I wish you'd stated the concentration of your soak. I like to soak fresh char in something like DynaGro diluted to 3x to 4x more potent than the recommended dilution on the label, and let it soak for as long as the char is swelling up. I've seen that happen for up to six weeks. that way not only are all the exchange points on the char holding plant nutrients, but the solution has also entered into the pore structure. Then the bits of char act like storage batteries slowly releasing plant nutrients for months.
Also, my yield on a little pit burn is about ten gallons of finished char, which is then thrown into the barrel to soak. I use the pond water since it has more life in it and does not have fluoride and chlorine.
It looked like a douse to a bucket to me👍 About a tad to bit, but not more than smidge over the recommendations on the label. If that sounds complicated, it is. Gardening is a precise operation that requires both delicacy and delinquency in equal amounts😁
I use the longer, cheap route. Whenever I have a fire in my pit, whatever remains the next day(ashes, little hunks of charred wood) get flooded with water, then go onto a big pile of compost & wood chips behind my barn. I churn that pile up occasionally & spread some on my garden beds & it works great.
I do the same! 😊 My backyard is too small and too close to neighbors lots to make full size pits. If I'd try, i would have fire department called on me in no time. But neighbors don't mind small bonfires every now and then - just for sausage grilling and potato baking. What remains after such events gets thrown on compost pile, and left for Nature to do her thing. Same with leftover charcoal after grilling season ends in the autumn.
That song at the end.... lmao. I will meet my two koi I lost last summer after hurricane Laura hit. Buried one near our bananas and another near our fig tree. I thought about playing a prank on my wife and saying the fruits tasted fishy when they produce this year hehe
Elizabeth said, I had to do some investigating to find out what was so special about biochar. Biochar in itself, isn't special, but the tiny niches and hooks in its structure are what hold the nutrients, that the plant roots will grow into and up-take. So this video makes great sense what the soaking and adding of nutrients is for: to fill the niches and hooks. Using your containers and giving it time, allows the nutrients stirred in to settle into the niches, preparing it for application. Now I can put two and two together. Thanks!
Thanks for making this video. We had to do a major trim on a giant walnut tree leaving tons of sticks and small branches. My boys want to take them to the dump. I'm totally against that. So I have fallen down the UA-cam hole of complicated bio char videos. You make it seem simple and doable in an entertaining way. Thanks
I build 2 or 3 burn piles per yr from tree trimmings and have learned that a well constructed pile--much taller than wide with long straighter limbs forming a "teepee" shape makes for a small footprint in my yard and burns most clean and efficiently, I get 1 or 2 wheelbarrows of char in about 90 minutes with minimal smoke. Teepee shape helps shed rain/dry the pile and keeps it well aerated and compact, top down lighting seems to reduce ignition smoke. The minor extra time required for building the pile pays off. Simply quench the coals when they are ready after raking off the bigger pieces that still need to burn longer.
David, one extra tip, save some small diameter branches/twigs for the end of the burn to help finish converting the bigger stuff. You need to keep the flame cap going and the small stuff needs little time to convert. Start small end small. Very nice video sir!!!
I do that also and it works a treat! I have pampas grass all dried and very small sticks reserved as a finishing burn. It'll stop all the ash production and you get a little bit more char too. One big thing I do, is quench at first with at least a gallon of urine saved up. The red hot coals will kill anything bad and the nitrogen etc. as steam really dives in deep and fractures into the char. Then I douse completely and add one tablespoon Himalayan seat salt to a five gallon bucket of my quench water. Adding eggshells to the burn is good too.
Been doing this since 1977.....read something probably in organic garden and watching how my father ( Mr. Slash and burn) when I was a child...he often threw grass on the fire when it got to charcoal stage...and what happened to the grass that grew back in burn areas....
I use a Troy Bilt lawn mower with a grass catcher. I’ve been using this for three years and I’ve chopped up a couple of tons. Works great. If the charcoal is very wet you may have to scrape it off at some point. I also mix it with garden waste and throw it on my compost pile.
Great video, thanks for the shout out. The reason I use trenches over pits is that it saves so much cutting labor. I dig about 8 to 10 feet long and basically don't cut anything. With a long pit, even very long pieces are usually burned into pieces instead of cutting. I burn a lot of limbs, so that cuts down labor a lot. But you do need a lot of wood. I can produce over 100 gallons of char in a burn in one of those pits and that is a lot of wood. I don't precharge, but I do use extra ammendment the first year, usually dug in and maybe some extra liquid fert as the season goes on. I figure just let it happen in the soil. So far I've gotten good crops the first year from that approach.
@@davidthegood Yeah, it's better if you have the right wood and enough. I've probably gotten as much as 120 gallons in a burn by pushing it close to the top.
@@davidthegood Ive been meaning to intentionally make clay tabs or chunks to burn with the biochar to see what it turns out like. Try mixing with grass first, like half grass or more, or grass dipped in a clay slip, then burn. It makes this awesome porous fired clay stuff that breaks up easy and roots grow right into it. I get that with my grass and clay lime kilns.
I watched a bunch of lengthy, complicated and unclear videos of charging biochar. Then i came here and all the info was here in few minutes, clear, all questions answered 😀
This came at the perfect time. I was about to add untreated charcoal to my planting beds! You mentioned that untreated charcoal will absorb the existing nutrients from the soil.
This is fantastic. Thank you. We have property in one state with straight up clay "soil." Until we're ready to move their full time in a couple of years, our winter gardening location is sand, sand, sand. This solution seems like exactly what both locations need.
I also have sandy soil, lots of sand everywhere, I bought loads of compost for the garden beds, but it costs a lot, must be refreshed every winter and it does not build up, bio char is the best solution that I could find, I am collecting my char from our barbecues because I am cheap as well :)
Have you seen Canadian Permaculture Legacy's biochar method? It seems like another alternative that crushes it as you make it. He also talks about some of the science behind it. Really good watch if you are getting into biochar. ua-cam.com/video/5skb2HhSra8/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/0vkUevM7LzM/v-deo.html are his main biochar videos
Love your videos. I opted for an easy way. I am in the city and cannot build a fire to get biochar. I use royal oak lump charcoal from Walmart for about $17 for 30 lbs. I saw this in a different UA-cam video. Trying your techniques in raised bed and Terra Preta soil methods.
