Easy Biochar, Top Lit Open Burn Brush Pile Style
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- A super easy, accessible way for average folks to make some charcoal as a soil amendment with whatever brush you have lying about. No need for a kiln or retort or anything fancy like that. Also produces very little smoke, so it's a good way to do burn piles anyway.
Biochar newbies might be intimidated by the technical talk and array of different devices and techniques for producing charcoal. While exploration of all options and details is awesome and should continue among biochar enthusiast geeks, the average gardener doesn't have to make things that complicated. This method and burning in a pit in layers are both very accessible and don't require any special equipment. They can also be scaled up from small to large amounts of feedstock or various sizes. Save your brush and scrap wood and give it a try!
BIOCHAR PLAYLIST: • BIOCHAR= Permanent Soi...
Biochar in 19th century America and Europe: turkeysong.word...
Kelpie's Biochar site: www.backyardbio...
An article by Kelpie on this method which she calls TLOB Top Lit Open Burn: tcia.org/digita...
New England Biochar: newenglandbioch...
Support on / skillcult has been critical in keeping me experimenting and making content. If you want to help me help others, this is probably the best way to do it. Thank you Patrons for supporting the mission!
Donations can also be sent via PayPal @: www.paypal.com...
Buy less, but buy it through my links! Shopping through my affiliate links generates revenue for me, at no extra cost to you, click links here, or go to my Amazon Store page: skillcult.com/a... But seriously, buy less, do more.
Standard gear I recommend. I either use or have used all of it.
Council Tool Boys Axe: amzn.to/3z0muqI
Bahco Farmer's File: amzn.to/3Hbdhij
King two sided sharpening stone: amzn.to/32EX1XC
Silky f180 saw: amzn.to/3yZzM71
ARS 10 foot long reach pruner: amzn.to/3esETmM
Victorinox grafting/floral knife: amzn.to/3Jki1E9
Wiebe 12” fleshing tool: amzn.to/3sB0qSl
Atlas Elbow Gloves: amzn.to/3FwB5g6
BOOKS:
The Axe Book, by Dudley Cook: amzn.to/32kx7sN
Bushcraft, by Mors Kochanski: amzn.to/32q2rpT
Subscribe to my channel for more insightful Self Reliance related content: www.youtube.com... Click the bell icon to be notified of new content. Subscribing doesn’t mean that much on it’s own.
Blog and website: www.skillcult.com/blog
Instagram and Facebook @SkillCult
This is probably the most underrated video I have watched this half of the year. Thanks for taking all the time to try this, record it, edit it, et al. This is very valuable and I am now thinking I will employ this to fortify a very undernourished back yard that was previously pine forest half a decade back. Thanks.
Thanks Dobrovik. I think it's just not that relevant to most people. Also, the whole idea of charcoal as a soil amendment just hasn't clicked with a lot of gardeners yet. I'm excited about it obviously. I think anyone with thin depleted soils should be experimenting with char as a possible way to permanently increase water and nutrient retention. Also to replace rock. If a soil is 30% rock, sift it and add 30% charcoal. When I tell people try to encourage people to try it though, they just sort of glaze over. But, they'll spend all kinds of energy digging in organic matter that will be mostly gone in a year or two, if not sooner. I really wanted to make these two videos on simple methods of biochar production to remove any real excuses not to just try it. It's only by experimenting that we'll really find out for sure what kind of benefits we can get out of it in the long run. Much of the information out there is directly or indirectly from people who make a living on biochar, either consulting/educating or selling it. That doesn't mean that they are necessarily a poor source of information, but I'm generally more interested in the results of farmers and gardeners over the next decade or so, and hearing their experience. I think my main message here, which I don't think I really get across verbally that well, is that this is so simple that there is hardly any excuse NOT to just turn a burn pile into charcoal instead of ashes. I'm somewhat partial to the trench method, which is also quite simple, but they are each suited to different types of material.
