Nice video. I tried a similar method last year. After sifting the charcoal bits out I run them through the Vita Mix to make a powder, and then I add a few tablespoons of the powder to my 5 gallon worm castings tea recipe. The charcoal absorbs a lot of the smell of the fish emulsion that goes into the tea which cuts down on complaints about the smell of the tea.
Hi Robyn so interesting, reminded of when I was a kid, being raised in the UK, my job everyday before school was to clean out the fireplace and rebuild the fire ready to be lit when we got home in the afternoon. Everything was just thrown in the compost pile, but times change. Thanks again take care. 🪱♻️
Hi Robyn, just catching up on my videos after a few days on the property catching up on burning while I still can. Currently I am just like others and add the ash and coals to a compost heap but I'll definitely start a new system along your lines now as it's a more beneficial method I think. Thank you as always for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Yay!! Biochar video from Robyn. :) This will be a bit long-winded, but you asked. :) Your method is a bit different from mine. I gathered cinder blocks from an abandoned yard where a house once stood. With the blocks, I created a fire pit. All I do is toss in medium-size wood from the yard and top with twigs. To start the fire, I chop off pieces of a pine stump as the resin is very fast and hot burning. From here, I place the pine pieces on top of the twigs, and it's FLAME ON! I'll continue to add larger wood until the pit is full and watch it burn. I'll make adjustments as needed. Once the flames die, I'll break out the hose. The next day, I pull out any unburned wood and set it aside for the next burn. Then I use my tamp to break up the char. Concerning the buckets, I do something similar to you, but my buckets are left open for the rain. I figure this will allow the char to collect some nitrogen and whatnot from the atmosphere. Once I get enough buckets, I plan to finish the inoculation period with my castings. TBH I haven't thought to use worm tea. Maybe I'll whip up a couple of five-gallon buckets. Question about the ash. Is it beneficial to use on all plants or certain ones? I've thought about doing this but didn't want to risk killing my plants or soil.
Thanks Eric! I'm really interested to try a method like this! Might have to try soon before fire season here and we have restricted burns. Will see what I can gather up from the house :) I thought to maybe leave the bucket open, however found that it attracted mosquitos and we barely get any rain here so it probably would dry up fast. I prefer to use the ash around flowers (as potassium encourages more bud growth) and more established bushes/trees :)
@@thenaturepatch you know, we get tons of mosquitoes here, but for whatever reason they don't mess with my biochar buckets. Now that I think about it I have no idea why. Could be the other rain buckets I have around the gardens...or the gardens themselves. 🤔
Great video, and great mid-week viewing. Recently spread a small quantity of biochar (made from bone) around the garden and in the worm farm to activate it. Broke it up where I could, but not too concerned about the size and surface area of this small batch. Love all things bio-char and terra preta. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Robyn. So awesome. So if I do not have worm casting tea, would I just use water? And at the end I see you using the powder form, but it looked black in the bin. can you explain, did you dry it out again or are you sprinkling potash there? How do you apply the biochar? This is so cool to me, you know I love re-using things to feed my garden! I can't wait to watch your update video too.
Hey Dani! You can use water but anything high nitrogen works a lot better. The weed tea you make would be an awesome liquid to soak them in 😍 I was spreading the potash in this video as the biochar wasn’t quite ready (and I was eager to get the video out hehe). But I usually just apply it the same way it’s just a little chunkier as it’s wet so I mix it in to the soil too ☺️ Hope all is well with you! And you’re not in the line of that hurricane hanging around 😬
Worm " juice" great use a for " charging" the biochar, another good agent is human urine ~ as gross as it sounds, it's a very ancient way ( " the old ways"). Thx Robyn, well done video.
Thank you! I think there's a few definitions for this but the 'activated' charcoal I refer to in this video is activating with microbes and nitrogen to feed the plants :)
Nice video. I tried a similar method last year. After sifting the charcoal bits out I run them through the Vita Mix to make a powder, and then I add a few tablespoons of the powder to my 5 gallon worm castings tea recipe. The charcoal absorbs a lot of the smell of the fish emulsion that goes into the tea which cuts down on complaints about the smell of the tea.
Hi Robyn so interesting, reminded of when I was a kid, being raised in the UK, my job everyday before school was to clean out the fireplace and rebuild the fire ready to be lit when we got home in the afternoon. Everything was just thrown in the compost pile, but times change. Thanks again take care. 🪱♻️
Thanks Barry! Yeah I've only recently been experimenting new ways to use it :)
Hi Robyn, just catching up on my videos after a few days on the property catching up on burning while I still can.
