I know my friend and so do people who have been watching my other videos. How to make charcoal in a title does not make it clear to the audience that this video is mainly about making charcoal for soil improvement. Therefore I talk about biochar in the video to indicate that that is what the end product will be. In fact by placing the charcoal into the soil tends to turn charcoal into biochar within 6 month as bacteria will colonize the material. If you want to make charcoal only then inoculation is not needed and if is for the purpose of grilling then all you need to do is use it as is. In the case that you wish to make it into a product for consumption then you will need to steam treat the charcoal first.
It is char and when biologically activated is biochar. I love this bus Sir as you work with so little and make use if the smoke as further heat to char the wood below. Awesome 😁
Nice full demonstration! Its nice to see more folks showing cone pit method. I've done many many sessions with this style and it's a great way to process a tremendous amount of material. Can I share a trick I like to use with mine? I use a long, sharpened, straight stick to poke and agitate the 'heart' of the fire pretty frequently. It helps crumble the char as it burns and mixes the bits needing to burn into the core. I get much less ash, very few brands, and a well crumbled char at the end. Just a thought. Thanks again!
I have really missed seeing your videos on my sub list David. Great to see you back with such a great one. I hope your tropical adventure is as much fun in person as it looks on my screen. All the best to you my friend. :-)
hehe its all good, i enjoy your videos very much....it just caught me off guard, drinking morning coffee, nice calm scene, birds singing, had it on max volume and than baaaaam hehehe
Great video! Thanks for the explanation. I'll have to try the pit method. I usually use an old metal barrel and quench the flame with rain water I catch in buckets off the roof.
nice video loved it . i have a query in india after sugarcane goes to factory what remains are leaves of sugarcanes mostly dried some people keep it as it is while some burn it .Now if we burn it almost its like biochar i hope now can activated em1 or em2 be sprayed on such burnt sugarcane leaves so as to activate biochar and if yes what is the amount of activated em1 or em2 that needs to be used .
If you haven't seen it yet, checkout the video by Primitive Technology on making charcoal. It's an alternative method, which in your case would help you create a larger amount, given that you're limited in how deep you can go.
You weren't joking about the loud music! I didn't have headphones on so I didn't bother lowering the computer speakers.... big mistake!! Btw great video.
Sorry bout that, sure did not want to give people a fright :) What it was is that I am using a new editor. When I made the video, I did not turn up me mic levels, so the music is sure a good bit louder than my voice. Got it figured now ;)
No this kind of charcoal is not food grade. You have to make it in a container build for this purpose and then let in water from the bottom of the container via some kind of tap gadget to put the charcoal out & that steam cleans it.
I have a field I want to plant on with lots of tall grass and bush. is it advisable to burn the field then do my planting? as I want to stick to the no till method and not till out the weed. also on the field burn carbon will be available for the young plants
If you burn the weeds they will just turn to ash if air can get at them. The benefit will not be the same as with biochar. If you have clay soil and you live in a temperate climate, I would till the field as no dig is very difficult, near impossible in that situation. After tilling treat with fungal dominated compost tea to help the soil recover fast. Bio char would also not be needed as the clay will hold the nutrients very well. If you are in a tropical climate with sandy soil then make lots of biochar using the pit method. You can make a much larger pit than seen in this video. Carbon - CO2 is made available to plants directly, by them taking it from the air.
Work With Nature thanks for the reply. I will be doing this in the Caribbean on cane land that was tilled for years. But hasn't been used in the last 10 years. Reason for me burning as its cheaper, and I know that after burning a field plants come back quick. But I might have to till after also just to kill the roots of the bush/weeds, then replenish with a compost tea......only problem it's 9 acres.....that's a big compost tea
Hmm ,why so few people indicate how much wood in (wood burned) - how much charcoal out and how much time it took for one person to produce this charcoal ? Chris ADAM, Ethiopia
Dear Chris Adam, first of all I have no obligation to answer you, but your question is innocent enough. But have to say this :) Hmmm, are you suspicious my friend. To be honest the question never occurred to me that's all or that someone might want to know. But it is a good question and since you asked - You will get anywhere in the region of 80-60% of the amount of wood put in. Charcoal when it is made shrinks. It should take only 2 hours for a big pile to turn into charcoal. In fact the bigger the pile the least time it takes compared to the amount you decide to put in.
there's a lot of confusion in the comments. what is being made here is charcoal, great for cooking and water filters, It becomes biochar when you infuse it with nutrients and minerals. If you put charcoal on your soil it will soak up all the minerals and nutrients. There are a lot of vids showing how to turn charcoal into biochar but this vid should be titled how to make charcoal.