I am about to go out side this evening and try, for my first time, inoculating some biochar. I moved to Lake Wales, FL in December (well, north of Lake Wales in a nice out of the way rural spot, I found to rent). I lived in the Temple Terrace area for college 30 years ago but I had yet to get into gardening. Now after gardening in Ohio for years, sometimes successfully and sometimes not) learning about Florida gardening is quite an adventure! I'm excited to keep trying and enjoying all my experiments here. edited to add: wow I am bad at delayed gratification sometimes. Now I am sitting here thinking about having to wait two weeks for it to be done soaking! such is my gardening life.
This is on my some-day list. Lost an opportunity when the tree guys hauled away my two giant bradford pear trees and I forgot to tell the to leave me a pile of limbs.
@Mrbfgray mentioed that putting long pieces of wood in teepee shape make burning of wood easy. I thought bio-char making requires minimizing presence of oxygen during the process so the result is black coal and minimum ashes. Ash collection is not the intention but burning the wood resulting as wood coal with spongy characteristic to absorb the nutrients for gradual release.
I've been buying lump charcoal by the 50# bag at Sam's, but it's a huge, backbreaking chore to smash it all down and sift it. Yesterday, I got the bright idea to run it through my electric wood chipper. The result was pieces about 1/4" to 3/8" in size, which is perfect for my tastes. I learned three things: 1) Don't do this if you are sweating. 2) Do this BEFORE you shower. 3) Use clothes you plan on throwing away, or do it naked. I'm also going to have to hose the chipper down, but this only took me 45 minutes, as opposed to 5-8 hours. so it's worth it.
We’ve started making biochar just by dousing down our normal all wood bonfire (which we burn in a 5’ round pit) and then digging out the bottom the next day. One good bonfire makes about 7 gallons of char. I didn’t break it down very fine though so hopefully it still works well. This is our first year digging char down into the garden, we charged it with double strength Miracle Grow. We also tossed some of the char and ashes into the compost pile.
My hubby is currently making biochar for me and putting it into a pile for next spring. My question is, can someone tell me if I need to cover it for the winter with plastic or something or just leave it out in the weather? thanks!
David the Good , what do you do with the left over water / urine / miracle grow /fish juice / swamp water after you take out all the bio char ? Did I use to much liquid? Is it too strong to use on the garden ?
I compost food/kitchen scraps using the bokashi method. Instead of buying/making a container with a spigot to drain the bokashi liquid I just use a barrel with charcoal at the bottom. It soaks up the liquid and becomes "biochar".
leighton morrison of kingdom aquaponics also says not to go above 15 to 20% by volume, or your microbes will feed off the charcoal, instead of building a mutualistic relationship with the plants. charcoal is one and done, if you add more each year, you will exceed the above, and possibly develop problems.
I live in an area where digging a hole that large just ain't gonna happen without some kind of serious backhoe. So instead I have an old metal barrel with a large (2x3ish) hole cut in the side. No other holes and lid is still intact/on. I use it layed over on its side for my "hole". When barrel is full of burnt char, fill barrel with water and wait till next morning. Just roll barrel to empty. Works like a dream.
Great video, I was going to do some bio char this weekend before they stop us burning on the plots next week 😁 I have a huge wheelie bin of DFSW ready for the soaking 😁
disposal set in a discarded sink could also serve to "prep" bulk produce for composting.... food bank-pantry operations often have cases ..."stuff"....ideal for the worms
Recently had an 18 wheeler load of rice hulls delivered to the garden.Decided to carbonize a bit of it to see if I could turn it into biochar. The carbonization went better than expected and we are at the charging it with nutrients/manure stage right now. The spring garden will let us know if it was worth the effort. Good video.
Last time I encouraged someone to make biochar I got scolded for "soapboxing from my niche biome". Skill cults web page with the charcoal references from the 1800's is like a gold mine of information for anyone looking. I think it's safe to say some of our ancestors knew what the scoop was with the charcoal. Bless you and yours DTG, always look forward to your videos!
There are two important things 1 Soak when the flames start to die down . Stir and soak again. An hour or two later stir and soak again. If you leave one hot ember it can restart the fire and you lose all.
Love the title. I’m planning to make a video about my pesky Bermuda grass... it was poisoned (not my choice), cut, shovel dug, burned, smothered and covered, and pulled... smothered and covered is THE BEST method but can’t always be used everywhere.
Been burning my biochar for a few weeks, got a bucket I put it in to charge with pond water and fish waste etc. I too live in pure sand and building up the soil takes more time and effort than the actual garden....
If you can't make bio-char you can always buy hardwood charcoal for the BBQ, from your local big box store. I always dump the bottom of the bag in my compost. You know ,the stuff that's too fine to cook with.
I started making the charcoal yesterday so I can make my own Bio-Char. I have to use a small metal fire pit. It is very windy here. If the wind is NOT blowing noticeably its time to write it on the calender. 😆... Here is to growing more FOOD than I NEED... WHY cause I wanna share IT
I really do enjoy some of your songs , your voice is actually pretty decent. Much better than mine. Great video tho. Thanks for everything David God bless. Also hey if you go by natural grocers which has only 100% organic produce. They get ride of a whole shopping cart full of “no good produce” every few days. For free. If not they throw it away. Most of it looked good enough to eat especially if your poor or broke. That’s a lot of extra compost tho. Free too.
a Pinellas company shreds fresh TREE trimmings from this urban FL island... cheaper disposal fee than landfill. They sort by hardwood-soft-palm(fiber).... many pro trucks dump mulch"
I add yard waste when I don't have any other type of fertilizer. Leaves, grass, fallen blooms, etc. It seems to work out for me, as far as I can tell. But I'm confused about something. There's conflicting info online about whether to soak for only 24 hours, or up to a couple of weeks. I've heard that anything longer than 24 hours will begin to host the bad bacteria, which could seriously backfire. And there seems to be no way to tell whether it's switched over to bad bacteria. How do we know the proper soaking time without hurting our gardens?
First of all I love you. You make me smile and sometimes laugh my arse off. I'm in middle Georgia. I heat with wood, can't I use ash from stove? Thank you.
