but needs the tea for the veggies, the bacteria etc emphasis.
If you mean should you put in raw char, I would add some extra nutrient. urine is great and free and if you stop making an endless supply of it you're dead anyway!
@@SkillCult I already collect the urine and throw it in the garden, why didn't I think of that. Thanks.
Great video. Does adding biochar made from conifers like douglas firs (including needles) have any impact on the acidity of the soil? Need to sweeten my acidic soil as is conifer forest, and mostly have loads of douglas fir. Do I need to burn it to ash to raise the ph?
I just use it all and I have lots of doug fir. Once it's charred well or burned to ash, I doubt it matters at all. its' worth doing a soil test once, if you haven't to figure out trace minerals and ph. But I would go heavy on ash for a while if you have it, or oyster shell flour, or ag lime. My soils are 5.? and I used lots of oyster shell in the past, and now wood ash.
@@SkillCult You’re a gem. Have access to loads of beaches and endless shells, so plan to experiment in making oyster shell flour.
@@ordanjbest In the old days, they would actually just burn lime with shells and limestone for ag use. it was easier than grinding and is very quick acting. I've always wanted to work on the problem of making char and shell lime at the same time.
@@SkillCult Very interesting. I’m very keen to stack as many functions. I’ve wanted to puzzle out a way to make high quality charcoal in a decent sized chamber, collect the escaping wood gas AND be using the waste heat generated for something like reducing maple syrup or boiled cider all at the same time. Maybe should add some shells burning to the crazy scientist mix! No idea if could make it work but fun to think about from a design perspective.
@@ordanjbest I think that is exactly the kind of mad scientist, homestead alchemy is just what a lot more people should be doing. There are so many possibilities. but it's pretty involved and most people don't have the courage or the time and energy to commit. So many possibilities though.
Sequestering nutrients.
What is with ashes of Lignite and Coal?
Just of wood, not coal.
Why was Pottery always added ?
Pottery and burnt clay have long been used in soil building. I think in some cases, it might have similar properties to char. But in the Amazon, it's probably more like everything you throw away goes in a pit or pile where eventually gardens are built.
Comment for algorithm
Can you use coal instead of charcoal?
Do ashes not change the ph of your soil?
Coal doesn't have internal surface area like charcoal does.
Ash makes soils less acydic. Most soils are too acydic, so adding it is a good idea:)
I would stay away from coal. Lots of heavy metals. The equivalent of charcoal using coal is called coke. It's basically charred coal. Ash will raise the soil ph temporarily. In most cases that is somewhere between ok and essential. But some soils are naturally very alkaline. It's good to get a soil test to find out.
@@SkillCult I don't have a source for this, but I remember hearing that if you extracted the actinides from the ash a coal power plant creates and used them to run a nuclear reactor, you'd get similar power output to the coal plant. And that doesn't count the mercury and lead and other unpleasant things. That's definitely more heavy metals than I want in my garden.
“Don’t become a believer, become an experimenter.” Another awesome SkillCult quote. 🤟
hey, that is pretty good!
Great quote
Personally I add ground charcoal to my soaked chicken feed at a handful per 2-3 quart of layer pellets and I mix it with the mineral supplements for my sheep about 25% char. I suspect the char that goes through the sheep is heavily bacterially inoculated. With the chickens the poop is solid black, no white, and it straight up doesn't stink.
That's cool. You are probably a ware, there is a history of feeding char to animals to make them healthier or gain weight etc.
I'm going to try adding charcoal to my chicken fermented feed.
👍✝️🙏❤️
Studies have shown that just putting it in there pin, pasture, bedding, they will seak it out on there own for the minerals and other benefits to them. Spreading in the pin/ bedding will a) charge the char b) reduction of pests and smells. c) reduce or eliminate runoff contaminants keeping the goodness there dung provides preventing waterway pollution. .
@@ccccclark2605
I'd advise to do it in 2 steps. Ferment then add char. I know that with compost pile ( a fermentation pile) it will kill the pile( prevent it from getting hot enough,) if not hot/active enough before adding char.
@@daviddroescher Got it. Tks!
Planted a red d'anjou seedling yesterday in a charcoal trench inspired by you, got high hopes for that thing. 1 and 1/2 years old and it's a 5 ft tall whip. That trench produced enough charcoal in one burn to last me all year in pots and garden beds, also experiments. I wish you had 50 more videos on this topic. I've hit play on the old charcoal research video more times than I'd like to admit. I'll always have some charcoal local, it's invaluable. We'll be making a mountain of it over Thanksgiving, if you see smoke signals coming from South Georgia, it wasn't us. 🔥
Awesome. I actually have a crap ton of biochar vids listed out. We'll see. this particular topic kept coming up. My stop burning brush video just got a huge bump by the algorithm for a week or so and it's one of the most viewed biochar vids on YT. I would probably do well to make some more. Maybe stir up some controversy he he. "Why I Don't Precharge My Biochar" "Biochar B.S." hope you can use some of my tree training vids to train that whip. Watch those crotch angles, they like to grow up and grow narrow angles a lot. Depending on the variety, some don't.
what do you think about wood chips. my soil is very dense very heavy clay and im going to try to use wood chips as a layer annd keep it moist in order to produce mushrooms wich will help break down teh dense soil. im still experimenting but what do you think
If you let decompacting weeds take over your soil and then chop and drop them without pulling them out from the roots they will break up the soil for you while forming a layer of humus from all the plant matter you cut.
Or you can scatter around radish seeds like daikon and their root formations will do the same thing. There's also white clover that will decompact clay soil and add nitrogen.