Biochar vs Charcoal it´s exactly the same base product. After being activated/seasoned with bacteria, compost, pee, etc. get´s the the fancy name. ;-) If you buy it "activated" for filter usage (ex. water filters, etc) than in most cases, assumes the name "activated carbon". ehehehe we got love the modern times with all these fancy names. Cheers :-)
Don't feel bad about standing dead trees. They contribute carbon into the atmosphere. Turning them to char is the absolute best thing you can do for the environment!! 💖💖
Because you add bio to it and stick it into the soil. Next video. Not all charcoal is ideal as a biochar. But these are more because of environmental reasons. Like where did we get our charcoal from in order to trap carbon in the soil. A live tree or from a dead one, also from byproducts is good. But you for sure have a point there Graham and I totally agree with you. I would rather just call it charcoal to.
Graham R Dyer - From where I come we like to keep things simple for me it´s still charcoal, no fancy names. LOL No matter how many times you pee on it or add into compost, etc. :-)
sorry to dissapoint you guys, but this is not biochar. this is just regular char. Biochar needs to be done through a process called PYROLYSIS which is the carbonization in high temperature and absence of oxygen. this is certainly not the case.
People should be using the energy while making charcoal and biochar by cooking generating electricity and heating homes! Way to many people wasting the energy only making charcoal! I use a woodgas stove and save the biochar, if I had an engine I would run the wood gas through it and generate electricity and heat for my home and make biochar for the garden! It should only be called biochar when utilizing all uses at the same time in an environmentally friendly way! Biochar is about sequestering carbon by cooking while you make it istead of using gas or electricity! You could make a sealed solar biochar maker and pipe the gas into a generator!
Agree with you ;) On the farm we do not have the uses at the moment for such a system. We do not need to cook and we have much more need of electricity than the biochar making process could give us. We also need the charcoal to hold the nutrients as we have only sand as a growing medium. If it was my farm and I would live there for good then first thing I would get into. But we have tons of work doing the seed saving project and are terribly under funded. But you are right. We humans can use all the free energy too.
Work With Nature Yeah I suppose it's difficult to utilize, the only thing I can think of is making chipotle, smoked paprika smoked garlic and wood vinegar at the same time oh and distilling moonshine haha!
Ehmm.. no, that's not bio-char, that's charcoal.
Making bio-char out of charcoal is a different process.
I know my friend and so do people who have been watching my other videos. How to make charcoal in a title does not make it clear to the audience that this video is mainly about making charcoal for soil improvement. Therefore I talk about biochar in the video to indicate that that is what the end product will be. In fact by placing the charcoal into the soil tends to turn charcoal into biochar within 6 month as bacteria will colonize the material. If you want to make charcoal only then inoculation is not needed and if is for the purpose of grilling then all you need to do is use it as is. In the case that you wish to make it into a product for consumption then you will need to steam treat the charcoal first.
Fair point. Thanks for the reply.
With pleasure Bush Doctor ;)
It is char and when biologically activated is biochar.
I love this bus Sir as you work with so little and make use if the smoke as further heat to char the wood below.
Awesome 😁
Coal is a bad word to Lefties.
Nice full demonstration! Its nice to see more folks showing cone pit method. I've done many many sessions with this style and it's a great way to process a tremendous amount of material. Can I share a trick I like to use with mine? I use a long, sharpened, straight stick to poke and agitate the 'heart' of the fire pretty frequently. It helps crumble the char as it burns and mixes the bits needing to burn into the core. I get much less ash, very few brands, and a well crumbled char at the end. Just a thought. Thanks again!
Nice full demonstration! Thank you
This is absolutely brilliant. Thank you for sharing.
Great job! I guess I need to find out more about this . Thanks for sharing...
Ohh , nice! It looks so easy and much cheaper than other methods I've seen that require barrels or cans... cool! Gonna try it for sure!
looks like a great way to make it .i will give it a try thanks so much.
Thanks for sharing. I'm just starting to look into biochar and this seems an easy way to make it. I'll give it a try 👍
Do, it is also prob the best way to do it. As you retain most of the material for charcoal.
I have really missed seeing your videos on my sub list David. Great to see you back with such a great one. I hope your tropical adventure is as much fun in person as it looks on my screen. All the best to you my friend. :-)
Thanks Aaron,
Good to hear from you ;)
Cool, way easier way to make biochar. Thank you!
