[mathuranatha]

Ive made a big pile of charcoal/biochar [maybe a cubic metre] is it more effective to finely grind it and is there an easy way? I,ve been putting it in a cement mixer with some largish round rocks -wors but slow thanks Mathuranatha

[RBlack]

Mathurantha,

As long as the charcoal is not in huge chunks I don't think it matters too much what size. Any processing will make some of it into a fine powder and as you put it into the soil more will break down. Now if you want to put it into a lawn you may want it all to be a fine powder. One study by Lehmann said that roots grew around charcoal pieces and even into them and the larger pieces may be a good home for the microbes.

When thinkiing about Terra Preta and charcoal I always go back to what would the Amazonian Indians have done? I don't think they went to great lengths to pulzerize their char/charcoal but rather just put in on. All the charcoal I have made has been pine with just one batch on Aspen. Pine breaks down easy and I just pulverize it with 3 two by fours that I have nailed together and it grinds up very easy. I just do this in a cardboard box. If you are using hardwood that may be more diffucult

RBlack

[palmtreepathos]

Over the last couple of years I have come to look at anything that grows as food for a sort of fermented compost called "oufei". Rather than build a clay lined hole in the ground for it I am recycling a friend's feline clay litter buckets and filling them with weeds, roots and some of the dirt (and microbes) that clings and then topped off with water from the fish pond. I set it aside for a month or so 'til it ferments. Oh, you will know when it is done! Quite ripe, neighbors complain, flies collect, etc. the equivalent of fresh cow manure for potency. I, usually, cover them.

My thought that makes this relevant, or at least I wonder if it is, is that I had a tilted bucket of it that exuded a line of liquid over the top for about a month. When I went to use this bucket load I noticed that the drip line was black from bucket edge to the ground, and on the wood mulch underneath there was a blackened area as if charred. The chips are still pitch black though long since dry. So, is fermented vegetable matter alone capable of producing a "type" of char? Is it just a dark biological mass of microbes? Maybe it is acts like a vegetable dye though the fermented liquid is not black. I am not sure but it's very interesting.

Another good thing about this method of composting is that (I think) it renders seeds sterile. I tested it on green onions and sweetgum balls and so far no sprouts. I bury it in rows about 4 inches under the soil then plant seeds over it. Worms love the stuff. Now I am mixing it with my homemade charcoal and setting it aside to ripen for the winter crops.

[freeztar]

That's a great idea PTP!
It seems that method would give the microbes a good start on the char. You probably would not get the soil bio-stratification until you put it in the ground, but it would make sense that this would speed up the process.

About the blackness, that is the decomposed material (tannins). In the 'Deep South' (US) you can find swamps full of what people call "black water".

A blackwater river is one with a deep, slow-moving channel that flows through forested swamps and wetlands. The color results from the leaching of tannins from the decaying leaves of adjoining vegetation.

Black and white waters differ significantly in their ionic composition, as shown in Table 1 below. Black waters have ionic concentrations not much greater than that of rainwater. They are, however, much more acidic and this results in black waters having an aluminium concentration greater than that of the more neutral white waters. The major difference is the concentrations of sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium; these are very low in black waters. This has considerable ecological implications. Some animal groups, such as snails, need a lot of calcium with which to build their shells and so are not abundant in black waters. The lack of dissolved ions in black waters results in a low conductivity, similar to that of rainwater.

Black and white waters also differ in their planktonic fauna and flora. Tables 2 and 3 below compare the number of planktonic animals caught in black and white water localities only a few meters apart. In fact, the black water was not even as extreme an example as can be found in the Rio Negro system. However, it can be seen that the black water held far greater numbers of rotifers but fewer crustaceans and mites. These crustaceans are important foods for larval fish. The zones where the two waters mix are particularly attractive to ostracods and young fish. These mixing zones tend to have high numbers of animals. The high abundance of animals is shown clearly in Table 3 which compares the numbers of animals present in 10 litres of water in each habitat sampled.[1]

Blackwater river - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Greenjack]

Hey,

Id like to pine in here if you don't mind. I have been growing tomatoes in christmas tree biochar, and I put in under a ceader tree in some pretty acidic soil. The tomatoes did great. I also planted some acid loving blueberries, but they died in the alkaline soil. I am in the process of making a video called How to Make Garden Biochar the trailer is on utube {enter} biochar in the search engine, and there are about 9 videos on biochar. Mine is the one called Greenjack. I have been making huge quantities of biochar in a modified burn barrel, I can fill one in about 2 hours. The video also shows how to use biochar in the Garden. I have test plots in Park City Utah, Sandy Oregon, kaiserslautern Germany, and Federal Way Washington. I used my technique of making biochar on all these plots, and you can see the pictures and video footage on youtube.