@@davidthegood it's my understanding that wood ashes have a lot of minerals but is alkaline. If your soil is acidic, that would be fine but wouldn't be good for neutral or alkaline soil. Adding it to your compost pile will neutralize it.
The thing I have found with wood charcoal is you simply need to inoculate it with an acidic input and thus save you a lot of time having it sit in either a compost pile or barrel of David The Good Juice goodness!
Our son’s a welder and makes gigantic metal cones at work! And he loves burning things!!! Can we use old punky firewood to make char? I’m still a biochar newbie….🌿🌿🌿
@@davidthegood That makes me feel a lot better. Burning up otherwise good firewood to make biochar seems wasteful at first glance. Burning anything almost feels like a guilty pleasure up here where we are still fighting forest fires. But that’s got to be some prime biochar foraging land up where we sadly lost so many trees😳
I live on the Oregon coast so get bull kelp in the winter. I have added about 10 feet of it into my 50 gallon barrel of rainwater. It has been soaking for almost a month now. I have been using it to water my plants in the greenhouse. Would that be a good charging source for biochar or is it too weak? Maybe I should just put it on top of my worm bin instead? Worm bin has a layer of bull kelp as well.
David, thoughts on rainwater vs pond water? My neighbor with a pond is very reclusive, and doesn't wave back so I'm thinking rain barrell is good and pond critters could be too variable in what's it's got...
I went the really lazy and bought royal oak all natural like i saw on MI. Had to hunt it down because dollar general no longer sells it. walmart does though. I will get the kids to crush it for me on a fun and dirty warm day when I can hose them off outside. I figure I'll just soak mine in compost and stir it every now n then. Hoping for the best. Green thumbs. Thanks again.
Here is what I think is my biggest concern. Since, 1 gram of biochar has a surface area of approx 800 sq m, I am thinking, if I don't charge the biochar with enough nutrients, it will once again suck up nutrients from the "neighboring"soil particles, ultimately making the surrounding soil less nutrient deep.
Just last night I was watching your video and thinking I needed to search your other videos for how to make biochar....then, lo and behold, you released this video today! Are you some kind of mind reader? However, I am mildly disappointed that you failed to make the obvious connection (for promotional purposes) between 'Biochar' and 'Charo', the Spanish American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist. She seems the perfect poster girl for garden amendments and a fertile field for a biochar theme song. Maybe it's just me, and maybe it's because I watched too many episodes of The Love Boat. Anyway, thank you for the info!
you could make this in winter just put bucket in hole and lift it out then fill with sticks etc burn like this if you had multiple pits it would be quite warm. how much do we put it on the soil.
I once mixed some biochar powder with soil in some potted chilli plants, and did a side by side with ones in normal soil. The plant leaves in the pots with biochar turned almost white. I guessed it was to do with it turning the ph too high, and locking out the nutrients. But I guess it was just sucking up the fertilizer I was feeding the chillies.
NICE i love it ! . I’m also cheap so I cut stupid queen palm frawns from the stupid palm trees we have on our property and use them as mulch / chop and drop for my backyard orchard. Screw buying mulch , Nothing like free stuff !
I cut the leaves from the woody parts of queen and areca palms and put them in an old roasting pan, with a lid, from a thrift store. Start a small fire in my burn pit with the woody parts and put the pot on top and then cover with more of the woody parts. By the time the fire dies out the leaves are all char. It only makes about pint once it's powdered, which takes about 30 seconds with your hands, but you can do it every time you use your burn pit. I then chuck it in a bucket of canal water that I throw rotting starfruit, dead frogs from the rain barrel, non edible weeds, duck and chicken crap, and I occasionally whiz in it when working in the yard. I leave the buckets under my banana trees until the water at the top starts to clear, then I water plants with it and dump in in a bed that is being readied to plant. Cost me 2 bucks for the pan.
@@fedup2533 u know you just gave me a great idea , I have all the stems from the 13 foot long palm fronds I’m gonna and chop them up and make biochar thanks I was just gonna burn them !
I cheat a bit by buying it in bags at the store, and then pound and run it through the blender for quick release. I activate with urine and sprinkle some flour and sugar in as well. So I have a question: I have a ten pound bag of pancake mix. Would that be good to add to the char when inoculating instead of the sugar/flour? Can it be composted? What about old oatmeal? Cleaning out the shelves and I don't want to waste it.
Hey, David, since there are a ton of minerals in wood ashes, what are your thoughts on adding a gallon or so to the mix? I know it will raise the pH, but that can be altered later on. I'm thinking it would simulate a forest fire, or some of the key ingredients in Terra Preta. Until now, I've just been adding urine in a 3:1 ratio (I produce a lot), but I was thinking the ashes mixed into the slurry would give it a good boost.
@@davidthegood Thanks for the reply! I'll definitely give it a shot then. I ran about a dozen chicken bones through my shredder last night (attracting almost every cat on the block), and I think that will be a good addition as well. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
How important do you think the bacterial component is? I was considering getting one of those aerobic compost tea or em1 liquid mixes or a powdered mycorrhizae mix to add to the liquid as well. Also do you think it would be ok to dig up the bed double dog style down 18 inches or so and burn and mix there? My main 2 worries is that I'll be able to activate it enough to prevent nitrogen robbing and I have very heavy clay so I don't want to make an earthenware bottom to my beds.
I think the bacteria and fungi will arrive if the soil is rich - my main concern is getting the char loaded up with enough minerals that it doesn't suck the fertility out of my ground.
Vermiculture is quite easy, more than vids claim. They take.care of themselves for the most part. I started with 100 from the bait store 4 years ago and now have many thousands.