@@Kizarat that's what I'm hoping for. But the problem is grass
I would certainly make some char and add about 10% in volume to an area to see what that does to break up the soil. otherwise, like Kizarat said, plants can do a lot of work for you. Deep mulch should help too. It creates a lot of action in the soil with bugs and worms coming up to eat and going back down. Wood chips are great if you get enough to make a difference, but they don't last. I scored some this year, threw them down for the summer and they are already getting overtaken by grass With the fall rains. It won't be long before they sink in and get eaten up. that is good for soil building, but remember if the char works, you only have to add it once. for charring chips, check out the jolly roger TLUD.
Great video! I always appreciate the down to earth perspective you bring to these topics. 👍
Survival Gardening sent me 2 U thankU now I don't have 2buy activated charcoal for medicinal reasons
Honestly I enjoy these videos as much for the commentary on language and communication and semantics as i do on the actual content, which i also enjoy a lot.
there's more of that coming and it's not going to be pretty :D
I'm a new subscriber.
David the Good sent me. 😁
I stay, cuz I like your video.
👍✝️🙏❤️
Refreshing. Science as a method not a religion. Simply stated and solid information. Thank you.
This is the key to permaculture.I watched The Need To Grow after The Oppenheimer Ranch Project channel linked it in one of the daily videos.It stressed biochar being critical to create the optimal growing environment.Just subscribed to your channel.Thanks for shedding light on this rarely spoken about topic.
This winter I'll be making some char pits and trenches during the burn season. Loads of cut trees for burning around the house site. We're going to reinvigorate an orchard hill thanks to your videos!
Excellent to hear. its' pretty fun burning big fires :D
I feel well advised. My favorite guy on YT.
David the Good sent me during biochar..Hello & Cheers!
At like 3:20 in this video you talk about how what we call "charcoal" may have been called "cinders" in the past. As somebody who teaches classical English literature, I can confirm that that is true. There are references to cinders in literature ranging from the 17th century to the 19th century, and in every case the word refers to the the black crumbly stuff left over from burning wood.
I thought a lot of those references were to coal cinders maybe? Certainly the term is applied to the leftovers from coal burning enterprises. Also to volcanic particles that are not ash. Current use seems to be all over the place.
Definition of cinder, Mirriam Webster
1 : the slag from a metal furnace : dross
2a cinders plural : ashes
b : a fragment of ash
3a : a partly burned combustible in which fire is extinct
b : a hot coal without flame
c : a partly burned coal capable of further burning without flame
4 : a fragment of lava from an erupting volcano
I wonder if they might be any root meaning to the word related to being left over. If we were to live in a char-centric culture lol, We would certainly need to go beyond charcoal, biochar and cinders. No need to though in my opinion. I thnk biochar is kind of a dumb term. I'd prefer agrichar, which is trademarked. Or just char covers everything and can be qualified. Better at this point to discuss the topic instead of the terminology, but people sure get uptight about it. thanks for the interesting comment.
After watching your previous videos on biochar I decided to make a potting mix for my loquats (around 10 plants) this spring with 20% biochar.
I also thought that especially in pot culture, biochar might provide a lot of benefits. It could:
* Hold onto and store nutrients long-term in an environment where you continously have to supply nutrients to compensate for the limited amount of growing media
* Reduce fertilizer burn/salt buildup, due to the charcoal acting as a buffer and taking up excessive minerals
* Improve the structure and aeration of the potting mix in the same way that perlite does
* Store water without suffocating roots
* Provide a safe haven for microbes and fungi in an otherwise harsh/unnatural habitat (pots can dry out more thoroughly, potting mix is soilless)
I charged the biochar beforehand by soaking it in liquid fertilizer and horsetail extract, crushed it and then sieved it to get a size similar to perlite granules. The pieces that were too large were crushed and sieved again.
The plants have responded very well. They grew vigorously, have large leaves and the mix seems to hold onto moisture for long periods of time without being overly wet. Definitely an improvement compared to the same mix without biochar, at the very least for the aeration/structure benefits 👍🏼
Awesome. I would be cautious going higher with the char. I use 50% and more with cacti, but they are different. The soil actually seems to dry out quicker than one where that char would just be more coconut coir, peat or bark. I think it does take on plenty of water, but at high percentages, it migh just be a strong capillary wicking effect that dries them out quick. It's perfect for cacti and succulents. I didn't mention the buffering thing, because I can't say a lot about it, but I think it probably is real. If so, having a nitrogen buffer is pretty nice, because you can fertilize a lot and without too much worry. I suppose it's probably still a good idea to flush the pots once in a while, but since the char is Adsorbing, not absorbing, it should still hold onto a lot. My next potting soil experiments are going to be using some native fibers tha are similar to coconut, and punky Douglas' Fir wood as the organic matter components. I'm super happy with my high char cactus mix though and have a video outlined on why char is worth trying in cactus mix for a lot of the reasons you mention.
SkillCult I love the idea of using rotten wood if it would work for potting soil amendment. I have a forest, so I want to use the resources God has given us as much as possible. I’ve done this with hugelkulture, but also want to do biochar and see what else I can do to help the food forest I’m working on. Thanks for the video.
like the deer that walks into frame at 26:10
Followed from Survival Gardener Dave Good
A thought strikes me watching this is to experiment with combining char and ash then mix that with composting matter which sits for a while before using it in soil.
I like to add ashes per bed. It just gives me complete control of how much I put where, and it's very easy to sprinkle on. I don't mix the char with anything, because I want to know how much I'm putting on each area to a certain percentage. But a lot of people do just put it in the compost.
AI.. also check out David the Good concerning biochar
i think you coulda included unburned wood too. Non-charred/partially burned/partially vaporized wood has its uses in soil amendments as well. Such as including in recipes for making black amazon style soil along with bone and char etc.
I don't know much about it. small bits make it into my soil, but the pieces are usually pretty big, so I mostly pick them out.
