Biochar

natureboygrower

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
Anyone use it? I've got a lot of questions,lol.I'm getting ready to pot up into 5 gal of soil I've made(Coots mix plus some other ingredients).I plan on breaking up some Cowboy brand hardwood charcoal.what size should i be looking for ? 1/4"? I would think you would want chunks for a few different reasons rather than dust/powder. How much should I use? Couple cups per 5gal pot? I'm brewing a simple ewc right now to water my plants in at transplant,I recently read I should "charge" my char before mixing into my soil? How long should that be soaked for? Couple hours? 24hours? I ask because I planned on charging in my tea,but I would like to use my tea after and I dont think that would be a good idea to soak my soil with all that carbon residue in my tea? The fish tank needs to be cleaned, I was thinking maybe I could bubble my filter in a gallon of water and " charge " my char that way.any input would be great.
 
OPfarmer

OPfarmer

Well-Known Member
Been playing with Biochar for a decade plus. Buy it by the yard for the farm.

Remember, the char is housing for microscopic critters, so small is good. I would say 1/4 inch or less for sure and use the fines. I would go with 1% to 10% of your soil volume. So a cup or two sounds right.

Charge it as long as you can, at least a few hours, longer is better. EWC and fish water sounds good. Remember, the char and bacteria, will push your soil pH towards neutural.
 
natureboygrower

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
OPfarmer said:
Been playing with Biochar for a decade plus. Buy it by the yard for the farm.

Remember, the char is housing for microscopic critters, so small is good. I would say 1/4 inch or less for sure and use the fines. I would go with 1% to 10% of your soil volume. So a cup or two sounds right.

Charge it as long as you can, at least a few hours, longer is better. EWC and fish water sounds good. Remember, the char and bacteria, will push your soil pH towards neutural.
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Great info man,thank you very much.i was able to soak/charge my char for 24hours.I may have been a little heavy in my ratio,I went 4cups per 6 gallon pots.we'll see.i couldn't find much info on char(even though the method and application has been around for hundreds of years) I really appreciate your input.:peace:
 
OPfarmer

OPfarmer

Well-Known Member
Cornell University has done some great work on the subject of Terra preta (dark Earth/bio char) Here is the link:

http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/research/terra preta/terrapretamain.html

I don't advocate, or did not even read this article all the way, but it is an example of the wildly varried opinion on application rates. (They are saying 10% to 20%, with down to 5% being effective.)::

https://www.wakefieldbiochar.com/test-test-and-test-again-how-much-biochar-should-you-use/

In my not so humble of opinion... Starting with LESS THAN 5% and working up over the years with recycled soil is OK, but starting out too much char is NOT prudent. (One can have too much of a good thing, especially with young soil mixes. Got to make sure one has lots of biological activity, in a Terra preta. One has to build char percentage, hand and hand with building up biological activity.)
 
Strudelheim

Strudelheim

Well-Known Member
I just use the charcoal from my firepit, I add 5% everytime I mix my re used soil, so I should get to 20% within a year, I think its good that it acts as an aerator as well, so that's why I have no problem going to 20% to 30% of total mix slowly over time.

After mixing into a new soil batch I let sit for a month so it charges pretty good. I also do EWC teas every 2-3 weeks during veg. A good option is to put it in your EWC when you brew it for 36 hours, doesn't get any better than that for charging it up quick, depending on how good/rich your EWC tea recipe is.
 
ACitizenofColorado

ACitizenofColorado

Well-Known Member
Whenever working with biochar, rice hulls, pumice, bone meal, etc, remember to wear some sort of respirator or breathing protection!

I use the disposable ones much longer than I should. Someday I'll invest in better ones. But for now, try mixing up a big batch of aeration, specifically biochar, with one of those face masks on.

I did it once and will try to never mix anything without them again. The whole mask becomes black.

For those familiar with Arrested Development, there's an arch in the story in which Tobias Funke tries to join the blue man group and, as a consequences, the Bluth's family house is covered in blue paint. Blue paint on the refrigerator handle, on light switches, kitchen cabinets.

That's what happened to me with biochar. It's on the wall at the bottom of the stair, on light switches, everywhere.

This may seem irrelevant, but safety first!

I've used biochar for a few years. Haven't made it yet. I like both chunks and fine biochar; they probably serve different purposes, but I don't really know.

My current aeration is probably 2:2:1, rice hulls: pumice: biochar. I have less biochar and need to stretch it.

Nothing goes in my tent that doesn't first go in the oven for sterilization or in a compost tea for inoculation. I put the above aeration mix in compost teas prior to going into worm beds or onto pots.
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
Safety 1st for sure.
Eye protection and a mask whenever messing with dry amendments.
Some of those amendments can be nasty on the eyes.
 
