The way the natives did it was that they simply burned their fields every spring for decades. Then they raked the charcoal, adhes and soil up into mounds and they planted their crops in small hills or mounds. These fields of hills extended for hundreds of yards all around their villages. Burning the weeds back kept the ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes away and it prevented wildfires from burning the village. Keeping the area clear for several hundreds yards around prevented an enemy from getting close enough to send flaming areas into your thatched roofs. I do things in a different way. I make my own charcoal by burning wood then when the flames start to die down I put out the fire with a hoae. I wait an hour then I stir it up and hose it down again. . The next day I sift it through a piece of 1/2" rabbit cage wire. I store the charcoal in metal trash cans. I spread the charcoal about an inch thick over the chicken coop floor. I let the chickens break it up a nd mix it into the dirt of the chicken coop floor. After a few months the charcoal is no longer visible. I use a flat shovel to take off the top two or three inches of chicken coop soil. I use that soil in my container garden
I prefer long videos so that nothing is missed . And I like your ending with closing the doors on your greenhouse at night . This is usually the time of day when I feel finished in my garden , I work in my garden from can till can't. That means from when I can see till when I can't. 😂
I make my own charcoal out of oak heating pellets. More uniform product and the correct size. No smashing needed. But I do have to use fire to make it. It does take a long time to make those small batches though - about 3 hours per 12 quart batch. 1 bag of those HEATING pellets yields about 1/2 to 2/3rds of that bag in the form of charcoal, I put in RAIN WATER, some Azomite, Epsom salts. Sometimes other goodies like sulfur free molasses. Or even plain table sugar if no molasses, A handful of soil gets it all started. I use an air pump to aerate the solution. Once finished and reasonably moist but not wet, I sprinkle on some bone meal (shake-n-bake method). Save any liquid left over for the next batch or use it to water existing plants in your yard. You can use a screen type kitchen wire strainer to strain out the charcoal. Pour from one bucket through the strainer into another bucket. Let drip till it doesn't drip anymore. You could use a colander but it clogs quickly and lets some of the charcoal pass through. Or you can simply spread it out on cardboard in the driveway and let the sun dry it but sunlight can kill some of the microbes. Optimal biochar rate is about 8% to 10% by volume in the root zone to the surface. Note: the hotter the temperature when making the charcoal the better the product will be. Hot enough to melt aluminum is about right. Or roughly 1400F+ degrees. Use a stainless steel crock pot with lid. You can make 30-50 batches before the pot gets holes in it. If you need large batches, you need to build a TLUD. If you are poor or just plain CHEAP, do the trench method. Of course buying 'Cowboy Charcoal' can be easier but you have to smash it plus the pieces are not uniform in size. You want no bigger than pea size if you can. Powdery size can get washed out of the soil when you water or it rains. Powdery size best for indoor potted plants (but NOT Orchids for some reason).
@@ZenGardenOasis. Thank you. Voice of experience and lots of research here - years worth. The Molasses provides both organic carbon and carbohydrates. They can multiple quickly with that. The more of those you have the better your plants will be. Think biochar as a kind of townhouse or apartment building of sorts for those microbes too. Large pieces of charcoal does not have the same surface area needed to do the job. Ever look at aquarium charcoal? Looks like grains of salt on a pretzel? There is a reason they make it that way. Pea sized is a bit larger than that. But seems to work pretty well after 2-3 years in the soil. Longer it is there the better it works. This is not to say that 1st year cannot help you - it will if mineralized and inoculated properly. If you fail to mineralize the charcoal, it can and does draw out loads of nitrogen and other minerals from the soil. Best to use untreated charcoal as a mulch - weeds need those things too and can't get them lol Remember, dry charcoal is lightweight and the wind can blow it away (surface applied charcoal) Look up Cationic and Anionic exchange. .