Excellent overview. I especially liked the description of fire and the vivid picture of the biochar purists fighting it out in a locked room. Very funny. Sensible ways to experiment and furthering the knowledge is always welcomed. We have been experimenting with biochar for a few years now and it seems to help, but our sample size is too small to make any firm conclusions. We do look forward to burn days though since it means more ash and charcoal to play with later. I have a Meyer lemon tree I have been nursing for about 7 years that is about ready to re-pot as a bonsai. I am planning to use a small amount of charcoal to try to hold nutrients in the very small amount of soil used in bonsai pots. We'll see how it does.
Charcoal is an adsorbant! We use it in hospitals…👌🏻
Yes! Look, someone who knows what an adsorbant is :)
This is a good video, did anyone see the deer in the background? Steve can you make a video on African dark Earth please.
I don't know a lot about the African dark earths. I need to dig in a little more. My main interest is in how they actually make it if it's still a living culture.
I will comment in an argumentative position for Royal Oak Narrural Wood Charcoal, from walmart, goes for $15 to $25 bag size depending. Crushed to fingertip size bits, muahhh> soaked it in liquid everything, fish hydrolysate, coffee grounds, leaf mold, compost, liquid calcium, sea salt, molasses, L.A.B.S. Wife's lasagna soup with burger in it, alfalfa meal, bone meal, Jadam fert( cannabis greens\seed\stems\flowers
oots n root dirt, spring grass n' weeds from my yard, local leaf mold, compost), urine that's been bottled for at least 3 weeks unopened😅😂, ashes, 3 mushroom caps, gluten free organic bread crumbs, and a heaping tablespoon of dry qhite rice from some organic dried snack pkg & i probably forgot something, tyen fiiled it w rain water and let it drown for 12 days, then drained off what would drip out of the bucket and let it ait for and other 3 days, started caking up, molded day 1, but the mold dissapeared fairly quick, when I saw no molding I added it to finished compost, and 2 bags of ok top soil, and a bag of potting soil that has a lot of vermiculite, and i poured a dose of what the char was soaking in onto the mix.> Wrapped it, let er sit for a few days and its on my lawn. Its been a few days of mellow steady rain, and nite 2 the worms were all over it. I scarified the lawn before i dropped it down, so its not going to be an issue getting incorporated i think. The big hunks that remained burnt wood will bring the lawn what its supposed to as well, those slow growing beauties. So far its acting like biochar. If it screws me later I will update. I appreciate any education or feedback from the community as well. I just want to make something that really is the best lawn on the street not just best looking. Lawns Happen, and I will expect to be blasted for all that to drop on Bluegrass😅😊😅 its all good. Everyone Loves something🇨🇦🙏✨💖✨🍁♻️🍁
I soak my char in kelp fertilizer and pee for about 30-45 days before using it. Works well 25 / 75 in 33gal felt grow bags for all kinds of stuff. Great video
I precharge for potting mix, but for soil, I just bury it with lots of good stuff and use extra fertilizers for the first year. I'm at 50% for cactus and succulents, but I would use less for most other plants. Intersting to hear 25/75 works for you.
Challenge accepted.
Charcoal is :
coocked at 3-500°c
No ash
Contains the most volatiles (burn yellow)
Still has wood vinegar and tar small percentage of unburnt wood/ feed stock
Theas " contaminants " give that dull thud sound
Must be turned into coak before cooking ( lump charcoal/ bricket) on it to prevent that funky tast from ruining your stake with the flaver of the contaminants.
Char /Coak: ( low impurities coal )
Charcoal/ coal Cooked at 500-700°c as temp goes up volatiles/nonmineral based impurities are burnd off at a higher percentage resulting in that glass like sound.
Minimal ash
Activated Carbon;
water quinched Coak, this cleans out the poors ( improves surface area volume) rinses out water souable minerals and ash
Bio-char:
Activated Carbon has been Seeded/populated with micro/macro biology, beneficial minerals, and nutrients ( NPK)
My understanding is that there is not a defrence between coal coak and char coak ( except mineral content and volume )
Charcoal and coal are fine for general smithing and iorn work , whereas coak from eather sorce is best for steel and /or higher temperatures.
One of my top videos of yours. Love the work you’re doing on the red fleshed apples. Nice job
Love your channel man big ups to you. Probably just me being ocd on semantics but it’s not a theory, it’s an hypothesis until it’s proven. But it makes sense for sure and we all know what you were meaning
I'm going to send ur UA-cam to Whippoorwill Holler UA-cam who has lotsa acres downsouth
the annoying thing about biochar fundamentalists is that if we keep making biochar production complicated, nobody going to do it
do we want more productive soils? less carbon in atmosphere? then whatever the method, let everyone out there make biochar or char instead of burning bushs to ash (and i assure you that most people don't even use that ash, it's left there to be blown by wind)
Anyone else noticed a deer?
Hey what was that subsistence gardening, shit I've been doing a thing. Who knew....
I had talked with you previously about my ancestors doing slash and burn with tobacco seedlings and suspected they were leaving char. I had talked with my Dad about it, but I forgot to update the post. Dad said they weren't leaving char on purpose, but only using shovels and mineral soil for fire control. It was working for them, removing and burning the unwanted underbrush to get the tobacco sets started in the shade while maintaining the windbreaks with the bigger trees. I asked if he could show me where they did it so I could check for char, but it was way before his day unfortunately. Strange how wood byproducts have changed in context of use in agriculture but throughout history they're always there it seems.
I don't recall that conversation, so I may have already mentioned it, but native tobacco patches were often started by burning the area. I recall trying it once some where, but I don't think it grew well. but it's very dry here so the timing would have to be just right. I just ordered some seeds of native hopi tobacco, Nicotiana rustica and might experiment with that. I use tobacco as pesticide and just fumigated my whole greenhouse with native tobacco which is way stronger than the stuff usually grown now. I got dizzy walking in there, so I don't think the bugs could have survived lol. It makes sense that wood products have been so important in agriculture if you look at it as I said that the trees spend all this time gathering those resources up.
