Use the charcoal, crushed, in your composting toilet. Less odor. Automatic inoculation. Check out C-Head composting toilets. DIY is doable and can be emulated.
Diego I too have made quite a bit of biochar. I have been able to notice quite a difference in the locations that I've put it on the soil. I have used a simple 55 gal drum with the ends cut off. Its crazy easy to make and like you I can't see any harm with converting my waste wood products into char. Cheers
Diego, how pleasing to see this video. I have used an old washing machine tub to make bio-char for a year or so. I do it the exact same way. Except I often BBQ on the tub after the volatiles are burnt off. It is a great method. I loved your tamper, I will try that. To grind up my bio-char I have wrapped it in a thick canvas sheet and lay the bundle in my concrete driveway. After a couple of weeks of driving over it it is somewhat nicely ground down. The canvas keeps it contained. "Do the work"! Love it. The best way to get something done is to do it. Thank you.
going with the stacking functions principle, this would also be useful as odor control in the chicken coop under the bedding. if it was inoculated with em-1 that will guarantee the odor mitigation. Definitely some good work!
If you think about how forests work biochar should work great. Like most things it takes time. Forests have fires. It burns the underbrush and helps the forest to grow. Naturally there is biochar in forests that naturally uptake and release nutrients to the trees and plants. In a healthy ecosystem it benefits the forest greatly by removing and decluttering the forest floor and adding minerals and vitamins to the soil. The forests always come back better than before the fire. So I would definitely say it is a good thing to add to your soil
Is a thought as to why the plains of central part of America where so fertial when farming first took place as settlers moved in....yearly fires, animal movement over the plains, deposit of dung as they grazed and moved on...
Here in the Mojave Desert, with its high silt and sand and alkali soil, a small amount of activated biochar and clay or natural kitty litter and gypsum are awesome amendments if you don't want to have to keep busting your tail to keep the soil healthy and not have to worry about the nutrients that you put into it being leached out almost as fast as you put them into it.
I like your attitude, e.g., your simple low cost approach. I question the need for commercial biochar. I use simple crushed char, but find the crushing tedious, e.g., long & tiring. But I will keep experimenting until it becomes easier & quicker. However, I would always inoculate before using in my container garden mix. 1. Plain biochar repels water. 2. Plain biochar put into the soil takes about a year to become an asset. But in 2 weeks it can be "activated" (inoculated) and it works immediately. We need a shorter term (name) for inoculated biochar, along with standards, e.g., maximum char size.
is it the quality of biochar made from whatever materials used or is it the quality you get after you activate it with nutrient rich substances (composted material)....I understand (or think I do) that the size of the biochar needs(?) to be a poweder size, spread out over the soil or added as an addition in compost so you have a better crop starting the first year of use....
I see that you clearly state that the biochar needs crushing (down to a size of a marble or smaller, and even a coarse powder) but doesn't that defeat the purpose of all those beautiful little 'air pockets' in biochar? It would seem akin to grinding pumice when the beauty of pumice is the air pockets, also. Can you help me understand, please. Thanks for all your insight and generous efforts at sharing your ideas ... it is much appreciated!
my opinion on biochar is that it can really improve soil that's less than optimal, but if you've already got optimal soil, it's not going to change much.
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It will add resilience to the fertility by banking carbon that won't volatilize into ammonia.
I agree, but I am pretty lazy with it. Mixing it when I am making large volumes is tough and it is harder and heavier to spread. I generally leave it out long enough to oxidize, then add it straight to the soil in the beds. I realize it may "rob" nutrients in the short term, but I am not going to worry about that. I view this as adding it is better than not adding it, so I am not going to get caught up in having to be perfect about it.
I believe the difference is structure. With biochar, all of the volatiles have been burnt off, but the structural matrix of the fuel source remains intact. This provides a microscopic honeycomb effect which allows the biochar to absorb and hold high quantities of water, nutrients, microbes, etc., relative to the volume of biochar. So really, the biochar is more of a vessel than an amendment. Wood ash has no similar structure, so when it is added, it's done more for its ability to raise pH and/or for the potassium and trace minerals it provides.
Ash has no structure. Charcoal is like a microscopic reef. It has no nutritional value, but it retains nutrients given to it by absorption. You got to soup the charcoal with %50 leaves or other organic material before putting it in the soil. Uncharged charcoal will rob the bed of nutrients for a long time if you don't.
ash is complete breakdown of the wood when burning, biochar is slightly less total burn, but even the wood ash is good for the soil as it helps to bring ther soil into a neutral balance, careful how heavy you add per square foot..
I don't understand why burning wood would be more fertile than composted, maybe because it's not. Are you making coal for someone to burn or recovering soil fertility? Mulch, mulch, much or compost, compost, compost, that's what nature loves to do to make it self grow from the sun harvesting.