I've seen a few of your biochar videos & they left me wondering, as life often makes me do, but my thought was..... instead of digging a trench for that particular method, why not push earth up around the log pile to create a trench-type environment. No. I'm not trying to be the smart-ass on the block but I was considering the trench & then thought about digging it & then getting the product out of it.....but then I have a tractor to assist, which you might not have. My humble thought was to build the pile and push earth / dirt around it & after the burn pull the earth back to where it was. Again, this is not a lecture, it's more a case of sometimes we have tools available but might miss an opportunity to use them to advantage & I am still choosing between options & thoughts.... but thanks for the videos, much appreciated.
I think around here it would be as much or more work with a shovel, but I can see your tractor mind working lol. I do often pile up the dirt along the edges to raise the lip, especially if there is a downhill side.
Is it possible to dig a pit and toss it in there to keep the ends contained for less maintenance and less risk of fire spreading?
@SkillCult You may be right about the sub-burned volitiles in the char. In order to increase porosity the most, you want biochar temps to reach at least 500C. If it does not, the presence of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin may be an issue as they can clog the pores (however if microbes digest that, the pores may reopen.)
I have read two old accounts about using creosote from woodsmoke as a fertilizer. I think most people would consider it harmful to add to the soil, but those accounts are pretty neat. One is using the clay lining of a sort of flue in a wood heated masonry stove. The unit would be demolished every so many years and the creosote saturated masonry actually sold as fertilizer because it was so valuable. In fact, the demolishing and rebuilding was to get the stuff, not because it needed rebuilding. That was in Farmers of Fourty Centuries. The other one was in some Islands off britain somewhere. They replace the thatched roofs yearly or every few years, I don't recall, and harvested the thatch for fertilizer. The thatch was made loose enough that the smoke from pen cooking fires sifted through it and that provided an important source of fertilizer. That was from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Price. Of course whatever is left in the char might not be the same stuff as those. Whether ultimate porosity is a worthwhile goal or not I wouldn't know. All of my early char experiments, and all of them since for that matter, are with low temp, open burn, soft char, stuff from the woodstove, open firepits, open burns and stuff like that. If someone showed me a ten year trial using exactly the same wood burned in different ways and the high temp, hard, high porosity charcoal performed better, I'd still have to do a cost benefit analysis against production, convenience and availability of raw material v.s. how much better it performed. I think it would be great if someone did that BTW, but whatever data came out of it would have to be subject to that kind of cost benefit analysis to be used to best advantage in real life.
@@SkillCult You would want to maximize porosity as much as possible because that is what gives biochar its water retention abilities and cation exchange capacity. Plus, nutrients can actually be held inside the pores through capillary forces as well. Biochar retort kilns can be expensive so I can understand why you would do an open fire like the one in the video. If I were to make a recommendation, I would use a pit so that the soil can increase the temp to burn off the lignin and other compounds. I heard somewhere that using rotten dry wood works best because of the pathways that fungal hyphae make when they decompose the wood.
Still theory though. I understand the concept, but it's not a guarantee that it is translatable to real world result until that is observed. I'm not that familiar with the science, so there may be some compelling evidence out there and I just don't know about it. I do use a pit for less brushy wood. The beauty of this is that it's very similar to, and not much more work than, a burn pile and there is no digging or other prep, I can just burn close to the source of brush. The brush like this especially is hard to handle and move around a lot. I just had to move a bunch to a burn pile site and it adds a lot of work. Given the amount of brush I have and need to deal with in some way, whether this way, or some other way, and how well open burn char has worked for me. I have a pretty low incentive to change anything right now unless I'm going to do some controlled trials. Even then, I would probably choose to do that with more sustantial wood than this. To do much better with this stuff, I think you would need a chipper.
At this point, do you do this type of burning any more or is it all cone / trench pit style? I've found the cone pit or trench pit to be incredibly effective at converting material to charcoal and can move along pretty quickly when you get a feel for it. I'd be interested if there are still applications where you use this system...