Hi David! I was wondering how you think biochar might fare in an extremely rainy climate, 300-400 inches per year (Hawaii). I’m constantly working to find the balance between nutrient retention and drainage in my climate. I’m thinking that if biochar can handle the rain without disintegrating too quickly, it could be the perfect way to add drainage to my clay soil without worrying about major nutrients leaching out, if it can hold onto those nutrients during my rainy season. Thanks for any info you can offer, and thanks for the informative video. Your tests have been super intriguing, especially with how biochar enriched soil produced the tastiest veg! Hope you’re having a great day 🌱
David, Please help. In your melon-pit pumpkin planting video, you made a fire to make biochar, filled it with chicken carcasses, and put some mature compost in it before planting your seminole pumpkins. If my memory is correct, you didn’t mention that the bio char would steal nutrients. Is that why you put lots of chicken carcasses, etc on top? Confused. One of my Seminole pits is doing amazing, and one is really skimpy. The good one has a dead bantam on top of the bio char. The skimpy Seminole vines just has chicken bones on top of the char. I’m wondering if I did something wrong with the biochar..
Right - it needs some nitrogen to balance it out and keep it from robbing. I would quickly water with a dilute nitrogen solution. Whatever you can get.
Charcoal retains the carbon and creates a sponge for nutrients and soil life, providing habitat to microlife as well as a repository of minerals. Ashes are good for potassium and calcium as well as amending pH but don't have the same benefits.
Really loved this video! We burn sticks all the time but now I’m gonna have the hubs (Mark) dig me a pit and so this way, YAY!!! Thanks so much, ❤️ Kristy in the Missouri Ozarks zone 6b 😃🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I just built a Kontiki style cone pit out back yesterday and fired it up today, OMG what a thing. It was virtually smokeless and a literal fire tornado swirling in there burning so well. I used the measurements from the below website to dig my pit, making the outside diameter 2-1/2" wider to accommodate lining it with red bricks, it's a beautiful pit to even look at. I did mine at 75% size which was perfect and I got 2 five gallon buckets only about 1/4 full. Here are my measurements: 3/4% kontiki 35.43" wide across at top (35-1/2") r=17-3/4" 12.375" wide at bottom (12-3/8") r=6-3/16"…. 14.625" w/brick edge 19.875" tall. (19-7/8") I simply put a rod into the ground that would be where the center will be. The cut a board 17-3/4" - the radius…1/2 the diameter…place the board touching the rod, and insert a stake at the other end and work my way around marking out the diameter. Then I dug out the middle down to approx. 20", a stick marked off makes that easy. I put a big pvc pipe in there wedged with bricks to keep the dirt from filling it in. Then I used my shovel going at and angle and working my way around the get the cone shape and it ends up the right proportions and 60°'ish angle. That pit is amazing. I lined it with red bricks stacked on top of each other, 2 bricks long ways up and 1 sideways capping them off reaches the top perfectly and I also bricked off the bottom too and "mortared" the gaps between the bricks with dirt. It's real easy to shovel the char out with no dirt and the cone shape being bricks will always maintain its angle. It was quick to make too, probably two hours or less. I started after diner and was done by Wheel of Fortune time, lol. www.acaciaanimalcare.com/assets/pdf/Kon%20Tiki%20Kilns%203%20low%20res.pdf
Hey David, have you noticed any issues from the sea salt building up salt (Sodium) in the soil? I know this is done in JADAM and was just wondering your experiences with adding it to your fertilizer.
I wish you'd stated the concentration of your soak. I like to soak fresh char in something like DynaGro diluted to 3x to 4x more potent than the recommended dilution on the label, and let it soak for as long as the char is swelling up. I've seen that happen for up to six weeks. that way not only are all the exchange points on the char holding plant nutrients, but the solution has also entered into the pore structure. Then the bits of char act like storage batteries slowly releasing plant nutrients for months.
That is about what I did - 3-4x concentration.
There's always something I miss. But hey, I have smart friends.
Also, my yield on a little pit burn is about ten gallons of finished char, which is then thrown into the barrel to soak. I use the pond water since it has more life in it and does not have fluoride and chlorine.
It looked like a douse to a bucket to me👍 About a tad to bit, but not more than smidge over the recommendations on the label. If that sounds complicated, it is. Gardening is a precise operation that requires both delicacy and delinquency in equal amounts😁
Steve, are you saying that your biochar is getting larger during your soak time?
I use the longer, cheap route. Whenever I have a fire in my pit, whatever remains the next day(ashes, little hunks of charred wood) get flooded with water, then go onto a big pile of compost & wood chips behind my barn. I churn that pile up occasionally & spread some on my garden beds & it works great.
I like it.
I do the same! 😊 My backyard is too small and too close to neighbors lots to make full size pits. If I'd try, i would have fire department called on me in no time. But neighbors don't mind small bonfires every now and then - just for sausage grilling and potato baking. What remains after such events gets thrown on compost pile, and left for Nature to do her thing. Same with leftover charcoal after grilling season ends in the autumn.
That song at the end.... lmao.
I will meet my two koi I lost last summer after hurricane Laura hit. Buried one near our bananas and another near our fig tree.
I thought about playing a prank on my wife and saying the fruits tasted fishy when they produce this year hehe
Thank you for the step by step video! My wife and I are on this like white on rice on a paper plate in a snowstorm!
Awesome.
It's good to see children working along side their father. Really good to see.
Elizabeth said, I had to do some investigating to find out what was so special about biochar. Biochar in itself, isn't special, but the tiny niches and hooks in its structure are what hold the nutrients, that the plant roots will grow into and up-take. So this video makes great sense what the soaking and adding of nutrients is for: to fill the niches and hooks. Using your containers and giving it time, allows the nutrients stirred in to settle into the niches, preparing it for application. Now I can put two and two together. Thanks!
Thanks for making this video. We had to do a major trim on a giant walnut tree leaving tons of sticks and small branches. My boys want to take them to the dump. I'm totally against that. So I have fallen down the UA-cam hole of complicated bio char videos. You make it seem simple and doable in an entertaining way. Thanks
I build 2 or 3 burn piles per yr from tree trimmings and have learned that a well constructed pile--much taller than wide with long straighter limbs forming a "teepee" shape makes for a small footprint in my yard and burns most clean and efficiently, I get 1 or 2 wheelbarrows of char in about 90 minutes with minimal smoke. Teepee shape helps shed rain/dry the pile and keeps it well aerated and compact, top down lighting seems to reduce ignition smoke. The minor extra time required for building the pile pays off. Simply quench the coals when they are ready after raking off the bigger pieces that still need to burn longer.