Great minds think alike, very nice brother
Excellent
damn, i just found my remote to turn the volume up, then the song hit at the acceleration timelaps
.
good job
2:04 headphones users be prepared......i jumped
It was prob not very funny for you, but when I read your comment, it had me laughing out loud. Sorry about that Aveotint.
hehe its all good, i enjoy your videos very much....it just caught me off guard, drinking morning coffee, nice calm scene, birds singing, had it on max volume and than baaaaam hehehe
aveotint italiano
(〃＞＿＜;〃) all users lol. I had to turn my volume on the phone down each time a montage began. xD. Thanks so much for the amazing video!
Great video! Thanks for the explanation. I'll have to try the pit method. I usually use an old metal barrel and quench the flame with rain water I catch in buckets off the roof.
That sounds like a good plan too. I will need to be out on the lookout for a barrel. Cheers Warren.
Metal barrel is the best method. If you have a lid, you can skip the quenching part (if you want dry charcoal).
Nice
nice video loved it . i have a query in india after sugarcane goes to factory what remains are leaves of sugarcanes mostly dried some people keep it as it is while some burn it .Now if we burn it almost its like biochar i hope now can activated em1 or em2 be sprayed on such burnt sugarcane leaves so as to activate biochar and if yes what is the amount of activated em1 or em2 that needs to be used .
thank you so much for the warning i headed it and turned it down hehe
If you haven't seen it yet, checkout the video by Primitive Technology on making charcoal. It's an alternative method, which in your case would help you create a larger amount, given that you're limited in how deep you can go.
Will do John, thanks for the tip.
Good soil
You weren't joking about the loud music! I didn't have headphones on so I didn't bother lowering the computer speakers.... big mistake!! Btw great video.
Ha yes got to watch that in future.
what a lush tropical forest!
where is this place?
i am guess South Africa or Magascar or some location in the indian ocean?
Hi live in kerala and right here we have clay soil how do I create a better biochar?
Wouldn’t a slope sided trench allow you to handle limbs?
nice for making ashes
same chaco ?
👍👍👍💖💟💖
omg almost woke up the whole house jeez
Sorry bout that, sure did not want to give people a fright :) What it was is that I am using a new editor. When I made the video, I did not turn up me mic levels, so the music is sure a good bit louder than my voice. Got it figured now ;)
charcoal = big chunks used in the stove
biochar = ground fine used in the garden
same thing basically !?
so what has your plant yields been since you have started using bio-char?
Excellent, less compost is needed. I will do a trial soon.
+Work With Nature - Organic Gardening, Beekeeping & Seed Saving
That's awesome, be sure to have a with and without comparison
Sure will do and some ;)
@@workwithnature i run my biochar through my compost piles. I have unlimited amounts of goat and chicken manure ao im up to my ears in compost
Thank you for sharing your video, very educational. Now is it safe to filter with water an to eat ?
No this kind of charcoal is not food grade. You have to make it in a container build for this purpose and then let in water from the bottom of the container via some kind of tap gadget to put the charcoal out & that steam cleans it.
O ok, do you know how to make it, and you think you can make a video about it? I know a lot of people would love to learn about it too. Thank you
I could, but not at the moment as I am really way to busy. But thanks for asking and will do it as soon as I have a bit more time :)
Thank you so much. God bless you
I have a field I want to plant on with lots of tall grass and bush. is it advisable to burn the field then do my planting? as I want to stick to the no till method and not till out the weed.
also on the field burn carbon will be available for the young plants
If you burn the weeds they will just turn to ash if air can get at them. The benefit will not be the same as with biochar. If you have clay soil and you live in a temperate climate, I would till the field as no dig is very difficult, near impossible in that situation. After tilling treat with fungal dominated compost tea to help the soil recover fast. Bio char would also not be needed as the clay will hold the nutrients very well. If you are in a tropical climate with sandy soil then make lots of biochar using the pit method. You can make a much larger pit than seen in this video. Carbon - CO2 is made available to plants directly, by them taking it from the air.
Work With Nature thanks for the reply. I will be doing this in the Caribbean on cane land that was tilled for years. But hasn't been used in the last 10 years. Reason for me burning as its cheaper, and I know that after burning a field plants come back quick. But I might have to till after also just to kill the roots of the bush/weeds, then replenish with a compost tea......only problem it's 9 acres.....that's a big compost tea
how long do you need to burn the wood?