@@SkillCult hahaha that's very cool. The rustica will grow wild sometimes on this side of the country, I never thought to make use of it. Do you intercrop it?
The native people here had shit figured out a long time ago, people don't give them near enough credit.
@@quintond.7888 I've not grown it much. I had some actual wild seed, which is a much smaller plant. it was sometimes grown by people that didn't really grow anything else, but they grew tobacco or started it in these small plots. It is a potent insecticide, good to pick some and have it on hand. It's hard to find it wild here. Careful trying to smoke it, it'll really kick your butt lol. I tried it once and one small puff made my lungs feel like they just froze up for a bout 10 seconds. I've read that rustica can have 9 times the nicotine content! It's definitely potent.
Hello, it's me again. I've been shocked by your biochar content, I think it's just outstanding and I have a lot of gratitude for you to put it short for us. Yet as i told you the other day I live in a "very" dry area 350mm liters of water/year (this last years it's been crazy so you can expect even less and in short and very pronunciated events), so water here is scarce. I was wondering if you have tried or heared about burying the burning wood instead of watering it, to stop oxigen getting into it and get that charcoal instead of ashes. To be more precise i live in Espolla (Spain, Catalunya) and here there's a centenary (could be more) tradition of producing very high quality bio char from the hard wood I was mentioning the other day. They did that with the "typical" method of making a big pile and covering it with mud/earth. Even today you can see the traces of that activity and it is kept in some villages as a cultural thing. Whenever you go to look for spring mushrooms "everyone" knows that you should look around those charcoal production areas to find some. So I will try for sure to do it myself next autumn, as its forbidden to light agro-fires almost half of the year around here due to fire danger and this year we got some extreme conditions so it's even forbidden now. I just wanted to know if you ever trier or heared of it from the other side of the ocean. I'm just imagining i could ieally dig my garden beds, burn wood there, cover it with earth instead of putting water, and have the job done pretty much. One of the problems might be that I'd have do un-bury it to pulverize it... Sorry for my bad english and feel free to not answer me, it was already usefull to put all this ideas in my mind so thank you a lot no matter what. As we say here salut!, wich means i wish you good health.
Mateu.
Thanks Mateu. I think you will find it easier to burn in one place, crush, then add to the garden. My climate is similar, no burning for half the year and no rain. But we have more yearly rainfall. Here is one mushroom here that likes burned areas. Your english is fine :)
@@SkillCult Thanks
Thanks for sharing. Interesting.
Good info. I'm from Texas, USA. Its always hot and dry. Humid, sometimes.
Thanks for the video, I have been trying to make my own charcoal this year and then using it in my garden. I have a soil that is a mix of clay and sand, not ideal. (didn't mix this myself) I am trying out the ground charcoal to see if it improves soil structure, which is waterlogged in winter and hard as concrete in summer. Very interesting, great information! Thanks again.
Look forward to hearing how that goes. I'm using it in some soil now that is all silt, sand and rock, with probably less than 1% clay. It doesn't need loosening, but it needs water retention
Biochar will definitely help loosen that up and improve drainage in winter and add water retention for summer to prevent things from setting up as cob in summer.
@@CarbonConscious Thanks! For this I have a limited amount of biochar available. I have made a small test plot to see how it goes. As it is winter right now, it kinda looks like nothing but I will continue.
i bet plants that grow well in sand do well in pure charcoal maybe with some amendment compost etc.
I mean even the type of wood you use effects the properties of the charcoal...
Thank you! Thank you so much for specifying "by volume" when talking about proportions. It drives me nuts when people say things like (classic example) "X parts brown material to Y parts green material." Those two words- "by volume"- just got you a subscriber.
Yeah, I know what you mean. weight would be completely different as it is so light and soil is heavy
QUESTION:
3 year gardener here.
I've been consumed, obsessed and fascinated with this biochar topic. For a few weeks scouring the interweb looking at different techniques. I like your system open pile burn! I don't want to build a drum thing.
Here's my question: Forgive me if you've been asked this a thousand times as I'm just getting into it.
** You mentioned the char absorbs the nutrients and crops could suffer the first season. Well can we pre soak the char in water and amendments? Or in a high nutrient compost for a month or so? Thoughts? Thanks again!!!
I typically don't, but most people do. I'll just use extra fertilizers when I bury it and extra soluble fertilizers in the first month or two. Most soak it first in microbe/nutrient solutions like compost tea. I don't think it takes very long though.
Ur video sound is a little low as it's hard 2hear u when the livingroom fans r on
Great video. Thank you.
Long story short, I burned a bunch of brush and used dirt to put it out. Can I use that dirt for lavander plants. Maybe mix in a little compost?
Sure. Shouldn't be a problem. the ashes will provide some nutrition too.
Hey i just saw this video. I live in an old victorian home and fixed a front yard flower garden. I noticed spent charcoal of some type and the flower roots where wrapped around it. 2:37 i planted tomatoes The plants where massive. Any idea if this is poisonous or not. ?
Probably not. It might be coal cinders, that could contain metals, but probably less than all the pain that has flaked off the house for decades :)
great video. Thanks
So where did you live in NC, I'm thinking ashville area but surprise me.I'm a beach homesteader or more accuratly a swamp homesteader started by the local Indians then colonialists then sketch good ol boys and finally tourons that have trouble finding their own assends. But enough about me, are you ever out this way doing gatherings classes or whatever.