So, I have watched the video through and read many comments. I am unclear about the inoculating. It sounds like charcoal will leach nutrients from the soil, but soaking it in a nutrient-rich liquid means that it soaks up those nutrients instead. Then, in the garden, the charcoal releases those nutrients slowly, like a slow-release nutrient battery. Or, does it instead mean that the charcoal does other benefits without leaching nutrients? If it is about releasing nutrients slowly, a slow-release fertilizer seems decent enough. Am I missing something? Thanks!
@@Austin1990 A bit more to inoculating than just adding minerals. Untreated biochar will draw out minerals and even other things, in particular heavy metals. It is almost like activated carbon in a way. When I did mine, I added in Epsom salt, sulfur free molasses, and urine as a minimum. If a particular batch was going to be used for non food plants (potted annuals) I sometimes would add in some Miracle Grow to the water. Biochar helps keep soil loose (fryability I think is the term) and helps retain water. It is a gray color when dry but when it gets wet, it turns really black. Easy way to know of you might need to water. Biochar is mostly mean to be a condo for soil microbes. Smaller the particles the more surface area for everything. But too small and it can get washed out. This is why I chose 100% hardwood heating pellets. About the right size (similar in size to perlite), easy to handle and measure, and NO SMASHING required. The moment I took mine out of the wood burner, I quenched it immediately in the solution. Fractures some of it into smaller pieces and as it cools, it draws the solution into it. It will take a couple of years or more to see how well it works. Not a magic bullet. SOME plants do not like biochar at all (carrots I think and blueberry bushes are among them). I could be mistaken as it's been a long while since I researched everything. Yes, it will release nutrients but it's primary goal is to provide habitat for soil microbes and retain water. Oh after I quench mine, I let it air dry. Then store it in sealed 5 gal buckets for future use. Sometimes I mix in the soil right away (depends on what I plan to do). If you want to precondition the biochar, toss in a handful of garden soil in the water AFTER it cools below 130F. Then aerate it for a few weeks in a warm place. Be sure to use the sulfur free molasses. The microbes will want a carbon source too (they can't use biochar as a food source) so some comfrey or weed tea helps them. Biochar is 100% sterile right out of the stove too. You can even eat it if desired. See Doctor before eating carbon.
@@crazysquirrel9425 I really appreciate all the thoughtful information! The pellets are a good idea. The closest thing aI have to hardwood is crape myrtle wood. I am new to gardening, so I am still trying to get my head around everything. Thank you!
Lots of great information ! I have been meaning to make a batch but we have been dry here as well . That was a good idea with the tapper . I have been making it for several years now and love using it . I always wanted to filter pond water over it from Spring to Fall and collect all that goodness. Basically a big fish tank filter . You would be cleaning aerating and collecting fertilizer all in one shot . Thanks for sharing and have a great day !
Everything I ever carbonized I put it a metal can with a lid on it and burned the can in a fire until it was black all the way through to make the charcoal and then ran it through an activation process which just increases the surface area/ makes it more porous. I have noticed that digging thought pots and containers and even in the ground and the garden that there was small chunks of charcoal mixed in it, I have no clue where it came from but I have never put any in anything.
could be from natural fires long ago. What is your activation process to increase surface area? For me, I quickly quench my HOT charcoal into cold water, which fractures the charcoal like a hot glass to cold water does. As it cools, it draws in the goodies I put in that water.
There are ways to do it in an electric oven. IF you can get it hot enough. Otherwise you create poor quality charcoal (temps about 500F to 600F or so). Fire can make it much much hotter.
You can buy an inoculant or simply use a handful of your garden soul in water. Add in things you want into the water first. Once everything is in there, aerate the water for 3 days to multiple weeks (depending on what you put in the water and the temperature of the water). Compost tea makes great inoculant. Do not use treated or tap water! The chemicals in it are designed to kill the microbes and other things.