David, one extra tip, save some small diameter branches/twigs for the end of the burn to help finish converting the bigger stuff. You need to keep the flame cap going and the small stuff needs little time to convert. Start small end small. Very nice video sir!!!
That's a good idea.
I do that also and it works a treat! I have pampas grass all dried and very small sticks reserved as a finishing burn. It'll stop all the ash production and you get a little bit more char too. One big thing I do, is quench at first with at least a gallon of urine saved up. The red hot coals will kill anything bad and the nitrogen etc. as steam really dives in deep and fractures into the char. Then I douse completely and add one tablespoon Himalayan seat salt to a five gallon bucket of my quench water. Adding eggshells to the burn is good too.
Been doing this since 1977.....read something probably in organic garden and watching how my father ( Mr. Slash and burn) when I was a child...he often threw grass on the fire when it got to charcoal stage...and what happened to the grass that grew back in burn areas....
I use a Troy Bilt lawn mower with a grass catcher. I’ve been using this for three years and I’ve chopped up a couple of tons. Works great. If the charcoal is very wet you may have to scrape it off at some point. I also mix it with garden waste and throw it on my compost pile.
Great video, thanks for the shout out. The reason I use trenches over pits is that it saves so much cutting labor. I dig about 8 to 10 feet long and basically don't cut anything. With a long pit, even very long pieces are usually burned into pieces instead of cutting. I burn a lot of limbs, so that cuts down labor a lot. But you do need a lot of wood. I can produce over 100 gallons of char in a burn in one of those pits and that is a lot of wood. I don't precharge, but I do use extra ammendment the first year, usually dug in and maybe some extra liquid fert as the season goes on. I figure just let it happen in the soil. So far I've gotten good crops the first year from that approach.
I tried your trench method a couple days ago with some long brush and got about 80 gallons. Sold!
@@davidthegood Yeah, it's better if you have the right wood and enough. I've probably gotten as much as 120 gallons in a burn by pushing it close to the top.
@@davidthegood Oh, and the most interesting char crushing method Iv'e heard about lately from a viewer is running it over with a power lawnmower.
I would have to get a lawnmower to try it. I am working on getting some clay to make pottery shards to add to my soil next.
@@davidthegood Ive been meaning to intentionally make clay tabs or chunks to burn with the biochar to see what it turns out like. Try mixing with grass first, like half grass or more, or grass dipped in a clay slip, then burn. It makes this awesome porous fired clay stuff that breaks up easy and roots grow right into it. I get that with my grass and clay lime kilns.
This is the most practical and easiest way to make biochar that I have ever found.
Thank you!
I watched a bunch of lengthy, complicated and unclear videos of charging biochar. Then i came here and all the info was here in few minutes, clear, all questions answered 😀
Whew. Sometimes I am lengthy, unclear and complicated, but I'm working on it. Thank you.
This came at the perfect time. I was about to add untreated charcoal to my planting beds! You mentioned that untreated charcoal will absorb the existing nutrients from the soil.
This is fantastic. Thank you. We have property in one state with straight up clay "soil." Until we're ready to move their full time in a couple of years, our winter gardening location is sand, sand, sand. This solution seems like exactly what both locations need.
Definitely worth a try.
I also have sandy soil, lots of sand everywhere, I bought loads of compost for the garden beds, but it costs a lot, must be refreshed every winter and it does not build up, bio char is the best solution that I could find, I am collecting my char from our barbecues because I am cheap as well :)
@@locusttreegarden1560 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
Have you seen Canadian Permaculture Legacy's biochar method? It seems like another alternative that crushes it as you make it. He also talks about some of the science behind it. Really good watch if you are getting into biochar. ua-cam.com/video/5skb2HhSra8/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/0vkUevM7LzM/v-deo.html are his main biochar videos
Love your videos. I opted for an easy way. I am in the city and cannot build a fire to get biochar. I use royal oak lump charcoal from Walmart for about $17 for 30 lbs. I saw this in a different UA-cam video. Trying your techniques in raised bed and Terra Preta soil methods.
Great to hear you pre-charge your biochar, I don't see to many people mention this..
Great videos. Very detailed for someone that needed some insite into making biochar easily. Thank you for that
I am about to go out side this evening and try, for my first time, inoculating some biochar. I moved to Lake Wales, FL in December (well, north of Lake Wales in a nice out of the way rural spot, I found to rent). I lived in the Temple Terrace area for college 30 years ago but I had yet to get into gardening. Now after gardening in Ohio for years, sometimes successfully and sometimes not) learning about Florida gardening is quite an adventure! I'm excited to keep trying and enjoying all my experiments here.
edited to add: wow I am bad at delayed gratification sometimes. Now I am sitting here thinking about having to wait two weeks for it to be done soaking! such is my gardening life.
To crush the biochar build a barrel spinning system like a compost tumbler. Toss in 3-4 river stone. Cover the opening with chicken wire upon dumping.
Great video! Thanks for taking the time to put it together
You are very welcome.
This is on my some-day list. Lost an opportunity when the tree guys hauled away my two giant bradford pear trees and I forgot to tell the to leave me a pile of limbs.
Rats! I have done that too.
This was so cool. You just saved me some $$. Thanks!😎
You are welcome.
Finally a short video on this topic!
BTW are you going to have that machete pattern manufactured and sell it?
I would like to.
Pink salt is a big no no in compost, most pink salt is contaminated by many metals and chemicals.
@Mrbfgray mentioed that putting long pieces of wood in teepee shape make burning of wood easy. I thought bio-char making requires minimizing presence of oxygen during the process so the result is black coal and minimum ashes. Ash collection is not the intention but burning the wood resulting as wood coal with spongy characteristic to absorb the nutrients for gradual release.
You're my favorite cheap gardening hack!
That made me laugh.
I've been buying lump charcoal by the 50# bag at Sam's, but it's a huge, backbreaking chore to smash it all down and sift it. Yesterday, I got the bright idea to run it through my electric wood chipper. The result was pieces about 1/4" to 3/8" in size, which is perfect for my tastes. I learned three things: 1) Don't do this if you are sweating. 2) Do this BEFORE you shower. 3) Use clothes you plan on throwing away, or do it naked. I'm also going to have to hose the chipper down, but this only took me 45 minutes, as opposed to 5-8 hours. so it's worth it.