I was in NC near the tenn/ga/nc border at a sumer camp and met this woman from the NC. We lived on her friends property near Weaverville, so yeah, just outside Asheville. I wasn't there very long, a few months, but it was pretty cool. I doubt I'll ever travel out there again, but who knows!
Oo the charcoal was silver looking 4:53
I have blueberries planted roughly 25 years ago and they are sour these days. Would wood ashes help to sweeten them without petro derived means?
Blue berries are the classic example of a crop that likes acid soil. If anything, people will acidify, not alkalize. So, I would not put any ashes or lime on them. I don't know a lot about growing them otherwise. You might consider just doing a deep mulch of stuff like bark, pine needles and leaves.
Elemental sulfur, granulated, 1/4 cup spring and fall will help the plants be able to uptake other nutrients. I second the vote for heavy mulch (wood chips, forest floor duff, sawdust and coffee grounds)
Watching you while eating foraged ringless honey mushrooms fried in coconut oil with salt and pepper. Thanks for your videos.
Sounds good. I need to get out for shrooms. I got a good batch of coccora a few weeks ago and froze 7 pints. Should be more out now.
God bless. we need more citizen scientists
But if it were a battle, who do you think would win? :)
Whats the TTT, curve to turn charcoal to ash, jkg
so if i just put like 5in or charcoal at the bottom of my garden beds I will be set for good. and then put my ashes on top of the soil when i get them.
you would ideally mix it in, but something like that. Point is, charcoal is one time, ashes are periodic.
Spot on !
Thanks for the comparison! It's great to see another pragmatic gardening video from ya.
Those cacti are so happy. We did our first biochar bed this year and the pepper plants were three times as big in the Florida sand. I'm a believer.
I would think that is a great place to use it.
I think your re-branding re-logo is good. The manson one was a bit too edgy for the average jane.
lol, yeah, maybe.
I went from a wood stove to a pellet stove. It burns hardwood pellets. Is the ash from the pellets the same as wood ash? Is so, can I still use them in my gardening?
I don't know. Better check with the manufacturer. it might jut be compressed wood, but maybe there is a binder. If you live i a nut growing area, you might be able to use nutshells.
Man, I like your common sense angle
How cool that the deer helped to end the video.
It's amazing how hung up people can get on words
Yes, it is a very small way to think. don't want to miss the concept for the words.
Thanks so much for posting the link to, "The citation in biochar in europe and america in the 19th century". Its been extremely helpful and inspiring.
You're welcome. It is fascinating stuff. i wish i could get more people to read it.
@@SkillCult I know but I've discovered that's just how it works sometime It reminds me of the scripture of the mustard seed.
3:38 I'd watch that fight. Here is a list of names people use: charcoal, coal, cinder, biochar, graphite, graphene, carbon.
There are only so many. cinders is interesting, but it's use is all over the place and it's pretty archaic at this point. almost no one uses it.
@@SkillCult I listed cinders because you mentioned it, I've honestly not heard anyone use that term in reference to charcoal. I'm curious, why you think cinders is interesting?
I mentioned graphene because most videos about graphene super capacitors will mention that graphene is pure carbon. This got the ole noggin spinnin, 'wait a second, charcoal is carbon' so I put a multimeter to some charcoal and it was putting out 1.2 or so volts. Super capacitors require high surface area and conductive material. What the biochar 'experts' say about biochar is that is like a 'apartment building' for 'good' bacteria so this made me think 'large surface area'. In other words the so-called super material 'graphene' that modern 'science' raves about is likely just crushed up charcoal mixed with a glue, paint, or sticky substance. What are your thoughts on anthracite? Just really pure charcoal/coal or somethin different? It supposedly can only be found in eastern Pennsylvania, but I've grown to distrust the mainstream info when it comes to scarcity of resources.
Graphene is carbon atoms organised in a honeycomb pattern. It's a single slice of graphite and the higher the temperature reached during pyrolysis the more the carbon structure starts to organise itself into graphite.
Excellent! Cheers
24:56 That deer seems to be attracted by the quality of your soil!
I think It is actually a safety thing mostly. They hang around people once they get used to you. They know mountain lions are not likely to come around people. There is a doe and two yearlings that are pretty permanent residents.
I’m not trying to be a smart ass but I was just thinking about the entire situation so people have been slashing and burning for about 6000 years and bio char last forever well hundreds of years so maybe in these excavations of older civilizations the only thing that’s left that wasn’t used was the bio char Everything else was used by their gardens. Just saying.
I'm not following. What is the salient point?
@@SkillCult slash and burn will add bio char to your garden in long-term multiple applications .
@@yellow3222 Obviously it would add some, but how much and over how long? it has been a very, very common agricultural system. I really doubt though, that you'll find areas it was used in having significantly high char in the soil. The goal usually seems to be to get as much ash as possible. I'd like to see any data on that. I am pretty sure that the anthropogenic soils with high char were made intentionally by adding more char than ash on purpose. But maybe you're right. Also worth considering is that forest fires have been happening for millions of years and have not resulted in high char soils as far as I've seen. I have heard that annual burning of sugar cane fields has resulted in high char soils, but that is year after year, not burning an area, then letting it recover for 20 to 40 years or whatever slash and burn would do. Hard to be sure of any of it without some data.
controlled burns would operate under this same theory, no? Clearing ther canopy does a lot, yes, but imagine the massive amount of charcoal leftover after a large controlled burn - it makes sense this is why clear cut and planting doesn't have the same effects as burns, right?
I know practically nothing about plants, currently, so take my input with a grain of salt.
A lot of bush fires don't really leave a very large amount of charcoal. Not like when you make it on purpose. I suppose if you did it enough, as they do with sugar cane fields, it could build up. Part of the effect of a burn is to release nutrients tied up in the wood. That is actually a more useful immediate effect and is the basis of slash and burn agriculture. those guys want to see ash, not charcoal. Use of charcoal is a more long term proposition and maybe a different mindset.
