Terra Preta - Dark Soil - Experiment

[ion]

right on ss, .....dont want to find out the hard way twas a bad idea to run the stubbs, got cowboy the other day and its soaking atm......

cant use fish/smellies for nitrogen soak, diggers will def. get in and jack things up.....organic alfalfa pellets, good ya?

i did keep out some pieces i'll try and take pics of to post here. they look like the charred insulation they(cowboy) have had problems with.

i checked outa bbq forum about cowboy, had great ratings overall, but you have top watch out for odd-looking pieces......they s'posedly dont use partcile board, but un/semi-charred pieces have been found in the bags, let alone random pieces of insulation fromtheir firing kilns, y'all need to jeep an eye out!!

i grabbed two 20lbers of lava rock from the rock/Lscape company.....50cent a lb where the store/bagged is 8usd for 3-4lbs, lets see if i have any rock-busting skill......

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

All my big hammers have broken handles so i need to do something about that... i really should just buy a new sledge hammer but our house came with about 5 big hammer/blockbuster heads and they would be good. I have made a few rough handles but they all snapped eventully or the head came off. Anyhoos enough crappin on.

Alfalfa pellets good yeah. Perhaps soak them in some water and molasses to really get things going.

I did this for the compost heap i mentioned. That, fresh horse poo from nextdoor and some layers of char soaked in urine for N and man that is one hot heap!!! No shit it feels like standing next to a nice warm radiator. :

 

[scai]

I sprout alfalfa seeds and then just run in a blender.All mush goes to soil
Some for spraying too..

 

[lonelemming]

SSOG - Fiberglass handles ftw! Especially with extra heavy tools such as sledge/tamper etc...

 

[xmobotx]

All my big hammers have broken handles so i need to do something about that... i really should just buy a new sledge hammer but our house came with about 5 big hammer/blockbuster heads and they would be good. I have made a few rough handles but they all snapped eventully or the head came off.

i m 1 to talk cuz i have maul heads axe heads hatchet heads and sledge heads laying around rusting but anyway;;;

weld a pipe to one and you wont have to worry about it for a while/be mindful of the shock though when hitting w/ it ~you know pad the pipe or wear heavy gloves

 

[vonforne]

these work good or you could use the hand held version.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Weld a pipe to one. Yeah i have seen some of these beasties around the place, mostly axes. Jeez they look primitive but would get the job done...

Just need to learn how to weld!

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Been slowly but surely cranking out the char in my biscuit tins. They do burn out fairly quickly but its using residual heat and i can find em cheap and easy at recycle shops. One good tip is to add it upside down and prolong the life after the bottom looks like its going to crack a hole.

Recent compost heap i made heated up real good. Layers of fresh horse poo, alfalfa pellets soaked in water and good glug of molasses with the char (soaked in urine) sprinkled on top of these layers worked a treat. I added overall around 10 litres or 2.5 gallons of quite finely crushed char to a heap inside an old wooden apple crate.

Pine bark mulch and dry ferns, bracken and assorted plants for brown material. It was actually an old heap recycled into this fresh one and it also contained lots of kelp and comfrey which will hopefully be a kick ass compost come early spring here.

I have carried out some ph testing on various kinds of char: (from left to right)

1. Mixed hardwood cooked 'medium-rare' as described by MrFista
2. Mixed hardwood cooked right out
3. Pine chips cooked right out

As you can see from this picture the parcooked char is very much on the acidic side. I would say it is around ph 6-6.5 with the fully cooked mixed hardwood around 9-9.5 and the fully cooked pine ever so slighty less alkaline say 8.5-9.







So this confirms that less cooking time = less alkaline char. It also confirms but not so dramatically that the softwood pine comes out less alkaline.

The medium rare char was achieved by picking out larger pieces that hadnt fully charred. However it is much harder to crush and defo doesnt have the same absorbancy or look as 'regular' charcoal.

Food for thought in any case. I would like to try and get some a little more cooked and around neutral ph to see how this looks.

 

[xmobotx]

just saw some tampers @ harbor freight like i described a flat tamping head w/ an X reinforced ribbing corner to corner and a wood handle

i guess i should have looked @ the price

 

[ClackamasCootz]

From this month's Acres USA Magazine - Biochar on the Farm - Initiative to Give Growers Guidance

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Thats a sweet looking char maker there Cootz! Yarrow is a fine name for a fella pioneering biochar.

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

Yarrow....I was thinking the same thing!!

What do you guys make of that line where he says bio-char can actually have negative impacts for the first year or so?? Or that it takes 2 years to really see the improvement in the tilth of the soil?

Makes me think that bio-char should be used in the compost pile for a year or so, then allow the worms to work it for a couple months, and then add it to the soil mix. Seems like this would be the best route to get all the positive benefits of bio-char, while reducing the chance of any potential negative impacts from the char.

Does this make sense? Apologies if you've already covered this.

 

[Durdy]

Makes sense to me!

From my understanding it will absorb and lock away nutrients from the soil if not "charged" before hand.

I split a bag of cowboy charcoal between my three worm bins for my first try with char

This EWC will get topdressed on my 100 gal pots around July

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

OK, I think it's starting to sink into this thick skull of mine.

By "charged" they mean soak it some fish hydrolyslate or something w/ some N and it will be ready to use immediately.

If you don't 'charge' it then the compost method for a solid year should work just fine.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah straight char isnt a good addition certainly short term. MM says its ok as a topdress but there must be limits to how much.

I find it very interesting that some folks are innoculating with microbes, some are mixing with fish, seaweed, alfalfa etc and some crazy cats are just using urine... and it all works!

But yeah compost is always going to be the best method but not so viable on large farms i guess.

No one (alive today at least) has figured out best practice because its all relative to soil type etc but for our mixes and especially in pots it a winner.

But the general concensus of 1-10% total volume innoculated char is going to work for most everyone here i reckon. 5% is going to make a good soil much better.

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

^^^^^^
Word to the mothership on that. Thanks Silver.

 

[Tropical Rain]

slight silly borderline dumb question but you pretty much can/are using the leftovers of wood burned in a fire pit correct?
Are you saying different species give a different ph or? length of burn time gives different ph?

Wish key facts of this thread were consolidated into a primer post. much to take in on first glance.

just asking.

TR

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

The stuff from your fire pit will most likely be overcooked and a great (but limited) edition to a compost heap. More cooking time = more ash content = more alkaline to the point where its very strong alkaline/basic 10+ on the ph scale... NOT GOOD!

The exception here would be a firepit with a lot of ash. Under the ash there could very well be decent char (as it is more insulated from the heat and is starved of oxygen). If its nice and black and shiny its good to go and be crushed and innoculated.

Yes also different materials will produce a different product and ph. But this is more of a fine tuning imo vs the mega difference in cooking time... more testing is required on this front.

However it is much more efficient to create a second chamber to correctly pyrolise the wood/corn cob/cat poo/whatever. In my case its a metal biscuit tin with a tight fitting lid. I usually get 20 to 30 burns out of a tin before it gets a hole and is therefore useless (too much oxygen)

Its much better to add the tin to hot coals vs a blazing fire as this will move the tin around more and cause it to be damaged... think of cooking a potato on a fast boil vs a slow simmer...

 

[jerry111165]

SS, I haven't read throught the entire thread so apologize in advance; have you noticed a difference using biochar and/or have you attempted a with/without side-by-side run at all?

Tia -

J

 

[harold]

ive been thinking it would be a good idea to leave the char exposed to the rain, in a container with drainage, to wash out the excessive ph etc.