I do both. This is better for tangly smaller stuff I find. I don't have to cut it up. some limbs will lay in the trench well, but some won't so much. It takes a while to make a good stack, but it burns very fast once you light it. I still like it, but if the wood is good for the trench, I use the trench. If you haven't tried it, do give it a try. I'm doing several this year on remote sites with oak brush. Gotta have the water to put it out though...
DC marine battery and a dc water pump come in handy big time.
Awesome video. Thanks for creating it and sharing. I recently cleared out trees and brush about 200 ft. around the house. This left me with 8 huge piles of brush/tree/wet/dry combination of it all. Do you think your method will work for this situation? Mostly concerned about the fresh cut trees not turning to biochar. Thank again.
I'm not sure if it will work with green brush, but it might especially mixed with dry stuff. I'd say give it a try if you have to burn now, otherwise, pile it up and burn next fall.
Great video! Some production/ watchability tips.
- Narrate/ voice over additional information as opposed to throwing a text overlay.
- Avoid applying too much text when speaking; add it as a voice over with some nice silent footage.
- Try Introducing some music, there's lots of free licence tunes on UA-cam
Hope this helps! 😊
Thanks for the tips. This was one of my earliest videos. I'd do it somewhat different now. I still use text over voice, but try to keep it short when I can.
Nice one, bro :-)
I loved watching the big burn and have enjoyed your more recent soil improvement vids. You're a knowledgeable fellow; appreciate you sharing your content
Does the type of wood matter? Just curious because we have all types in Wisconsin. I do know that walnut falls into the avoid it side. Something concerning the acidity or something. I know it is hard to grow much of anything by black walnut trees
I'm sure it does to some extent. I don't think you have to worry about it though. Just burn what you have. Walnut will be fine I'm sure. I've used the sawdust in my garden and some plants seem to get along with it okay, but once it's charred it will just be carbon anyway. The only wood I don't char is stuff with paint or treated wood and stuff like that.
If we replicate the Ecologic Services of the extinct megafauna, since 7 billion of us makes us the new Megafauna, then we could build back Soil Carbon with massive increases of Net Primary Production. An ecology not seen for 12,900 years.
An Ecology not limited by Phosphorous, Sodium & lost Soil-C.
A great synergy of the work restoring mine scarred lands & developing consumer, Horticultural & Agricultural markets.
Biochar systems have so many market applications yet to be cultivated; "Carbon Fodder" feeds for Livestock in the EU, Australia & Japan, Plant Chemical Communications, (plant signaling), even Char building materials such as Biochar-Plasters which block Cellphone signals, the potential markets are massive.
CoolPlanet's investors & CEOs project (assert) that they will be the first Trillion Dollar Company, based on their $1.50/Gal. cost to produce Bio-Gasoline. Biochar the by product.
For a complete review of the current science & industry applications of Biochar please see my 2014 Soil Science Society of America Biochar presentation. How thermal conversion technologies can integrate and optimize the recycling of valuable nutrients while providing energy and building soil carbon, I believe it brings together both sides of climate beliefs.
A reconciling of both Gods' and mans' controlling hands.
Agricultural Geo - Engineering; Past, Present & Future
Across scientific disciplines carbons are finding new utility to solve our most vexing problems
2014 SSSA Presentation;
Agricultural Geo-Engineering; Past, Present & Future.
www.soils.org/files/am/ecosystems/kinght.pdf
Excellent demonstration. I need to do this on my farm - gotta revitalize some garden beds.
I've grown to prefer the trench method ua-cam.com/video/I1jAo7qd_Q8/v-deo.html , but this is better for big piles of tangly stuff.
I'd love to see you experimenting with it more.
I watched your trench video as well. Would like to try it but the clay here is filled with rocks... digging would take me a couple of days. I'll probably open burn to begin with.
The natives here make charcoal in half-open pits, then smother it with wet brush/grass. I've got a guy here that's going to show me the method soon. They use it for cooking, though. When I asked if they put any in the garden I got a blank look.