@SkillCult thanks for taking the time to explain, man. You've inspired me to stop dreaming of being self-reliant and start working towards that.
I'm tearing up 3 stumps and building a compost tomorrow - I think I found a loophole for making my own charcoal in my suburban town too, I was reading our ordinances earlier.
I just want to thank you for introducing me to Etter and showing me this lifestyle I've wanted since I was a kid is within reach.
@SkillCult so that would be more like how you've described the use of ash? That would make sense, must be a good bit of ash after?
I will be trying charcoal as a replacement for Akadama when potting bonsai
It has a pretty long history in growing potted plants and seedlings, though never really popular I don't think. Just be aware of the nutrient sink issue. For potting mix, I'll usually soak it in a strong fertilizer solution, then rinse off the excess. Seems to work.
@@SkillCult thanks, iv got tons of charcoal from burning rhododendron. for some reason the ash is brown i think its fine tho
Do you find wood ash makes the soil alkaline ?
Not too alkaline here is reasonable quantities. I don't measure soil ph much, but mostly it seems to be temporary with our heavy rains and acid soils.
I want to buy leek seeds from you.
What is your store website?
Tks! 👍✝️🙏❤️
Sorry I'm out of leek seeds for this year and probably won't save them this year either. Maybe I will... I'm just out of garden space.
@@SkillCult ☹️🤷
@@ccccclark2605 I do have some leek plants I dug out and put aside for seed. If all goes well, should have some in the fall/winter.
This.
Have you heard of Syntropic farming? Seems potentially better than slash and burn. Not sure it works in temperate climates, but in the tropics it seems like a great option.
I am using JADAM microbial solution to feed backyard made biochar, fungi, and Syntropic style pruning (on feeder trees like mulberry) to speed up the tree growth in my yard. Working great so far.
If people with small backyards don't have room to burn brush: I just cut an oval in the side of a 55 gallon drum with an angle grinder and fed brush into a fire in that. A small hole is cut in the bottom so the char can be quenched but then dried.. Got 35 gallons of charcoal last round. A lot of the brush for char is from coppiced limbs in my yard. There’s an edible acres video on this...
Nerds should check out 1491 by Charles C Mann to get an intro to biochar and its impact on forests.
I have not heard of that. I'm hoping to work on some backyard char methods as I'm working at a place in town now with a lot of wood and prunings to char. They are also always coming available from people's yards. the neighborhood is full of pollarded mulberry and sycamore that get pruned every year and people just want to get rid of the brush.
@@SkillCult I actually made the charcoal for blacksmithing. Just need to make my dirtbox forge... Regarding pear slugs: ever try JADAM pesticides? They recommend using plants that have amazing defenses (e.g. sunchokes, poke, ginko, etc) on pests. I used sunchokes (with soap as a wetting agent) on pear slugs and it worked great. The whole JADAM system is very citizen science/direct experience based. Super interesting.
@@dennislanigan1082 Never heard of it. Sounds interesting. I just cobbed up my forge for charcoal. I made two big blocks that can be scooted around to make a narrower or wider fire, but always deep. There are also bricks I made of different widths to block the back at those different widths. I always make charcoal forges deeper to hold the loose charcoal and get a deeper coal bed for the lower fuel density. An open charcoal forge is hard to manage and wastes a lot of fuel.
@@SkillCult I did some blacksmithing with someone who had a similar setup, but the sides were not adjustable (this was a class with Bryce at winter count). Are these cob bricks? Cob bricks with perlite? Fire bricks?
@@dennislanigan1082 Just cob. most forges are supposed to be clayed before use. I put in a layer of cob, flattened it, and sprinkled ashes on the top to make the blocks not stick. They are sort of rectangular cob blocks, but slightly curved, convex inside, and slightly hollowed out like a parabol to reflect heat back to the center. I mostly shaped the two side blocks before putting them on, then tidied them up and let dry for a while. the ashes allowed them to slip free easily and now i can move them anywhere I want. I made two sizes of small blocks to put in the back end and they can also slide forward and back as wanted. I'l probably put holes in those too, so I can slide pieces of smaller stock through at just the right height above the fire, without moving the block. Doing all that didn't take much longer than doing anything else. I think a metal forge could be designed to be adjustable like that, but there is hardly a reason when you can whip up a batch of cob and shape anything you want. Cob is just sand, clay and some dead grass. As much aggregate as possible, to still be sticky, workable and cohesive. One thing for sure though, a flat open forge sucks for charcoal. Coal has that sticky, melting property you can build a little dome oven with, but charcoal just scatters everywhere. I'm learning to weld chain right now and everytime you move anything, like to check heat, it all falls apart with charcoal. But, it's better with something to reign it in a little bit.
Out freaking standing! (I'm the guy with the House Handled boy's axe, about to finally use it ) I've been fooling around with indoor herbs and have done pretty well . Kale was huge recently, as was a giant wild mustard. Nettle, Catnip etc. I have a large 25 gallon pot that still rocks redworms from some organic cow manure I got a couple years ago. I need to get them some more leaves , they seem to be munching pretty well on the plant food scraps but I think a few different forms of carbon would be cool. They are healthy, but now, are not as numerous. I've thought about charring coffee grounds in a cast iron skillet . Amazingly, i was able to "adopt" some wild foraged dandelion greens by transferring the roots, but soaking them in just water at first, then gradually adding pinches of the "new soil". It worked! So, wierd mini foraging rooting experiment. When I overhaul the bin, I'll do a layer of char at the bottom then see what happens. Compost tea has been pretty impressive, but can burn my plants sometimes, and I think I overfed them. Love the story about the 700 year old dark soil. very cool. Oh nice thistle in the asparagus bed BTW, I mix that with nettle in tea, it's an amazing liver detox and has a great "brothy" thing going on. Yes, think independently , right on!
