Biochar -- anyone using it?

[Tapout]

Bio-char is amazing but it also can be very detrimental to your plants at the same time. If you are making Bio-char at home I would test the results from every batch if you cant control all the factors. The ph and minerals can vary greatly from the material being used the process being used and at what temperature the process was conducted.

[bughunter99]

How were native Amazonians managing to contain the gases to create this product I wonder? How were they burning things anaerobically?
I crush the leftover chunks from the firepit and throw them in the garden. Do the plants like it? No clue. I throw too much other stuff in there to tell.

[SoloNoMo]

Yes, availablility is a big problem. There is a company in Colorado (Biochar Now -- check out their website) that, as I recall, is using the pine trees killed off by the beetle infestation in the Rockies to make their biochar. But they only wholesale. And no one around here is resaling it.
...Maybe a group order ...?!

[nnjjohn]

I use oak wood ash from the wood stove .. anybody treat their lawns and gardens with wood ash too? Wondering if I put too much in each year.. redbaron , anyone?

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by nnjjohn

I use oak wood ash from the wood stove .. anybody treat their lawns and gardens with wood ash too? Wondering if I put too much in each year.. redbaron , anyone?

I use wood ash. It has been good for me. But I live in Oklahoma and don't burn wood for a wood stove or fireplace. Only in summer cookouts. So I don't particularly use much. For my cookouts I use maple sticks, charcoal and hickory chips. There is usually a little charcoal left in small pieces when I use it in the garden, but not a whole lot.

Years ago when I lived in Indiana we had a wood furnace. The ashes from that we did use a lot of. I mixed it with the chicken and rabbit manure, then composted the manure, then added it to the garden. Again it worked great using that method. Back then I tested Ph, NPK with a home test kit to make sure I didn't over use or under use anything. Pretty crude by today's standards, but that's what we had available at the time 35 years ago. So to answer your question of are you using too much? Who knows? I don't know the Ph of your soil. Nothing wrong with ashes. They are awesome. But too much?

PS Keep in mind biochar is not ashes. Biochar is inoculated charcoal. Now the biochar folks of course will explain how their special charcoal is far better than ordinary charcoal. Maybe it is. I don't doubt that there are ways to optimize charcoal. But either way, ashes are not at all like any form of charcoal. Charcoal still has most the carbon in it, ashes don't.

[bughunter99]

In my reading it sounds as though the secret of biochar is really nothing more than massive surface area. The stuff becomes more beneficial to the soil as it becomes colonized by millions of microbes that all help the soil become healthier. It really isn't that drastically different than why running pond water through fine filtration can help improve water quality.

I'm not buying that I have to buy this stuff from anyone. I make nice black charcoal in the fire pit everytime it smother a fire and that's my biochar.

[bughunter99]

http://www.hardwaretogo.com/product/...-allnat20.html

Soak it in some fish emulsion, crush it down and add to the garden for your own biochar.

[SoloNoMo]

Yeah, at a recent lecture on the topic, Cowboy Charcoal was mentioned as a substitute, tho not as good as Biochar. May have to do a test plot on this year's tomatoes with the Cowboy, as I can get it at the grocery store.

[bughunter99]

I'm thinking of getting some Cowboy Charcoal and pre-colonizing mine with a mixture of compost juice and fish emulsion to see what happens.

[MileHighGuy]

It is just as good. Cowboy charcoal or Royal oak charcoal... or any charcoal that is just 100% hardwood.

The Bio-Char is excellent for long term nutrient release and I love it in my no till containers. It's like a Microbe condo.

As bughunter said, the key is to pre-charge the crushed up charcoal to make sure that you don't rob the soil of nitrogen of other nutrients while it soaks up in your soil.

Crush it, soak it in compost tea or fish emulsion for 3 days or longer and you'll have an amazing product for any type of gardening, from small container to large acreage.

Bonus is that is will also act as an aeration amendment at the same time.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by MileHighGuy

It is just as good. Cowboy charcoal or Royal oak charcoal... or any charcoal that is just 100% hardwood.
The Bio-Char is excellent for long term nutrient release and I love it in my no till containers. It's like a Microbe condo.
As bughunter said, the key is to pre-charge the crushed up charcoal to make sure that you don't rob the soil of nitrogen of other nutrients while it soaks up in your soil.
Crush it, soak it in compost tea or fish emulsion for 3 days or longer and you'll have an amazing product for any type of gardening, from small container to large acreage.
Bonus is that is will also act as an aeration amendment at the same time.