So happy to have found your channel you have excellent information very accurate and without a bunch of unnecessary hype . But couldn't you mention anything anecdotes in a humorous way or try smiling 😊. Please
So.. I used to make a char cloth for use with flint and steel for fire making . Basically it was a clean cotton cloth , inside a clean metal paint can with a lid and a small hole poked in the lid. You set the can over a heat source which did exactly what you described, it was a restricted oxygen burn. The smoke out of the hole stopped ,once burn was complete . You allowed the can to fully cool before opening the lid or the rush of oxygen would allow it to burst into flame and eventually turn the cloth to useless ash. For the technique, the charcloth would be wrapped around the steel and flint applied to make spark into the charcloth and a fire is easily made. Im assuming your charcoal procedure is similar if not exactly the same. Sorry to be long-winded to lead to my question , but could a bag of lump charcoal be used to save time.
So happy to have found your channel you have excellent information very accurate and without a bunch of unnecessary hype . But couldn't you mention anything anecdotes in a humorous way or try smiling 😊. Please
The way the natives did it was that they simply burned their fields every spring for decades. Then they raked the charcoal, adhes and soil up into mounds and they planted their crops in small hills or mounds.
These fields of hills extended for hundreds of yards all around their villages.
Burning the weeds back kept the ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes away and it prevented wildfires from burning the village.
Keeping the area clear for several hundreds yards around prevented an enemy from getting close enough to send flaming areas into your thatched roofs.
I do things in a different way. I make my own charcoal by burning wood then when the flames start to die down I put out the fire with a hoae.
I wait an hour then I stir it up and hose it down again. .
The next day I sift it through a piece of 1/2" rabbit cage wire.
I store the charcoal in metal trash cans.
I spread the charcoal about an inch thick over the chicken coop floor.
I let the chickens break it up a nd mix it into the dirt of the chicken coop floor.
After a few months the charcoal is no longer visible.
I use a flat shovel to take off the top two or three inches of chicken coop soil. I use that soil in my container garden
Your bonsai in the background are works of art ! ❤
Thank you so much. It’s been a hobby since 1997.
Best information I’ve seen yet on how and why to use biochar - thank you
Thanks for your kinds words.
The term you were hunting for in the South American experience is Terra Preta. Good clip, kept is simple.
Thank you….it was a fascinating documentary.
I prefer long videos so that nothing is missed . And I like your ending with closing the doors on your greenhouse at night . This is usually the time of day when I feel finished in my garden , I work in my garden from can till can't. That means from when I can see till when I can't. 😂
Awesome, thank you!
@ZenGardenOasis. Your most welcome my man.
Thanks we call it ‘charcoal’. Then it becomes ‘biochar’ once inoculated. -great video thanks
Great point!
We toss charcoal in our chicken run to keep smells down and inoculate the charcoal at the same time
This is the best video about bio char.
I make my own charcoal out of oak heating pellets. More uniform product and the correct size. No smashing needed. But I do have to use fire to make it.
It does take a long time to make those small batches though - about 3 hours per 12 quart batch. 1 bag of those HEATING pellets yields about 1/2 to 2/3rds of that bag in the form of charcoal,
I put in RAIN WATER, some Azomite, Epsom salts. Sometimes other goodies like sulfur free molasses. Or even plain table sugar if no molasses,
A handful of soil gets it all started. I use an air pump to aerate the solution.
Once finished and reasonably moist but not wet, I sprinkle on some bone meal (shake-n-bake method).
Save any liquid left over for the next batch or use it to water existing plants in your yard.
You can use a screen type kitchen wire strainer to strain out the charcoal. Pour from one bucket through the strainer into another bucket. Let drip till it doesn't drip anymore. You could use a colander but it clogs quickly and lets some of the charcoal pass through.
Or you can simply spread it out on cardboard in the driveway and let the sun dry it but sunlight can kill some of the microbes.
Optimal biochar rate is about 8% to 10% by volume in the root zone to the surface.
Note: the hotter the temperature when making the charcoal the better the product will be. Hot enough to melt aluminum is about right. Or roughly 1400F+ degrees.