What are your thoughts on adding biochar to compost piles prior to putting it in the garden? Inoculating it with microbes and bacteria from the compost? Pre-Saturating it so the char doesn't absorb nearly as many nutrients from the soils?
Well, as far as nutrients goes, it might charge the char up, but that would be at the expense of the compost. In otherwords, it could still tie up nutrients that would have been used (as compost) to feed the garden. The other issue is that, unless you measure the char and compost and keep track, you don't know how much you are putting anywhere. If you determine by experiment that 10% is a good amount to use, then you can just apply that much to a garden bed or area and you know that section is done. For those reasons, and because it's more work to precharge, I don't precharge char for the garden. I've had good luck with just adding a measured amount of raw char and throwing in extra nutrients like green weeds, fertilizers, urine, manure, compost tea or whatever I have when I mix it in. Then I'll usually use more solubule fertilizers such as manure tea or pee for the first season. I've gotten good growth from plants in the first year doing this. It's not precharging, it's just in the ground charging. Works for me. But yes, raw chard does suck up nutrients at first. but precharing works too.
Thank you for the explanation. I see your point about the extra work involved. I assumed that it would remove some nutrients from the compost. Though a minimal increase in direct application of the natural fertilizers will give the same results in place as if it was in the compost and "Pre-Charged".
In my case of already established planting beds should it be tilled into the soil deeply? Have you tried any layering techniques for those that may not want to till the planting beds?
Yes, I mean either way you cut it, you have to add stuff. I just throw it all in there together and let it sort itself out, just because it's less effort and it seems to work. It seems to me that it's better to distribute the char. You only have to do it once. But if you put it on top I suppose it will work it's way down eventually, especially if the beds are dug.
THX ....great logic. Avid gardener, been following your logic since the beginning. Garden improves each year with your methods. Love your food to table...wish you did more. 3 inches of snow on my 11 acres in Minnesota, stay warm.
Fantastic content Steven. Thanks for the video.
If you allow me to ask: 1. Should it be grinded or not?
2. How much biochar per square meter?
3. How big can the logs or pieces of wood can be?
Cheers and thank you for your videos.
Yes, usually ground, to the size of a kernel of corn and smaller is good. I use volume measures, so 10% would be by volume. Best to do your own tests to decide how much to put in your soil. a bed with equal lengths of 0% 5% and 10% is a good experiment, dig it in 12 inches deep and fertilize the same water the same and plant the same plants down the whole bed. First year you will probably see horrible results from the charcoal parts, but it should equalize and hopefully reverse to where the char sections will do better. Minimum for my garden, re: those tests is 10% Size of wood depends on the method. In open burns, its hard to convert large diameter wood. In a retort, it is easier.
Great video, thanks Steven.
Do you have any suggestions for 'control' of cicada nymphs / larvae?
I graft and grow dwarf trees in pots and for a while there I thought I had graft comparability issues as half of them weren't growing well, sometimes dying completely. It wasn't until I started emptying the pots that I found the cicada grubs nestled in the roots and then found the egg scars on branches (sometimes just two or three eggs were laid at a time so no tell-tale herring-bone scars).
I grow organically as much as is practical but am at my wits end over this. I have a few trees now that are struggling that I grafted a few years back, have invested time and resources into giving them the best soils (with biochar!) and just today I did a close examination and found sneaky small cicada egg scars on some thin branches. They're always on the underside so they hadn't been noticed before. I'll love to be able to get rid of the root-sucking parasites and get these trees to grow properly! (I tried bare-rooting a couple a year or two back and killing the grubs but that didn't work too well. I grow mainly citrus and they don't like that, also the one that survived best got re-infested the next year just as it was recovering.)
Cheers.
Bummer. I have cicadas and they do a lot of damage to twigs sometimes. The ones we have leave scars about an inch long. If you can catch them early enough, maybe use tobacco as an insecticide. If you can get it on them, they should die. Its pretty potent. just cook up a pack of the cheapest rolling tobacco you can buy and add a little dish soap to it. I'd paint it right on the egg site. I am filtering some tea right now to spray my whole cactus greenhouse. The other day, I fumigated it with a big double handful of tobacco leaf and stem of Nicotiana rustica, the Native tobacco. it has way more nicotine. I went in there and got dizzy lol. but I'm spraying too and then I'll put a more dilute tea in the pots to kill any bugs that might be in the soil. I'm going to proceed cautiously with that, but I'm pretty sure it won't hurt the plants. So you might try that. I don't know if you are in the stagtes, but there is a place called Leafonly.com that sells tobacco leaf and you can get N. rustica for about 20.00 a pound. A pound is a lot! I'm also going to be growing some Hopi strain of N. rustica for future use.
@@SkillCult Thanks heaps for the reply. I'm in New Zealand and I'm trying to get rid of the bugs in the soil (the next cicada season will start in a few months). Cicadas do do a lot of damage to some trees twigs here but I've noticed that when they lay in citrus they only seem to lay a couple of eggs at a time for some reason and they're hard to see until usually about a year later when the small scar is more obvious (and the eggs are long hatched). I might look for nicotine preparations or similar as (smoking) tobacco is taxed crazy high here and I don't know of any other source. I have five trees that are struggling and, going by experience they have the bugs in the roots. Cheers.
@@Shaun.Stephens Its expensive here too. Try to get some seeds. it's easy to grow. You might be able to buy some kind of natural nicotine pesticide there? Neem is supposed to work in pots to kill stuff. You can probably get that. Cactus people use if for the meally bugs I'm treating.
@@SkillCult Leafonly also sells og scrap for 10.99 a lb ( Floor sweepings) Popular insecticide for farmers so they are out of stock often.