Softwood biochar works just as well.
I am reserving my judgement on the indiscriminate use of Compost tea. I recently did a soil test, to find my Ph is now at 7.9, far in excess of the normal requirements of regular vegetables. For the last few years I've been dumping Compost tea (It can't do any harm, is the mantra) well it does raise the Ph of the soil. My compost tea tests out at 7.9, so can guess why my garden is now 7.9?
Now I need some advice as to how to get my garden down to about 6.0 Ph. Anybody?
In the mean time I won't be using Compost tea.

[MileHighGuy]

Originally Posted by beeman

Softwood biochar works just as well.
I am reserving my judgement on the indiscriminate use of Compost tea. I recently did a soil test, to find my Ph is now at 7.9, far in excess of the normal requirements of regular vegetables. For the last few years I've been dumping Compost tea (It can't do any harm, is the mantra) well it does raise the Ph of the soil. My compost tea tests out at 7.9, so can guess why my garden is now 7.9?
Now I need some advice as to how to get my garden down to about 6.0 Ph. Anybody?
In the mean time I won't be using Compost tea.

You are correct about the softwood bio-char being usable.... but NOT just as well. On the bag, when purchasing barbeque charcoal in place of making your own, you should look for the product without additives.... and.... it happens to usually say 100% hardwood.

We can use pyrolysis on anything organic at the right temperatures and make a viable bio-char product.... but hardwood will be better and last longer.

The Compost tea isn't necessary to pre treat the bio-char. You can use urine, kelp, manure, anything really that you want to get it started with.

Unfortunately there is terrible mis-information on compost tea.

Compost tea is great when done simple and properly and especially with the use of a microscope to verify the production of bacteria and protozoa etc.

Most people are not using enough air and are creating an anaerobic tea that is hardly as beneficial as it should be. If you're using an aquarium pump, you're doing it wrong.


PH? I get that it is important, but this should really be the least of your concerns. When growing properly and without the use of chemical fertilizer you should have no concern for ph. The plant will control the PH of the environment around it's roots called the Rizosphere.

How are you making your compost tea?

Was your soil once viable with lower PH and now it is not? or has it always been off and you are simply attempting to correct it with compost tea alone?

Are you using chemical fertilizers?

What else have you added to your soil?

[beeman]

Originally Posted by MileHighGuy

You are correct about the softwood bio-char being usable.... but NOT just as well. On the bag, when purchasing barbeque charcoal in place of making your own, you should look for the product without additives.... and.... it happens to usually say 100% hardwood.

Compost tea is great when done simple and properly and especially with the use of a microscope to verify the production of bacteria and protozoa etc.

I do use a microscope, test each and every batch

Most people are not using enough air and are creating an anaerobic tea that is hardly as beneficial as it should be. If you're using an aquarium pump, you're doing it wrong.

Not a problem, use a big air pump. No problem with anaerobic tea.

PH? I get that it is important, but this should really be the least of your concerns. When growing properly and without the use of chemical fertilizer you should have no concern for ph. The plant will control the PH of the environment around it's roots called the Rizosphere.

Can't agree with this statement. If the Ph is off, then you can't grow good plants, just not possible.

How are you making your compost tea?
Worm casts from my worm farm, compost, home grown and well produced. Using an air lift in a 5 gallon pail, brewed for at least 36 hours.

Was your soil once viable with lower PH and now it is not? or has it always been off and you are simply attempting to correct it with compost tea alone?

It has been off for some time. I was assured Compost Tea would correct the problem. But that's not the case as the Ph is always above 7.5

Are you using chemical fertilizers?
No. Strictly organic.

What else have you added to your soil?

Well rotted Horse manure, Well rotted sawdust and compost generated in house.

I will add one thing in favour of Compost Tea, it makes an incredible insecticide. Since starting Tea I don't have any insect problems, of any sort.
I have just read an article on Citric Acid, seems harmless enough so am going to give it a whirl, should lower the Ph enough to grow Tomatoes.

[MileHighGuy]

I haven't checked the PH for years and grow Just fine.... but I do agree that growing in alkali won't work. I guess I mean that PH doesn't matter once there is enough humus.

What is your recipe for compost tea? What are you putting in it?

I believe it is important to start with good soil, and only add compost tea when there are roots in the soil. I really can't see the tea helping with nothing growing in it, and it will be hard to grow if the soil is lacking.

Can you grow some clover or other cover crops and apply compost tea while this is occuring?

What about tilling more compost in along with some bales of Sphagnum Peat moss?

[Dak]

Originally Posted by MileHighGuy

Most people are not using enough air and are creating an anaerobic tea that is hardly as beneficial as it should be. If you're using an aquarium pump, you're doing it wrong.

MileHighGuy, what do you recommend to get enough air? I though air pumps were fine.