That's amazing.
If you dampen it a bit, it'll be virtually dust free.
Naked + wood chipper sounds like a bad combination
@@OwenPrescott Well yeah, if you're like me and have 27" of swinging ecstasy to get caught in it, I suppose.
We’ve started making biochar just by dousing down our normal all wood bonfire (which we burn in a 5’ round pit) and then digging out the bottom the next day. One good bonfire makes about 7 gallons of char. I didn’t break it down very fine though so hopefully it still works well. This is our first year digging char down into the garden, we charged it with double strength Miracle Grow. We also tossed some of the char and ashes into the compost pile.
Excellent.
What about “Hardwood Lump Charcoal”
Nope - that works just fine. MI Gardener did a good video on it early last year.
My hubby is currently making biochar for me and putting it into a pile for next spring. My question is, can someone tell me if I need to cover it for the winter with plastic or something or just leave it out in the weather? thanks!
You da man!! And so is Mr. Solomon
David the Good , what do you do with the left over water / urine / miracle grow /fish juice / swamp water after you take out all the bio char ? Did I use to much liquid? Is it too strong to use on the garden ?
I compost food/kitchen scraps using the bokashi method. Instead of buying/making a container with a spigot to drain the bokashi liquid I just use a barrel with charcoal at the bottom. It soaks up the liquid and becomes "biochar".
leighton morrison of kingdom aquaponics also says not to go above 15 to 20% by volume, or your microbes will feed off the charcoal, instead of building a mutualistic relationship with the plants. charcoal is one and done, if you add more each year, you will exceed the above, and possibly develop problems.
I live in an area where digging a hole that large just ain't gonna happen without some kind of serious backhoe. So instead I have an old metal barrel with a large (2x3ish) hole cut in the side. No other holes and lid is still intact/on. I use it layed over on its side for my "hole". When barrel is full of burnt char, fill barrel with water and wait till next morning. Just roll barrel to empty. Works like a dream.
Perfect.
Dear friend very good video... Highly appreciate... and highly recommend for farmers who want big yield 💐
Great video, I was going to do some bio char this weekend before they stop us burning on the plots next week 😁 I have a huge wheelie bin of DFSW ready for the soaking 😁
disposal set in a discarded sink could also serve to "prep" bulk produce for composting.... food bank-pantry operations often have cases ..."stuff"....ideal for the worms
Recently had an 18 wheeler load of rice hulls delivered to the garden.Decided to carbonize a bit of it to see if I could turn it into biochar. The carbonization went better than expected and we are at the charging it with nutrients/manure stage right now. The spring garden will let us know if it was worth the effort. Good video.
That is awesome
Already nice snd small too, fantastic!
Last time I encouraged someone to make biochar I got scolded for "soapboxing from my niche biome".
Skill cults web page with the charcoal references from the 1800's is like a gold mine of information for anyone looking. I think it's safe to say some of our ancestors knew what the scoop was with the charcoal.
Bless you and yours DTG, always look forward to your videos!
There are two important things
1 Soak when the flames start to die down . Stir and soak again.
An hour or two later stir and soak again. If you leave one hot ember it can restart the fire and you lose all.
Love the title. I’m planning to make a video about my pesky Bermuda grass... it was poisoned (not my choice), cut, shovel dug, burned, smothered and covered, and pulled... smothered and covered is THE BEST method but can’t always be used everywhere.
Did not work for us...only dug out ,pulled and burned!
Been burning my biochar for a few weeks, got a bucket I put it in to charge with pond water and fish waste etc. I too live in pure sand and building up the soil takes more time and effort than the actual garden....
If you can't make bio-char you can always buy hardwood charcoal for the BBQ, from your local big box store. I always dump the bottom of the bag in my compost. You know ,the stuff that's too fine to cook with.
Good idea. Waste not, want not.
I started making the charcoal yesterday so I can make my own Bio-Char. I have to use a small metal fire pit. It is very windy here. If the wind is NOT blowing noticeably its time to write it on the calender. 😆... Here is to growing more FOOD than I NEED... WHY cause I wanna share IT
Do you think it's suitable for indoor plants, specifically one grown in a tent?
I really do enjoy some of your songs , your voice is actually pretty decent. Much better than mine.
Great video tho.
Thanks for everything David God bless.
Also hey if you go by natural grocers which has only 100% organic produce.
They get ride of a whole shopping cart full of “no good produce” every few days. For free. If not they throw it away. Most of it looked good enough to eat especially if your poor or broke. That’s a lot of extra compost tho. Free too.
Good job David.
Thanks, John.
If you have an aquarium, the next time you do a water change, add the old water and the fish poop off the gauze from the filter to your charcoal.
a Pinellas company shreds fresh TREE trimmings from this urban FL island... cheaper disposal fee than landfill. They sort by hardwood-soft-palm(fiber).... many pro trucks dump mulch"
Just bought your book... Create your own florida food forest! I have ALOT... to learn
Thank you.
well, I guess I am digging a trench in the clay, tomorrow. gee thanks DTG.
Exercise is good for the soul. Or soil.
Make that two digging the trench, I will dig mine as well!
Is it even a good idea in clay? When I think of clay soil I think of pretty wet soil, and the biochar will hold even more water
I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT! This guy reminds me of Vermin Supreme. It's been weeks of stumbling on his videos and wondering why he seems so familiar
That's hilarious. Gonna win in 2024!
I add yard waste when I don't have any other type of fertilizer. Leaves, grass, fallen blooms, etc.
It seems to work out for me, as far as I can tell.
But I'm confused about something. There's conflicting info online about whether to soak for only 24 hours, or up to a couple of weeks. I've heard that anything longer than 24 hours will begin to host the bad bacteria, which could seriously backfire. And there seems to be no way to tell whether it's switched over to bad bacteria.
How do we know the proper soaking time without hurting our gardens?
First of all I love you. You make me smile and sometimes laugh my arse off. I'm in middle Georgia. I heat with wood, can't I use ash from stove? Thank you.
You need what comes before the ash. :)
The ashes are fine as a soil amendment, but as Kelly says, the charcoal is what you want for the benefits here.