I'd love to see a video on how they do the charcoal there. These open quick methods make crappy charcoal for actually burning. It tends to be soft. I want to make this type of charcoal, ua-cam.com/video/u00ZRvQv7vY/v-deo.html called white charcoal or Bintochan, but I have a build up some sort of kiln. I might try to do it on a micro scale first to figure it out. This is the stuff to use for cooking and industry.
They take a few days or a week to do it here. I will report on it and gather all the info I can share.
THAT charcoal in the video - whoa!
Thank you. Great video. I was laughing at the zoom in on the flames and then the long written portion. So good.
A very well thought out and informative video. Easy, low tech methods FTW brother!
If the goal is to turn waste biomass into charcoal, I'm convinced that direct methods such as this are the most efficient. You don't need retorts, kilns or any other device to make charcoal. This is something that most people can do and you can scale up or down. Good job, Thanks.
snookmeister55 I think the accessibility is really key, regardless of the quality. There certainly are differences in the character of the charcoal from different methods, but better or worse (I wouldn't know), it gets people making charcoal without that much more effort than they already spend burning the stuff to ashes.
started burning my camp fires top down and its so good
Hi there. Just wanted to say thank you for sharing your method. I used to produce biochar with my Kontiki style Kiln until I read this study: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0961953417301356 which basically says producing biochar this way is at best carbon neutral because of methane used in the process and not properly burnt. So I am guessing your method won't produce a lot of methane because oxygen is there and a strong flame burning whatever methane still originates. Not sure you really care about that stuff, but to me this was/ is a big part of my motivation to produce biochar in the first place...
My big concern is a high ph for agricultural use...terra preta, thus quenching with water to remove the potassium hydroxide. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta From researching terra preta there's a lot discussion on how primitive farmers got the charcoal so small...from our experience the crops themselves break it down by roots penetrating the charcoal itself and then splitting it. We don't want to wait for hundreds of years, so we're cheating and running it through a chipper with what I think is 1/4 inch grate.
We're using a ring of half split logs 1 - 1.5 feet tall and about a 3 foot ring diameter (burn area) for a more rapid burn...thus reducing ash production. We'll try and video this method. Open burning, without a wood fire ring only applies heat from the bottom and lets the burning material fall out. The wood fire ring method applies heat from all side except the top, prevents burning material from spreading out on the ground and provides a little heat protection for the fire tender. The ring can be adjusted to greater diameters. Also the standing spilt logs need a maximum thickness to stand...once they get to thin and start falling over they go into the ring to make more charcoal.
I never worry about the potassium hydroxide and lime in ashes since we
have very acid soils. Also, I find that it is pretty transient and
washed out easily. The char may have a more permanent ph modifying
effect I hear, which in our soil, again, I can only see as good news. I
don't really understand your method, but if you do a video or something
let me know. I'm curious. Thanks.
Very much a law of diminishing returns situation. As happens so often, there’s an easy process with a useful result, and a much more complicated process with a very high rate of return. Where your place your individual projects along that spectrum is a decision to be made based on the unique circumstances of each situation.
I use a similar technique but I put the sticks in a windrow. That way you can rake out the char that has had the flame go out once it's burned through. I then simply put that char out with a hose while the windrow continues to burn. It's a very controlled way of doing it.
I met someone else who said they do it that way as well. maybe I'll try it on the next batch. Thanks.
I started a fire with very large chunks of hard oak, ranging from 12 to 16 inches in diameter about a foot long each. Then I transferred it to a large stainless steel cooking vat with a lid that didn't quite seal at all and covered what holes I could with mud. Required excessive soaking after burning for a day. As a first attempt to make charcoal, I was pleasantly surprised at the yield. Thick chunks of wood blackened all the way through. Not much ash. Currently soaking the product in a compost tea because why not. In no rush due to the weather at the moment. Still working on getting the big pieces broken down. Excited to use it. Did use small batch at a 6 inch depth only, after it had soaked in some fish fertilizer for a few hours. The plants took off. Could just be the fertilizer. Still though, better results than the beds with fertilizer and no charcoal. Thanks for getting your biochar vids out, you got me started
Sounds good That is pretty close to most traditional charcoal making. Some start, then cover, others start in one spot and it spreads.