Use a stainless steel crock pot with lid. You can make 30-50 batches before the pot gets holes in it.
If you need large batches, you need to build a TLUD.
If you are poor or just plain CHEAP, do the trench method.
Of course buying 'Cowboy Charcoal' can be easier but you have to smash it plus the pieces are not uniform in size.
You want no bigger than pea size if you can.
Powdery size can get washed out of the soil when you water or it rains.
Powdery size best for indoor potted plants (but NOT Orchids for some reason).
Great information….
@@ZenGardenOasis. Thank you. Voice of experience and lots of research here - years worth.
The Molasses provides both organic carbon and carbohydrates. They can multiple quickly with that.
The more of those you have the better your plants will be.
Think biochar as a kind of townhouse or apartment building of sorts for those microbes too.
Large pieces of charcoal does not have the same surface area needed to do the job.
Ever look at aquarium charcoal? Looks like grains of salt on a pretzel? There is a reason they make it that way.
Pea sized is a bit larger than that. But seems to work pretty well after 2-3 years in the soil.
Longer it is there the better it works.
This is not to say that 1st year cannot help you - it will if mineralized and inoculated properly.
If you fail to mineralize the charcoal, it can and does draw out loads of nitrogen and other minerals from the soil.
Best to use untreated charcoal as a mulch - weeds need those things too and can't get them lol
Remember, dry charcoal is lightweight and the wind can blow it away (surface applied charcoal)
Look up Cationic and Anionic exchange.
.
So, I have watched the video through and read many comments. I am unclear about the inoculating. It sounds like charcoal will leach nutrients from the soil, but soaking it in a nutrient-rich liquid means that it soaks up those nutrients instead. Then, in the garden, the charcoal releases those nutrients slowly, like a slow-release nutrient battery. Or, does it instead mean that the charcoal does other benefits without leaching nutrients? If it is about releasing nutrients slowly, a slow-release fertilizer seems decent enough. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
@@Austin1990 A bit more to inoculating than just adding minerals.
Untreated biochar will draw out minerals and even other things, in particular heavy metals. It is almost like activated carbon in a way.
When I did mine, I added in Epsom salt, sulfur free molasses, and urine as a minimum.
If a particular batch was going to be used for non food plants (potted annuals) I sometimes would add in some Miracle Grow to the water.
Biochar helps keep soil loose (fryability I think is the term) and helps retain water.
It is a gray color when dry but when it gets wet, it turns really black. Easy way to know of you might need to water.
Biochar is mostly mean to be a condo for soil microbes.
Smaller the particles the more surface area for everything. But too small and it can get washed out.
This is why I chose 100% hardwood heating pellets. About the right size (similar in size to perlite), easy to handle and measure, and NO SMASHING required.
The moment I took mine out of the wood burner, I quenched it immediately in the solution.
Fractures some of it into smaller pieces and as it cools, it draws the solution into it.
It will take a couple of years or more to see how well it works. Not a magic bullet.
SOME plants do not like biochar at all (carrots I think and blueberry bushes are among them).
I could be mistaken as it's been a long while since I researched everything.
Yes, it will release nutrients but it's primary goal is to provide habitat for soil microbes and retain water.
Oh after I quench mine, I let it air dry. Then store it in sealed 5 gal buckets for future use.
Sometimes I mix in the soil right away (depends on what I plan to do).
If you want to precondition the biochar, toss in a handful of garden soil in the water AFTER it cools below 130F.
Then aerate it for a few weeks in a warm place.
Be sure to use the sulfur free molasses. The microbes will want a carbon source too (they can't use biochar as a food source) so some comfrey or weed tea helps them.
Biochar is 100% sterile right out of the stove too. You can even eat it if desired. See Doctor before eating carbon.
@@crazysquirrel9425 I really appreciate all the thoughtful information! The pellets are a good idea. The closest thing aI have to hardwood is crape myrtle wood. I am new to gardening, so I am still trying to get my head around everything. Thank you!