@@davidthegood it's my understanding that wood ashes have a lot of minerals but is alkaline. If your soil is acidic, that would be fine but wouldn't be good for neutral or alkaline soil. Adding it to your compost pile will neutralize it.
Wonderful garden information
Thank you, Vinnette.
The thing I have found with wood charcoal is you simply need to inoculate it with an acidic input and thus save you a lot of time having it sit in either a compost pile or barrel of David The Good Juice goodness!
Bokashi leche juice is great for that, and you get all those beneficial microbes.
@@cowboyblacksmith I don't use it much, but mine is kept at the bottom of a barrel of Black Leaf mold.
Our son’s a welder and makes gigantic metal cones at work! And he loves burning things!!! Can we use old punky firewood to make char? I’m still a biochar newbie….🌿🌿🌿
Totally
@@davidthegood That makes me feel a lot better. Burning up otherwise good firewood to make biochar seems wasteful at first glance. Burning anything almost feels like a guilty pleasure up here where we are still fighting forest fires. But that’s got to be some prime biochar foraging land up where we sadly lost so many trees😳
I live on the Oregon coast so get bull kelp in the winter. I have added about 10 feet of it into my 50 gallon barrel of rainwater. It has been soaking for almost a month now. I have been using it to water my plants in the greenhouse. Would that be a good charging source for biochar or is it too weak? Maybe I should just put it on top of my worm bin instead? Worm bin has a layer of bull kelp as well.
David, thoughts on rainwater vs pond water? My neighbor with a pond is very reclusive, and doesn't wave back so I'm thinking rain barrell is good and pond critters could be too variable in what's it's got...
I went the really lazy and bought royal oak all natural like i saw on MI. Had to hunt it down because dollar general no longer sells it. walmart does though. I will get the kids to crush it for me on a fun and dirty warm day when I can hose them off outside. I figure I'll just soak mine in compost and stir it every now n then. Hoping for the best. Green thumbs. Thanks again.
That will work!
Here is what I think is my biggest concern.
Since, 1 gram of biochar has a surface area of approx 800 sq m,
I am thinking, if I don't charge the biochar with enough nutrients,
it will once again suck up nutrients from the "neighboring"soil
particles, ultimately making the surrounding soil less nutrient deep.
Just last night I was watching your video and thinking I needed to search your other videos for how to make biochar....then, lo and behold, you released this video today! Are you some kind of mind reader? However, I am mildly disappointed that you failed to make the obvious connection (for promotional purposes) between 'Biochar' and 'Charo', the Spanish American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist. She seems the perfect poster girl for garden amendments and a fertile field for a biochar theme song. Maybe it's just me, and maybe it's because I watched too many episodes of The Love Boat. Anyway, thank you for the info!
It's TOTALLY INSANE THAT I MISSED THAT!!! Thank you.
I remember Charo! Wasn't she the "hoochie coochie" lady? 💗🙌
@@littleozarksfarmstead YES! Wasn't she awesome? I can just hear DTG saying "Hoochie coochie BioCharo!"
@@fishinghole333 LOL!!! INDEED! 😂💗
@@littleozarksfarmstead 💕
note... up 10% of soil mix can be char...I also add Clay
I am adding some clay too.
I found 25% best when growing tree seedlings - but then I haven't been trying to grow much else...
Do yo have to dry the wood first, or can you put in fresh branches?
thank you david!!
you could make this in winter just put bucket in hole and lift it out then fill with sticks etc burn like this if you had multiple pits it would be quite warm. how much do we put it on the soil.
I once mixed some biochar powder with soil in some potted chilli plants, and did a side by side with ones in normal soil. The plant leaves in the pots with biochar turned almost white. I guessed it was to do with it turning the ph too high, and locking out the nutrients. But I guess it was just sucking up the fertilizer I was feeding the chillies.
Yes - the charcoal will absorb nutrients like crazy.
I have seen videos where they say you need 10 percent up to 40 percent biochar to soil. What do you
Think is a reasonable ratio
so how do you know the bio char is beneficial and NOT just the liquid fertilizer you used to soak
NICE i love it ! . I’m also cheap so I cut stupid queen palm frawns from the stupid palm trees we have on our property and use them as mulch / chop and drop for my backyard orchard. Screw buying mulch , Nothing like free stuff !
I agree. I love palm frond mulch.
I cut the leaves from the woody parts of queen and areca palms and put them in an old roasting pan, with a lid, from a thrift store. Start a small fire in my burn pit with the woody parts and put the pot on top and then cover with more of the woody parts. By the time the fire dies out the leaves are all char. It only makes about pint once it's powdered, which takes about 30 seconds with your hands, but you can do it every time you use your burn pit. I then chuck it in a bucket of canal water that I throw rotting starfruit, dead frogs from the rain barrel, non edible weeds, duck and chicken crap, and I occasionally whiz in it when working in the yard. I leave the buckets under my banana trees until the water at the top starts to clear, then I water plants with it and dump in in a bed that is being readied to plant. Cost me 2 bucks for the pan.
@@fedup2533 u know you just gave me a great idea , I have all the stems from the 13 foot long palm fronds I’m gonna and chop them up and make biochar thanks I was just gonna burn them !
Love all your help !
Thank you, Jolyan.
Why you choose anaerobic bacteria, is it better for plant health?
I cheat a bit by buying it in bags at the store, and then pound and run it through the blender for quick release. I activate with urine and sprinkle some flour and sugar in as well. So I have a question: I have a ten pound bag of pancake mix. Would that be good to add to the char when inoculating instead of the sugar/flour? Can it be composted? What about old oatmeal? Cleaning out the shelves and I don't want to waste it.
Hey, David, since there are a ton of minerals in wood ashes, what are your thoughts on adding a gallon or so to the mix? I know it will raise the pH, but that can be altered later on. I'm thinking it would simulate a forest fire, or some of the key ingredients in Terra Preta. Until now, I've just been adding urine in a 3:1 ratio (I produce a lot), but I was thinking the ashes mixed into the slurry would give it a good boost.
Yeah, it would be fine to add!