When the flames of your previous layer of wood dies down then you have to add the the next layer.
You really needed to Quincy it with the coldest water to shatter the charcoal it’s not really biochar until it’s charged
This is almost scary how it's like looking at myself.
Do you use Green wood?
No usually the wood is seasoned very well. If I recall this was a standing dead tree so it was very dry.
level your volume plz
Hmm ,why so few people indicate how much wood in (wood burned) - how much charcoal out
and how much time it took for one person to produce this charcoal ? Chris ADAM, Ethiopia
Dear Chris Adam, first of all I have no obligation to answer you, but your question is innocent enough. But have to say this :) Hmmm, are you suspicious my friend.
To be honest the question never occurred to me that's all or that someone might want to know. But it is a good question and since you asked - You will get anywhere in the region of 80-60% of the amount of wood put in. Charcoal when it is made shrinks. It should take only 2 hours for a big pile to turn into charcoal. In fact the bigger the pile the least time it takes compared to the amount you decide to put in.
Ok, :-) so where are these beautiful Bananas growing? Costa Rica?
Dude where are you now?
there's a lot of confusion in the comments. what is being made here is charcoal, great for cooking and water filters, It becomes biochar when you infuse it with nutrients and minerals. If you put charcoal on your soil it will soak up all the minerals and nutrients. There are a lot of vids showing how to turn charcoal into biochar but this vid should be titled how to make charcoal.
do u need to put the bag over it?
Not really, you could just put it out with water. I just do that to have it dry, for making it easy to do the powdering.
alright so what is the difference between biochar and charcoal?
Biochar vs Charcoal it´s exactly the same base product.
After being activated/seasoned with bacteria, compost, pee, etc. get´s the the fancy name. ;-)
If you buy it "activated" for filter usage (ex. water filters, etc) than in most cases, assumes the name "activated carbon". ehehehe we got love the modern times with all these fancy names.
Cheers :-)
Is this india?
That, is sandy soil. Makes you wonder how it got in the jungle, eh?
looks like the jungle came out on top.
Don't feel bad about standing dead trees. They contribute carbon into the atmosphere. Turning them to char is the absolute best thing you can do for the environment!! 💖💖
Its not often i hear someone who understands the importance of carbon for life to thrive. Cheers
Thanks but it’s just charcoal until it’s been inoculated. Then it becomes ‘biochar’. Great video though. We’ll dones
Its Charcoal ? So why is it now called "biochar" ??
Because you add bio to it and stick it into the soil. Next video.
Not all charcoal is ideal as a biochar. But these are more because of environmental reasons. Like where did we get our charcoal from in order to trap carbon in the soil. A live tree or from a dead one, also from byproducts is good.
But you for sure have a point there Graham and I totally agree with you. I would rather just call it charcoal to.
Graham R Dyer - From where I come we like to keep things simple for me it´s still charcoal, no fancy names. LOL No matter how many times you pee on it or add into compost, etc. :-)
Charcoal & Biochar MADE EASY
First step is you chop down a tree... ????!!!!
sorry to dissapoint you guys, but this is not biochar. this is just regular char.
Biochar needs to be done through a process called PYROLYSIS which is the carbonization in high temperature and absence of oxygen. this is certainly not the case.
People should be using the energy while making charcoal and biochar by cooking generating electricity and heating homes!
Way to many people wasting the energy only making charcoal!
I use a woodgas stove and save the biochar, if I had an engine I would run the wood gas through it and generate electricity and heat for my home and make biochar for the garden!
It should only be called biochar when utilizing all uses at the same time in an environmentally friendly way!
Biochar is about sequestering carbon by cooking while you make it istead of using gas or electricity!
You could make a sealed solar biochar maker and pipe the gas into a generator!
Agree with you ;)
On the farm we do not have the uses at the moment for such a system. We do not need to cook and we have much more need of electricity than the biochar making process could give us. We also need the charcoal to hold the nutrients as we have only sand as a growing medium. If it was my farm and I would live there for good then first thing I would get into. But we have tons of work doing the seed saving project and are terribly under funded. But you are right. We humans can use all the free energy too.
Work With Nature Yeah I suppose it's difficult to utilize, the only thing I can think of is making chipotle, smoked paprika smoked garlic and wood vinegar at the same time oh and distilling moonshine haha!
learn how to level out the music. the level it is at takes away from your presentation. otherwise, thanks.