Does biochar pair nicely with hugelkultur in place of the buried wood?
Very different effects, but I think it would be a much better system to use part charred and part uncharred. Hugelkulture is very temporary effect compared to char, so it is a way to incorporate a permanent effect with the same amount of work. I'm not sure why everyone is not doing that already, but they probably will be soon, because it just makes sense.
This year, before I learned about the “Back-to-Eden” no-till method, I had already dug out a 4’ X 8’ pit for a Hugelkultur garden bed. That was work! Then I decided to use the pit to burn a big* brush pile and spread out the burned charcoal and half burned wood and buried it all with the pile of dirt dug from that bed. Then I planted some strawberry plants in the soil and then covered the whole bed with fresh wood chips salvaged from a neighbor’s tree removal service. I have no idea what to expect from this experiment!
* I didn’t really measure, but it might have been between 5 and 10% of volume of garden.
If you are not near water, maybe you could build a box to snuff out the embers. Line the inside of a plywood box with mineral wool. The mineral wool should keep the plywood from burning. Add some wheels and it should be quite portable.
I would use a pit and cover it with sheet metal and seal the edges.
This might come in handy in the near future, cheers.
I know a few folks who are doing low-tech bio-char trials with WSU up here in the San Juan Islands and I've been learning quite a bit from them. Luckily the more I/they are learning, the simpler making it gets, rather than making more and more complex retorts. Personally I think it needs to be accessible enough for every person with a backyard to do. We need to be doing this on the landscape scale. Contact me if you ever want to have a chat about it, I've been using it with a lot of my clients (I'm a permaculture designer). Great videos man, good stuff.
I've been using char as bulking material for our composting toilet (5 gal bucket system) which immediately charges the char with nutrients obviously, and the subsequent composting inoculates it. This also eliminates any chances of odor, although that's never a problem. The biochar is automatically added to my soil whenever I compost then, not an extra step (don't use around acid loving plants).
I'm currently searching for a large barrel to do top-down burning in. It seems the best balance of low-tech and oxygen deprivation. With that method you do essentially what you've done here, but inside a barrel (no need to manage fire this way either). As it burns down you can add more fuel. When you think you're at the sweet spot of char:ash production than you pour water over it and drop a sheet metal lid custom cut to the barrel into it to smother (old roofing works great). The burning creates what's called a "fire wall" that consumes all the oxygen before it can reach the fuel via the top. Barrels that are roughly even height:width seem to work best.
I have other friends who prefer to do it in a large pit, achieving the same effect.
+BeSatori I'm glad someone is doing trials with simple method char. I agree that accessibility is king when it comes to this. I actually prefer using a trench which I have another video on. It seems a little cleaner and it just appeals to me more for some reason. It seems to leave less creosote type by-product, but I'm not sure if that is good or not. The best thing about it is there is almost no cutting required for the type of brush a lot of us end up with access to. Really tangly twiggy stuff gets burned like this.
You can find someone that says anything is good or bad in the biochar world and I don't believe anyone. What got me off my ass and experimenting more was reading this research material I compilled from the 19th century. Definitely read that when you get some time. It is very interesting stuff. I need to do a video on those early accounts skillcult.com/blog/2012/05/18/some-citations-on-biochar-in-europe-and-america-in-the-19th-century
Re: acid loving plants, I'm curious about the long term alkalizing effect of the charcoal v.s. the short term ash effect. I've read that it is a permanent effect. Know anything about that? I've got trial garden beds in that are anywhere from 5% to 33% to see what happens. Now I'm concentrating on tree pits and thinking about systems and methods for large scale field improvement. I think we are on the same page with that. We can talk and bat around some ideas sometime. I'll be writing and doing more videos on that too soon. I'd be burning today if I didn't have to go to town, grrrrr....
+SkillCult and thanks for all your thoughtful comments.