The charcoal will have a honeycomb structure at the microscopic level, which helps it hold water and nutrients and give lots of surface area for beneficial soil microbes to live. Also has some properties that make it "adsorbent" (with a "d") which means that it holds ions to it electro-statically, so they don't leach away. It also will stay in the soil for hundreds or thousands of years (look up terra preta soils), meaning it is a long term carbon sink. Amazing stuff, really.
Brandon McGinnity All I see is fancy explanations of a misunderstood practice which is soil recovery, the fancy explanations to justify burning trees are based on a funny bias (please notice what they said "Terra preta soil has pottery and the soil is black so that means it's man made" Hahaha, and they say it's a scientific whatever, also they said they mixed hard pale soil which is crazy). Terra preta the way people paint it in their minds is a missile of misguided info from exploiters and unfortuned ignorance. Be clear about that when understanding nature fertile soil making process. You can have the benefit that the people who burn trees promote through composting tree instead of burning them. You can make Real Terra preta faster by prolonging the weeds that have very long deep and dense roots in the fields, having trees and continously mulching/composting. Regenerative farming have a some knowledge of this but they too are not aware of others stuff they do that it's nonsense (like animal explotation).
Brandon McGinnity also in the videos that promote burning trees for charcoal they said rainforest soils are the worst and the Indians were the ones making fertile soils by burning trees. OMG! That's plain crazyness! Who are those people who are misguiding us? Rainforest are fertile because they accumulate sun energy and make compost continuously, rainforest were there before people.
A lot of research has been conducted on biochar and it's widely recognized to boost soil and plant health and production. There are many, many scientific papers on it online and you can read how the experiments were conducted, the results, and the conclusions.
Use the charcoal, crushed, in your composting toilet. Less odor. Automatic inoculation. Check out C-Head composting toilets. DIY is doable and can be emulated.
Diego I too have made quite a bit of biochar. I have been able to notice quite a difference in the locations that I've put it on the soil. I have used a simple 55 gal drum with the ends cut off. Its crazy easy to make and like you I can't see any harm with converting my waste wood products into char. Cheers
Diego, how pleasing to see this video. I have used an old washing machine tub to make bio-char for a year or so. I do it the exact same way. Except I often BBQ on the tub after the volatiles are burnt off. It is a great method. I loved your tamper, I will try that. To grind up my bio-char I have wrapped it in a thick canvas sheet and lay the bundle in my concrete driveway. After a couple of weeks of driving over it it is somewhat nicely ground down. The canvas keeps it contained. "Do the work"! Love it. The best way to get something done is to do it. Thank you.
Heck, even the un burned wood is Hugelkulture in miniature.
Thanks for making a helpful, open and practical video to help so many of us learn to make biochar.
Sure, more ahead there, and a long podcast on biochar coming up in September with Gloria Flora.
going with the stacking functions principle, this would also be useful as odor control in the chicken coop under the bedding. if it was inoculated with em-1 that will guarantee the odor mitigation. Definitely some good work!
If you think about how forests work biochar should work great. Like most things it takes time. Forests have fires. It burns the underbrush and helps the forest to grow. Naturally there is biochar in forests that naturally uptake and release nutrients to the trees and plants. In a healthy ecosystem it benefits the forest greatly by removing and decluttering the forest floor and adding minerals and vitamins to the soil. The forests always come back better than before the fire. So I would definitely say it is a good thing to add to your soil
Is a thought as to why the plains of central part of America where so fertial when farming first took place as settlers moved in....yearly fires, animal movement over the plains, deposit of dung as they grazed and moved on...
Here in the Mojave Desert, with its high silt and sand and alkali soil, a small amount of activated biochar and clay or natural kitty litter and gypsum are awesome amendments if you don't want to have to keep busting your tail to keep the soil healthy and not have to worry about the nutrients that you put into it being leached out almost as fast as you put them into it.
In my reading about biochar a powder is what you do not want. You want marble size char so the microbes have a place to live.
I like your attitude, e.g., your simple low cost approach. I question the need for commercial biochar. I use simple crushed char, but find the crushing tedious, e.g., long & tiring. But I will keep experimenting until it becomes easier & quicker.
However, I would always inoculate before using in my container garden mix. 1. Plain biochar repels water. 2. Plain biochar put into the soil takes about a year to become an asset. But in 2 weeks it can be "activated" (inoculated) and it works immediately.
We need a shorter term (name) for inoculated biochar, along with standards, e.g., maximum char size.
I have good podcast coming up in September with Gloria Flora on the subject. She gave me some good advice and covers a lot of practical topics.
you show how you build bio-reactors, add the biochar as you put in layers of materials so over the year of composting you intergrate the nutrients....
I wonder if one of those small electric branch and leaf chipper shredders would work to break down the Char???
is it the quality of biochar made from whatever materials used or is it the quality you get after you activate it with nutrient rich substances (composted material)....I understand (or think I do) that the size of the biochar needs(?) to be a poweder size, spread out over the soil or added as an addition in compost so you have a better crop starting the first year of use....