Currently I am just like others and add the ash and coals to a compost heap but I'll definitely start a new system along your lines now as it's a more beneficial method I think.
Thank you as always for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Very interesting. I'm doing it almost like you but until now I was just putting it directly on the compost heap without sifting it.
Yay!! Biochar video from Robyn. :)
This will be a bit long-winded, but you asked. :)
Your method is a bit different from mine. I gathered cinder blocks from an abandoned yard where a house once stood. With the blocks, I created a fire pit. All I do is toss in medium-size wood from the yard and top with twigs. To start the fire, I chop off pieces of a pine stump as the resin is very fast and hot burning. From here, I place the pine pieces on top of the twigs, and it's FLAME ON! I'll continue to add larger wood until the pit is full and watch it burn. I'll make adjustments as needed. Once the flames die, I'll break out the hose. The next day, I pull out any unburned wood and set it aside for the next burn. Then I use my tamp to break up the char.
Concerning the buckets, I do something similar to you, but my buckets are left open for the rain. I figure this will allow the char to collect some nitrogen and whatnot from the atmosphere. Once I get enough buckets, I plan to finish the inoculation period with my castings. TBH I haven't thought to use worm tea. Maybe I'll whip up a couple of five-gallon buckets.
Question about the ash. Is it beneficial to use on all plants or certain ones? I've thought about doing this but didn't want to risk killing my plants or soil.
Thanks Eric! I'm really interested to try a method like this! Might have to try soon before fire season here and we have restricted burns. Will see what I can gather up from the house :)
I thought to maybe leave the bucket open, however found that it attracted mosquitos and we barely get any rain here so it probably would dry up fast.
I prefer to use the ash around flowers (as potassium encourages more bud growth) and more established bushes/trees :)
@@thenaturepatch you know, we get tons of mosquitoes here, but for whatever reason they don't mess with my biochar buckets. Now that I think about it I have no idea why. Could be the other rain buckets I have around the gardens...or the gardens themselves. 🤔
@@thenaturepatch reading this answer..Awesome.
I would think that the charcoal would collect pollutants from the air.
Great video, and great mid-week viewing. Recently spread a small quantity of biochar (made from bone) around the garden and in the worm farm to activate it. Broke it up where I could, but not too concerned about the size and surface area of this small batch. Love all things bio-char and terra preta. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching! Biochar is just amazing! :)
Never tried it before, looks easy enough will have to give it a go. Thanks
The worms in the soil will love it :)
Perfect! Thanks for the vdeo and explanation
Take my money! Haha
Im excited to try this. I bet it would be amazing in a seaweed compost.
Do you think aerating the brew would benefit it at all?
Very informative. I’m a new sub now! Thanks for the help I’m going to incorporate this in my garden very soon 😎
Thanks so much for subscribing :)
This is an interesting video. Thanks! We don't have a worm farm and consequently no worm tea. Would weed tea work as well?
Weed tea would also work great!
Hi Robyn. So awesome. So if I do not have worm casting tea, would I just use water? And at the end I see you using the powder form, but it looked black in the bin. can you explain, did you dry it out again or are you sprinkling potash there? How do you apply the biochar? This is so cool to me, you know I love re-using things to feed my garden! I can't wait to watch your update video too.
Hey Dani! You can use water but anything high nitrogen works a lot better. The weed tea you make would be an awesome liquid to soak them in 😍
I was spreading the potash in this video as the biochar wasn’t quite ready (and I was eager to get the video out hehe). But I usually just apply it the same way it’s just a little chunkier as it’s wet so I mix it in to the soil too ☺️
Hope all is well with you! And you’re not in the line of that hurricane hanging around 😬
@@thenaturepatch Thank you for the reply! We are fine, lost power for a bit. We are in the northern part of Louisiana. Thank you for caring. HUGS
Good
Worm " juice" great use a for " charging" the biochar, another good agent is human urine ~ as gross as it sounds, it's a very ancient way ( " the old ways"). Thx Robyn, well done video.
When do you activate the charcoal?
Good biochar video; but isn't activated charcoal just charcoal that is baked with steam?
Thank you! I think there's a few definitions for this but the 'activated' charcoal I refer to in this video is activating with microbes and nitrogen to feed the plants :)
Lost me at the worm farm step how is that simple😭😭😭