BeSatori Charcoal is charcoal, a Lot of recepies, same product. Just change the recepies. I'm brasilian and because we have a popular food that require charcoal, a Lot of poor people actually produce charcoal whith low thecnics till this days. In very dry soil they make burried in dust, in places whith water, they make some kind of iglus with mud/moister soil, and full of Woods. For biochar even the leaves cam be used right? After that when are really really hot, they close the dor and forget about 3 days. It's so pratical,eficient, make a lot. The "carvoeira" is reutilizable. You can also make structures whith soil together the sistem, to cook bread, pizza, potatoes, whatever you whant in that three days.(never use concret, just soil) Search for "carvão". "Fazer carvão". Don't have subtitle but you'l understand and like. Good Luck! :-)
THANKSfor the helpful vedio
Hey, this video has been an inspiration for me and I've made many (more than 10?) piles now and lots of bags of charcoal. I have recently started teaching people how to make charcoal using this and other simple methods - do you mind if I show people this method? I suppose I could post a link to your video on my facebook page
That's awesome Dale! Please do spread as widely as possible of course. My other video, Stop Burning Brush has 129k views now, so I hope there are more converts out there.
SkillCult I will do, it's been such a good video. A group All Black Earth at (soilcarbon.org.nz/ ) are also into it too. I'll spread the word
I like your enthusiasm. First I am apologizing for my English since it is not my native language. When you make a Biochar, my suggestion it's to make a hole like you do when you make a compost.
It is much more effective and you can get the bigger amount of Biochar from the same pile of wood, plus that you don't need water at all. Only what you would need to do it's cover it up with a dearth.
I don't want to write a long comment, but I will give you one hint.
Secret of Terra preta it's filtering. The same thing it's with the black soil in Africa.
Greetings from Croatia.
I use a trench. I like it because I don't have to cut any of the wood to fit, like in a round pit. I prefer the trench and use it more, but I use this for the tangled brush that doesn't fit in a pit well. It is fairly efficient and really easy to throw together. Probably 3/4 of the wood gets burned in the trench though. I prefer not to mix with dirt though, so I use a hose for now.
well you dont have to cut wood on pieces, your hole have to be wide enough for most of the branches you did cut off. If some of the branch are wider, you just need to break it on half. You dont have to worry for the dearth that will get mixed with the Biochar. Because it will be in such a small amount that you will not have to worry about quality of your Terra preta. You will also have a one plus more which its easier to deal with a forest fire only difference its technique in the feeding fire, but I assume you know that.
I burn mostly branches. Using an 8 foot diameter pit I still found it a little awkward to fit the wood in neatly. I can dig a narrow 18 inch deep trench with much less work too. It's easier to cover the lower layer of coals in a trench with the wood aligned long way since the wood is mostly long and somewhat straight. In a round pit, I have to put in the long pieces, then find shorter pieces that fit on the sides to fill in the gaps in order to cover the previous coal layer. It's somewhat like trying to fit square furniture in a round house. The longest pieces I put part way in and burn them off (or even sticking our both ends) then throw in the ends after they burn off. I almost never have to cut my brush down because of that. I put in stuff with leaves and twigs, but if the brush is tangled and grows in all directions, it doesn't seat well into a trench or pit, so I use the open pile method for that stuff. I find the open pile to be reasonably efficient, but I prefer the trench whenever the wood is suited to it. I have burned in both pits and trenches now and can find no advantage to a round pit over a rectangular trench shape. I find that the trench is more versatile and easier to load. But, again. I'm burning mostly long limbs and random unmilled wood. I think the cones and pits are okay for lumber cut offs and other saw cut wood, though I can't see any advantage so far. I do as little cutting as I can get away with. Between those two methods I'm pretty well covered wherever I have water.
I understand
until another time greeting
I have never made biochar but I do burn my yard waste sometimes and use as fertilizer on the garden. I saw a website where a woman said charcoal is created at temps. less than six hundred degrees, biochar at six hundred to 1000 degrees. Biochar treats the soil for your lifespan and more. Charcoal does not. You may be a supergenius of biochar, I don't know, but I think you just made charcoal?