@@SkillCult Thanks. I've seen neem granules that are supposed to work for in-soil treatment of pests but after trying neem oil a few years back with disappointing results I wasn't sure it would work. It's probably the easiest thing to try though. I'll look for tobacco seeds too.
I really dislike the term "biochar". People love to make things seem more complicated and difficult than they really are.
It's baffling to see people talk up terra preta and African dark earth and then insist that you need Biochar™ made in some awesome retort at a bajillion degrees without oxygen. What subsistence agricultural society is going to go to the considerable trouble of making high quality charcoal just to bury it?
Not criticising your use of the term btw. I just hate the fetishization I see in discussions about it.
I'm pretty much on the same page. I think it's okay, but it should cover all char used in the soil, whether it's charged before hand or not. it just is what it is though. Language is a mess. Always has been and always will be.
Although I don't think it's out of the question that they were producing low oxygen char in kilns or clamps. It would be interesting to visit the Amazon 1000 years ago :D
@@SkillCult I'm sure they could have made high quality charcoal, I just think if they did, they'd use it for metal working or cooking. Proper hard charcoal burning is really labour intensive (as I'm sure you know). Why go to that trouble when open burned stuff works? Maybe just as well. Possibly even better as it comes along with ash which might mitigate the nutrient robbing effect of new char?
Seeing circa 1000 ad South America would be pretty cool.
Off topic and minor nitpick, but I think the lye you get from ash is mostly sodium and potassium carbonates not hydroxides. I seem to recall that from learning about making soap and glazes from ash.
Damn, I wish I could sleep. Thanks as always for your videos.
@@manatoa1 Yeah, I hear you. I actually have never looked into whether that topic has been studied or not, but you'd think it would be. It may also have been a hybrid version of smothering for a little slower burn. I mean old methods of charring always involve some oxygen. I'm not sure how you would do an oxygen free retort using anything but metal. They are just very low oxygen. Even with the open piles, you can get some harder char in the center if it's managed well, but it's mostly soft. I tend to favor the idea of gradual building of soil with trash either in catch pits or piles. If all the food waste and un-charrable crop waste went in there, there would likely be no issue with nutrient robbing. If everyone used it as a bathroom too, definitely not! Imagine the fertility of that That just makes sense and it's an elegant solution. so if you burn there too, it keeps things clean and tidy. Imagine big trenches lets say, or dig a good sized hole, everyone throws their stuff in there. Every few days, you burn some wood and brush in it and throw dirt on it to put it out. In the mean time, a few mintues of digging a day and the next hole is ready. In a village, that process could progress very fast. Even on a single extended family scale, it would progress quickly if you looked at it on a scale of decades. I wish I could stay asleep!
Hey Skill, what do you think the purpose of large vines and thornbushes in a forest is? I have a working theory that thornbushes only seem to sprout around dangerous areas, like where a tree branch or tree is hanging and about to fall after a storm, or where something unnatural was dumped there, like the forest knows that could be dangerous for the critters so thorns grow there to prevent the critters from going there. Vines, I can't think of anything, Im starting to think they just parasites leaching tree energy. Im talking Fire Swamp big vines that don't grow anything. Any ideas?
Thorns are for the protection of the plant clearly, but maybe there is some other symbiosis. If forests are intelligent I think it is probably in a much less specific way than that. It seems like thorny plants might have a higher occurence in disturbed areas and weak soil I guess. not sure what would be up with that.
@@SkillCult Yes I agree that thorns on a rose or a fruit producing plant have a clear purpose but why are there thornbushes with seemingly no obvious flower or fruit? Idk maybe they actually do have some very useful part of the plant to protect that isn't a flower or a fruit but we just have forgotten what it was idk? My recently purchased forested land was owned by a general contractor since the 1950s. He left behind all kinds of old materials, skid steer attachments, 1940s vehicles, buried carpets, toilets, scaffolding, etc. Every section of the forest with an abundance of that type of trash is covered in thornbushes that produce no fruit or flower. Weird right? By 'forest protecting the critters' I mean maybe the 'wiser' critters, birds, and insects instinctively know there is something unnatural about a porcelain toilet in the middle of the forest so they eat seeds of plants with thorns on them and then poo around the unnatural thing and those seeds sprout and it serves as a warning/prevention system for the rest of the critters in the forest from going near. The critters prolly don't even know why they do it, its just mother nature working through them idk haha. I got no other explanation for the purpose of thornbushes that do not have flowers or fruits to protect that i can think of. It could just be that they simply do not have a purpose, but thats highly unlikely in my experience with nature. Also thanks for the videos! They very helpful!
Good stuff man, I appreciate the not overthinkng it advice, nature sure doesn't! Also liked the John Michael Greer-isque "don't treat science as a religion" bit. Science has displaced religion for us in many ways. The word invokes indisputable truth and authority in the modern mind, just like religion did for out ancestors, and so people will seek to use it for their own ends, just like they did with religion.
Well put. The problem is not what ones beliefs are and if they are right, the problem is belief itself. It inhibits open inquiry, not just with other people, but internally.
So in theory, you could "load" charcoal with nutrition from ash. And the ash nutrition would last longer used that way in comparison to ash alone... charcoal soaked in a Ash and some compost tea slurry 🤔
Depending on which nutrients the char effectively holds. I just haven't looked into that, but the info is probably out there. With open burns, piles and pits, there is quite a bit of ash that is produced. Some of that probably gets caught. If you used a water tight metal container like a barrel etc, you could maybe quench it and fill the thing up with water to soak in there for a while and sop more up? Seems feasible. If you look up the cone kilns or kon tiki, maybe something like that. Or just a barrel fed from the top until it's full might work.
great stuff as always !