I see that you clearly state that the biochar needs crushing (down to a size of a marble or smaller, and even a coarse powder) but doesn't that defeat the purpose of all those beautiful little 'air pockets' in biochar? It would seem akin to grinding pumice when the beauty of pumice is the air pockets, also. Can you help me understand, please. Thanks for all your insight and generous efforts at sharing your ideas ... it is much appreciated!
You can collect BIOCHAR from you woodgas stove. Just don't let it burn to ash.
my opinion on biochar is that it can really improve soil that's less than optimal, but if you've already got optimal soil, it's not going to change much.
It will add resilience to the fertility by banking carbon that won't volatilize into ammonia.
If I may make one suggestion. I wouldn't crunch the char without first mixing in a tea/inoculant/em1/imo/fertilizer
Happy trails~
I agree, but I am pretty lazy with it. Mixing it when I am making large volumes is tough and it is harder and heavier to spread. I generally leave it out long enough to oxidize, then add it straight to the soil in the beds. I realize it may "rob" nutrients in the short term, but I am not going to worry about that. I view this as adding it is better than not adding it, so I am not going to get caught up in having to be perfect about it.
If nothing else you spent time with your boys, thats an investment that pays and repays.
I lost it at "10 minutes of manual beating" 😂
Do you still use biochar? What are your thoughts on effectiveness?
Yes, use lots. Science seems thin to me. If I couldn’t make it for free I probably wouldn’t use it. I’m not sold that it makes a big difference.
Honest man. Respect brah.
So what is the difference between bio char and ash from wood stove?
I believe the difference is structure. With biochar, all of the volatiles have been burnt off, but the structural matrix of the fuel source remains intact. This provides a microscopic honeycomb effect which allows the biochar to absorb and hold high quantities of water, nutrients, microbes, etc., relative to the volume of biochar. So really, the biochar is more of a vessel than an amendment. Wood ash has no similar structure, so when it is added, it's done more for its ability to raise pH and/or for the potassium and trace minerals it provides.
jplant1414 would be intetesting to see a microscopic photo of such
Ash is made by complete combustion. Charcoal is made by "cooking" in the absence of oxygen aka pyrolysis en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis
Ash has no structure. Charcoal is like a microscopic reef. It has no nutritional value, but it retains nutrients given to it by absorption. You got to soup the charcoal with %50 leaves or other organic material before putting it in the soil. Uncharged charcoal will rob the bed of nutrients for a long time if you don't.
ash is complete breakdown of the wood when burning, biochar is slightly less total burn, but even the wood ash is good for the soil as it helps to bring ther soil into a neutral balance, careful how heavy you add per square foot..
Don’t use powder. It clogs up your soil. Use the grainy bits.
I am not sure about that. It all turns to powder eventually.
I don't understand why burning wood would be more fertile than composted, maybe because it's not. Are you making coal for someone to burn or recovering soil fertility?
Mulch, mulch, much or compost, compost, compost, that's what nature loves to do to make it self grow from the sun harvesting.
The charcoal will have a honeycomb structure at the microscopic level, which helps it hold water and nutrients and give lots of surface area for beneficial soil microbes to live. Also has some properties that make it "adsorbent" (with a "d") which means that it holds ions to it electro-statically, so they don't leach away. It also will stay in the soil for hundreds or thousands of years (look up terra preta soils), meaning it is a long term carbon sink. Amazing stuff, really.
Brandon McGinnity All I see is fancy explanations of a misunderstood practice which is soil recovery, the fancy explanations to justify burning trees are based on a funny bias (please notice what they said "Terra preta soil has pottery and the soil is black so that means it's man made" Hahaha, and they say it's a scientific whatever, also they said they mixed hard pale soil which is crazy).
Terra preta the way people paint it in their minds is a missile of misguided info from exploiters and unfortuned ignorance. Be clear about that when understanding nature fertile soil making process. You can have the benefit that the people who burn trees promote through composting tree instead of burning them.
You can make Real Terra preta faster by prolonging the weeds that have very long deep and dense roots in the fields, having trees and continously mulching/composting. Regenerative farming have a some knowledge of this but they too are not aware of others stuff they do that it's nonsense (like animal explotation).
Brandon McGinnity also in the videos that promote burning trees for charcoal they said rainforest soils are the worst and the Indians were the ones making fertile soils by burning trees. OMG!
That's plain crazyness! Who are those people who are misguiding us?
Rainforest are fertile because they accumulate sun energy and make compost continuously, rainforest were there before people.
Ruben Martins they have a lot of nutriment locked up in the canopy
A lot of research has been conducted on biochar and it's widely recognized to boost soil and plant health and production. There are many, many scientific papers on it online and you can read how the experiments were conducted, the results, and the conclusions.