I could dispute those terms, and there is a valid argument that it's neither, but there isn't really any point, it's just semantics and words are not things. Whatever it is, it's black charred stuff, and it seems to work. I've made probably a couple thousand gallons of it and used quite a bit, though only a little under controlled test type conditions. One bed I did as a test seems sometimes show about 400 to 600 % better growth in some crops, with 10% of this easy to make type of char. But the main thing is it's accessible. People think about making char for years, but with this and the trench method I use, they start making it, because all you need is a shovel and hose. Given that charcoal from campfires is found that is thousands of years old, and that I and others use this type of char seemingly successfully, I'm highly suspicious that a conclusion that only high temp, low oxygen char is a long term soil amendment.
@@SkillCult I guess that means there is no test you can do on a chunk of the stuff in your hand to see if it rates as biochar or charcoal? The terms make a big difference, if biochar is what it is cracked up to be. I trust it is. I read the old accounts from the 19th century.
Is chipped brush too small to burn into bio char? Will it turn to ash too fast? Thanks for input!
Definitely not a top lit pile like this. I think you might be able to do it in a trench or cone pit though. Never tried. I would look into TLUD's. This one looks good.
Have you tried the top down burn of wet brush when it is raining? If it works, this could be done in forests without risk of starting a forest fire.
This video shows wet logs burning well in a top down campfire. ua-cam.com/video/Ndonnv8iHhU/v-deo.html
This was the wettest pile I've ever done and it was kind of a pain. It was only wet on the outside edges, but it really slowed things down and caused a need for more maintenance and manipulation. It was raining right before and on and off through this burn.
@@SkillCult What's the greenest brush pile that you would bother lighting up for coal? Just curious.
Thanks for posting this useful video.
Im thoroughly enjoyin the biochar and the grafting series. Im tryin to get my boss to let me experiment the whole biochar soil enrichment but hes afraid it wont work. Down here the soil is very sulphur heavy, and very acidic. He spends thousands a year on sending samples to the lab to get the nutrients he needs into his soil. Anywho, he keeps makin excuses why he wont let me try it out. I think hes afraid that he might lose money and onion production due to me wantin to try it on a large scale. i wanna test it on a 50 ft long row. I think he has nothin to lose. Thoughts?
That just sounds weird. You need to probably find some results that are convincing Or do even less of an experiment. It may take a while to settle in and start working though, like more than a season. I'm sure there is science on how it affects soil ph is acid soils and other stuff if that is something that he would be swayed by. There is a fairly recent paper on African Dark Earths talking about fertility measurements. This research I compiled is really interesting too. skillcult.com/blog/2012/05/18/some-citations-on-biochar-in-europe-and-america-in-the-19th-century
Ive got awhile before i go to the next internship. Maybe ill do it small scale on a garden ive been planning to build. Think the bio char would work in a high tunnel?
I was thinking in a shtf kinda scenario this would be ideal next to a stream with a bucket or something.
I mean you just don't burn if there is any chance the fire is going to get away. Best right after or during rain.
@@SkillCult Maybe I miss understood the video, but im referring to the fact you put out the hot coals before they turned to ash at the end stage.
Sorry is there a slower ersion
Ideally, for greater char production, this Top-Lite Method, also called the Tom Reed method, it should be sprayed with a fine mist once the fire is fully involved, spritzing off the ash as it forms, all the way around the pile.
Thanks Erich, but how does that increase production? Are you actually putting out the top coals, or just removing the ash? It seems like the ash would slow burning if anything.
It does slow burning but not by much, just a quick course spray to knock down the ash.
I find with
Erich Knight I'll have to play with gradual quenching like that. I intended to do it this time while raking the uncharred stuff out, but there wasn't as much as I expected and I ended up just putting pretty much the whole thing out at once, except for a tiny pile on the side. This is by far the fastest and most even burning top lit pile I've done. The fast burn seemed to increase yield and cause the retention of more volatiles. I think the size of the brush (mostly