@@davidthegood Thanks for the reply! I'll definitely give it a shot then. I ran about a dozen chicken bones through my shredder last night (attracting almost every cat on the block), and I think that will be a good addition as well. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
How important do you think the bacterial component is? I was considering getting one of those aerobic compost tea or em1 liquid mixes or a powdered mycorrhizae mix to add to the liquid as well. Also do you think it would be ok to dig up the bed double dog style down 18 inches or so and burn and mix there? My main 2 worries is that I'll be able to activate it enough to prevent nitrogen robbing and I have very heavy clay so I don't want to make an earthenware bottom to my beds.
I think the bacteria and fungi will arrive if the soil is rich - my main concern is getting the char loaded up with enough minerals that it doesn't suck the fertility out of my ground.
@@davidthegood yeah that's one of my biggest concerns. Most of my property is very heavy clay with a thin layer of moss under oak trees.
Yesss thank you!!
But on a pinch can you use an all natural lump charcoal?
Yes.
What kind of documented or anecdotal results have you seen over the years after adding the biochar? Any negatives?
Since I enjoy a good.camp fire on Saturday morning, I will experiment with adding the char to my worm beds. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I have wanted to set up a worm farm. Some of the best fertilizer you can get. I would assume the worms would activate the char well
Vermiculture is quite easy, more than vids claim. They take.care of themselves for the most part. I started with 100 from the bait store 4 years ago and now have many thousands.
@@qbeard1 👍 Awesome thanks
I think that's a great idea. The worms will charge it for you!
@@davidthegood, I would hope so. I don't mind doing some work, but I love farming it out to nature slaves who love the work more than myself.
Hi David! I was wondering how you think biochar might fare in an extremely rainy climate, 300-400 inches per year (Hawaii). I’m constantly working to find the balance between nutrient retention and drainage in my climate. I’m thinking that if biochar can handle the rain without disintegrating too quickly, it could be the perfect way to add drainage to my clay soil without worrying about major nutrients leaching out, if it can hold onto those nutrients during my rainy season.
Thanks for any info you can offer, and thanks for the informative video. Your tests have been super intriguing, especially with how biochar enriched soil produced the tastiest veg!
Hope you’re having a great day 🌱
Biochar will last a lot longer than compost. It really helped in the Amazon, so it should help in Hawaii.
@@davidthegood Fantastic, thanks David!
Love it I have just found a wast stream of wood and fixing to start making it perfect time for this video thank you for all your work
David,
Please help. In your melon-pit pumpkin planting video, you made a fire to make biochar, filled it with chicken carcasses, and put some mature compost in it before planting your seminole pumpkins. If my memory is correct, you didn’t mention that the bio char would steal nutrients. Is that why you put lots of chicken carcasses, etc on top? Confused. One of my Seminole pits is doing amazing, and one is really skimpy. The good one has a dead bantam on top of the bio char. The skimpy Seminole vines just has chicken bones on top of the char. I’m wondering if I did something wrong with the biochar..
Right - it needs some nitrogen to balance it out and keep it from robbing. I would quickly water with a dilute nitrogen solution. Whatever you can get.
Hey David, I have a question. Can you inoculate the char with a microbe product like Mikrobs?
Could you please explain the difference between bio char and letting it burn to ash? Would ash not have similar benefits?
Thank you.
Charcoal retains the carbon and creates a sponge for nutrients and soil life, providing habitat to microlife as well as a repository of minerals. Ashes are good for potassium and calcium as well as amending pH but don't have the same benefits.
@@davidthegood thank you so much. That’s very helpful and succinct.
DynaGro: It's got what plants crave!
Really loved this video! We burn sticks all the time but now I’m gonna have the hubs (Mark) dig me a pit and so this way, YAY!!! Thanks so much, ❤️ Kristy in the Missouri Ozarks zone 6b 😃🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Good idea, Kristy.
I just built a Kontiki style cone pit out back yesterday and fired it up today, OMG what a thing. It was virtually smokeless and a literal fire tornado swirling in there burning so well. I used the measurements from the below website to dig my pit, making the outside diameter 2-1/2" wider to accommodate lining it with red bricks, it's a beautiful pit to even look at. I did mine at 75% size which was perfect and I got 2 five gallon buckets only about 1/4 full. Here are my measurements:
3/4% kontiki
35.43" wide across at top (35-1/2") r=17-3/4"
12.375" wide at bottom (12-3/8") r=6-3/16"…. 14.625" w/brick edge
19.875" tall. (19-7/8")
I simply put a rod into the ground that would be where the center will be. The cut a board 17-3/4" - the radius…1/2 the diameter…place the board touching the rod, and insert a stake at the other end and work my way around marking out the diameter. Then I dug out the middle down to approx. 20", a stick marked off makes that easy. I put a big pvc pipe in there wedged with bricks to keep the dirt from filling it in. Then I used my shovel going at and angle and working my way around the get the cone shape and it ends up the right proportions and 60°'ish angle. That pit is amazing. I lined it with red bricks stacked on top of each other, 2 bricks long ways up and 1 sideways capping them off reaches the top perfectly and I also bricked off the bottom too and "mortared" the gaps between the bricks with dirt. It's real easy to shovel the char out with no dirt and the cone shape being bricks will always maintain its angle. It was quick to make too, probably two hours or less. I started after diner and was done by Wheel of Fortune time, lol.
www.acaciaanimalcare.com/assets/pdf/Kon%20Tiki%20Kilns%203%20low%20res.pdf
Thank you.
Dave...question for you....how about using alfalfa pellets only and mixing it with the bio char? Do you think that would work?
If you wet it all and let it sit for a good while to compost down, yes.
Awesome thanks for the info
Hey David, have you noticed any issues from the sea salt building up salt (Sodium) in the soil? I know this is done in JADAM and was just wondering your experiences with adding it to your fertilizer.
I have not, but I have sandy soil - everything passes through fast.
Nitrogen...sourced from AIR...alfalfa pellets...or local free duckweed and perennial peanut!
Love this guy....
Thank you, Penny.
Is the Himalayan Salt just added for another mineral or is there another reason?
So we could soak in rabbit poo tea? Or comfrey tea?
Ur the best , love ur videos and music✌🌻
Thank you, Mike.
Dang. Wish I saw this BEFORE I threw out the biochar into the new garden.
What is the green Powder beside the pink salt?