I add JADAM Microbial Solution to my biochar to activate it, work great😊
Compost tea?
Lots of great information ! I have been meaning to make a batch but we have been dry here as well . That was a good idea with the tapper . I have been making it for several years now and love using it . I always wanted to filter pond water over it from Spring to Fall and collect all that goodness. Basically a big fish tank filter . You would be cleaning aerating and collecting fertilizer all in one shot . Thanks for sharing and have a great day !
Thanks a million
Great information, have a wonderful day!
Thank you! You too!
"Terra Pretta" is the name for the Amazonian soil that's full of bio char and beneficial microbes, that is estimated to be thousands of years old!
Everything I ever carbonized I put it a metal can with a lid on it and burned the can in a fire until it was black all the way through to make the charcoal and then ran it through an activation process which just increases the surface area/ makes it more porous. I have noticed that digging thought pots and containers and even in the ground and the garden that there was small chunks of charcoal mixed in it, I have no clue where it came from but I have never put any in anything.
could be from natural fires long ago.
What is your activation process to increase surface area?
For me, I quickly quench my HOT charcoal into cold water, which fractures the charcoal like a hot glass to cold water does.
As it cools, it draws in the goodies I put in that water.
Great point. Quench with nutrition rich water. That is pre- activated biochar - the rest is piss easy.
So how do you char without fire?
There are ways to do it in an electric oven.
IF you can get it hot enough.
Otherwise you create poor quality charcoal (temps about 500F to 600F or so).
Fire can make it much much hotter.
So if I inderstand correctly urine can replace the worms and compost?
So how do I inoculate, and can I just buy that way?
You can buy an inoculant or simply use a handful of your garden soul in water. Add in things you want into the water first. Once everything is in there, aerate the water for 3 days to multiple weeks (depending on what you put in the water and the temperature of the water).
Compost tea makes great inoculant.
Do not use treated or tap water! The chemicals in it are designed to kill the microbes and other things.
Thank you that's a great idea. How much urine would you use?
So happy to have found your channel you have excellent information very accurate and without a bunch of unnecessary hype . But couldn't you mention anything anecdotes in a humorous way or try smiling 😊. Please
Awesome! Thank you!
How deep into the soil should I dig the biochar?
I usually mix in to the top 6”
So.. I used to make a char cloth for use with flint and steel for fire making . Basically it was a clean cotton cloth , inside a clean metal paint can with a lid and a small hole poked in the lid. You set the can over a heat source which did exactly what you described, it was a restricted oxygen burn. The smoke out of the hole stopped ,once burn was complete . You allowed the can to fully cool before opening the lid or the rush of oxygen would allow it to burst into flame and eventually turn the cloth to useless ash.
For the technique, the charcloth would be wrapped around the steel and flint applied to make spark into the charcloth and a fire is easily made.
Im assuming your charcoal procedure is similar if not exactly the same. Sorry to be long-winded to lead to my question , but could a bag of lump charcoal be used to save time.
Great video one questis there any plants or vegetables? You do not want to use biochar.?
Not that I’m aware. Great stuff.
Can't you just put that in a garbage bag before crushing to keep the dust in the bag?
Great idea
11:55 use an old pillowcase
Informative but respectfully, about eight minutes too long.
I must have mist the amount of worm casting you add to that 5 galon pale
The misting takes place on the charcoal while crushing it. 5 gallon bucket is 50% water.
1 gallon.
Im confused. There are videos that explains the process of making biochar and its not the same as making charcoal.
did you say in the dog food section of walmart?
BBQ area
Nonsense about masks and dust.
mumbo-jumbo
Get to the point. I don't have all day,
Rude.
So happy to have found your channel you have excellent information very accurate and without a bunch of unnecessary hype . But couldn't you mention anything anecdotes in a humorous way or try smiling 😊. Please
I appreciate that!
Does a chemistry teacher have to smile during an important lesson ?