OPfarmer

OPfarmer

Well-Known Member
bizfactory said:
Just to be clear, charcoal is not biochar. Make/buy some real biochar, don't mess with grilling charcoal.
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??
Yes, Kingsford brickets are not biochar material.... Indeed that be a bad idea.!!

But that hardwood cowboy charcoal is by definition bio char.

Biochar is simply burning biological material in a low oxogen environment.

I have even burnt and pulverized bones as char. Straw, grass, cowpies, softwood, Hardwood, food scraps, all make great biochar.

It's simply carbon.!
 
simpleleaf

simpleleaf

Well-Known Member
There's supposedly a process difference between biochar and hardwood charcoal. If I'm recalling correctly, biochar is burned at lower temperatures, while charcoal is supposedly burned at higher temperatures. The assertion was that the lower temperature process resulted in a less alkaline pH.

I've never verified this pH info, but an additional assertion was that due to the lower pH, much more biochar could be used in a soil mix.

I have used hardwood charcoal in compost placed on fruit trees (at very low % rates). I'm not sure whether it did much, but it certainly didn't hurt.
 
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OPfarmer

OPfarmer

Well-Known Member
I wonder where the dividing line between science and marketing is on that pyrolization temp.?

I think about that mysterious and amazing Terra preta do Indio, down in the amazon. It's my understanding what they did was pretty low tech. Basically burn brush and waste in low oxogen trenches, where the fire would go out prior everything being consumed.

I'LL take the bait, on lower temp being better. Leaves more chemistry in the char for BioLife micro critters to consume.

When I owned a saw mill, I would burn yards of scrap next to 30 yard pile of composting horse manure. Just push raw compost with the loader tractor on to burning wood to extinguish it.

It was good compost..
 
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DonTesla

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Cant overlook the differences in surface area amigos

The degree and angle of the trench or kontiki is also paramount in cycling the gases including o2 and co2/smoke
 
OPfarmer

OPfarmer

Well-Known Member
DonTesla said:
Cant overlook the differences in surface area amigos

The degree and angle of the trench or kontiki is also paramount in cycling the gases including o2 and co2/smoke
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Have any suggested links on degree and angle of trench and cycling gasses?

Sounds cool.

I have done char in a metal garbage can with a few small holes punched in the lid. Toss that can of scraps, (I had cedar) on to a blazing pit fire and bake. First off gassing then a torch of burning gasses out the vent.

The cedar char was very light and airy. Lots of porisity.

ANC
Yep got to take the time for colonization.
 
DonTesla

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
OPfarmer said:
Have any suggested links on degree and angle of trench and cycling gasses?

Sounds cool.

I have done char in a metal garbage can with a few small holes punched in the lid. Toss that can of scraps, (I had cedar) on to a blazing pit fire and bake. First off gassing then a torch of burning gasses out the vent.

The cedar char was very light and airy. Lots of porisity.

ANC
Yep got to take the time for colonization.
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You're a born biochar dude. Nice work!

There are some pretty cool stacked barrel designs with chimneys including trenches in the ground for airflow, to the extreme..but they can be real smokey if not nailed to the T.

Anyways.
You want to get over 61.5* - 62.5%. Some designs push 70 now. The ones that are in the 50 degree ranges I think are not aggressive or steep enough.

Google Kon-tiki...

Here is a link with some vids on it and of a ground method too.


And a couple more,


Including a place or two thats ships biochar in US and CAN:
 
Miyagismokes

Miyagismokes

Well-Known Member
OPfarmer said:
First off gassing then a torch of burning gasses out the vent
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Back in the day, when I was heavily interested in metalworking, a coworker showed me his diy charcoal crucible (he was an SCA bladesmith in his off time). It basically amounted to yours, but instead of free-venting, he piped the wood gas down to the burner and used it to boost the flame.
I don't think it's appropriate for biochar, which seems to be more particular about the temperature, but less smoky.
 
W

Wetdog

Well-Known Member
There was a really cool article in WaPo a couple days ago about the (very), few traditional charcoal makers in N Spain. These guys would spend days to weeks building the 'mountains' of oak logs/limbs, hay bales and earth. Once lit, the fires would burn for weeks to months till done.

Neat pics, but not much 'how to', protecting passed down knowledge I'm sure. Still, a very interesting article.

Wet
 
INF Flux

INF Flux

Well-Known Member
I've made it using the trench method, and the can inside a barrel method. I've also used hardwood charcoal. Every bed I've added it to has shown increased mycelium and has had comparable improvements regardless of how it was produced or sourced.
 
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