Go take a peek.

The biochar I am making comes from different types of material, Here in the NorthWest we have blackberry bushes that are a nusance, I have been able to make some pretty complex biochar by combining christmass trees, with leaves and yard debris. The bigger the rats nest you have the better the biochar will turn out. Making it in humid, or cold conditions helps keep the temperature down, and produces a better product. I have making large quantities just with my oun yard debris. I live in Sandy Oregon, and my house is in the salmon watershed, I have biochar in every flower bed and under most of my lawns, so there are no polutants going into the Salmon water shed off my property.

A thought

I am starting understand the importants of recycling materials into your landscape. living with nature allows you to perform certain tasks at certain times of year. I belive thats why all the Native South Americans were obsesed with time and time of year, they build big pyramids to know what time of year to perform certain agricultural tasks. So, the cycle that I am recomending is

Fall tasks: harvesting, Prunning, spreading compost, charring, putting down manure, or any organic mulch.

Winter: Some prunning, tilling uncarbonated fields, and charring.

Spring: Planting, Weeding, hot fertilizers like chicken manure and compost tea. (I alway fertilize on rainy days, and if we get lots of rain I fertilize more). I have noticed the longer the carbon bed is in the ground, the more fertile it becomes, the best stuff is growing in the oldest beds.

Can't get enough? Buy the video

You'll get the sweetest stuff if you start with complex biochar, steer/horse manure, and a hot fertilizer like chicken manure in the spring. I did this whole rutine on my first biochar bed, and it is the most productive of all of my beds planted later.



Greenjack

[DougF]

Nice Video, and it might wake some people up to the fact that Biochar is the way to go (I hope so anyway) for I believe we need to stabilize our soils to be more productive

Greenjack
I have been making huge quantities of Biochar in a modified burn barrel, I can fill one in about 2 hours.

I would like to see you're process for the making of Biochar in a modified burn barrel, all I saw in the video was a bonfire and one relay nice tomato.

[Greenjack]

Thanks DougF

I plan on launching a grand campain to do so, I have talked to a lot of government officials about my discovery, and I got shut down every time. I told the EPA I could save them 50%emissions on residential and agricultual burns, and they did'nt want to hear it. I tried to enter my invention in Charles Bransons and Al Gores $25 million dollar global warming givaway, but I have not heard from them either, so I thought about it and decided I did'nt need big brother to make this happen, I have been just recruiting volunteers to spread the message about the video. I am going to enter it in the cannes and sundance film festivels. The Sandy Post has ran an article on my invention, and Country Folks Grower is going to do an article on what I'm doing. What I am asking people to do is to go to the ten videos about biochar on utube and watch them to drive up the hits on them, If we can get the numbers high enough more people may get exposed and intrested. my family members, and I are running the videos with the sound off and just replaying them when we get a chance.

[Philip Small]

Enthusiastic trailer, GreenJack. Looking forward to the full production.

I think I recognize you from a Gresham Outlook article about a Sandy resident making bio-char. It was last March. You? We occasionally find ourselves by Sandy, disen-gorging from the interior, might try to hook up, see what's cooking.

[Greenjack]

I'm going to have to start selling peanutbutter sandwitches at my house, since I put up the video on YouTube, I have got alot of people comming to see me. Maby we should get a band and have a Biochar woodstock.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Greenjack

I'm going to have to start selling peanutbutter sandwitches at my house, since I put up the video on YouTube, I have got alot of people comming to see me. Maby we should get a band and have a Biochar woodstock.

Hi Green. Your vid looks good and I'm across the Columbia from you in Vancouver. I'll bring the IPA. Here's your vid until you reach milepost #10.

YouTube - Greenjack's Garden Biochar Trailer