Eucalyptus leaves are made to burn not to break down. We don't have a Fall we have autumn. The only thing that falls is tree bark in summer. What's water? We haven't been able to use a hose on the garden for four years.
I just mulch now. The only
free stuff I can get is ribbony sea grass that is poluting the local lake. Quite often wiffy of SO2. I also buy bags of chicken manure and horse manure for $3 (AUD) and do a deal for a little free cow manure occasionally. Recently I went biserk with consumerism and bought an expensive bale of Lithuanian peat ($60) I use it mixed with my el-cheapo potting mix $3; and to help resolve some soil alkalinity problems I have.
At the moment I can't afford the $30 for a bag of charcoal. I keep seeing piles of wood left out by locals for the council to take away :sigh:
There must be a little smokeless charcoal maker I can do/use in the suburbs? (O yes TOTAL fire bans last month too)
Here is someone who agrees with you about using char and compost:-
Quote:
Peter Schmidt First of all I would not make the contrast between composting and biochar. For me composting and biochar is something that belongs together. They are two things that are very important for soil. So we won’t replace compost for biochar. What we’re trying is to enhance the quality of the compost through additions of biochar. When we put biochar in the soil usually we do it with compost.
. . .
Just to give you an idea, biochar has 300 m2 per gram of surface area because of its structure, (depends on the way you pyrolyse). Compost has usually 1m2 per gram surface area. Adding 0,1% of biochar increases the specific surface of the compost already to 8 - 10 m2 per gram. We are starting new compost tests now with biochar concentrations from 1 up to 20%. You get ten to twenty times more surface area inside, not outside. Or a square yard, if you prefer, with a slight recalculation.
What!? That is incredible. Could you provide me a visual aid in understanding this increase?
PS Fold a 300 m2 sheet of extremly thin paper about 1000 or 10.000 times an you get it. 300 square meters… it is incredible!
And all that additional space is available for microbial and chemical activity.
PS That’s it. That’s the point.
|
Peter Schmidt on Terroir, Biodiversity, and Biochar | Reign of Terroir
