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Terra Preta - Dark Soil - Experiment
- Thread starter SilverSurfer_OG
- Start date
J
jerry111165
Use only lump hardwood charcoal,of course
Can you elaborate why only hardwood should be used?
Thanks
J
Can you elaborate why only hardwood should be used?
Thanks
J
fwiw, use woodstove pellets in your retort...far less crushing. almost perfect.
Not a well controlled side by side with clones etc. But i have done plenty of transplants and do notice the pots with good amounts of char usually have a very well developed, white, fuzzy and healthy roots...
Leaving it in the rain isnt a bad idea. But... putting into a compost heap would be better. It speeds up the compost and locks in more nutrients overall. Also the char is now excellent biochar fully inoculated with the bacteria and fungi etc in the heap.
I did give my fresh char a good rinse and do a soil ph test before and after. The results showed the char was still on the strong alkaline side @9ish.
@15-1 did make my medium a bit too alkaline. Took it to 7.5-8. So i corrected it by mixing through more neem cake which is around ph5 from memory. I know, i know ph issues...but in this case it is very important to get right. The neem quickly brought the soil back to 6.5-7ph.
The compost route is hassle free just takes a bit longer - say 3-6 months at least. You can make char, innoculate for 24 hours and use straight away just as long as the ph is correct.
Leaving it in the rain isnt a bad idea. But... putting into a compost heap would be better. It speeds up the compost and locks in more nutrients overall. Also the char is now excellent biochar fully inoculated with the bacteria and fungi etc in the heap.
I did give my fresh char a good rinse and do a soil ph test before and after. The results showed the char was still on the strong alkaline side @9ish.
@15-1 did make my medium a bit too alkaline. Took it to 7.5-8. So i corrected it by mixing through more neem cake which is around ph5 from memory. I know, i know ph issues...but in this case it is very important to get right. The neem quickly brought the soil back to 6.5-7ph.
The compost route is hassle free just takes a bit longer - say 3-6 months at least. You can make char, innoculate for 24 hours and use straight away just as long as the ph is correct.
Get a Weber charcoal grill.
Produces bucketfuls of char.
Use only lump hardwood charcoal,of course.
http://www.bigw.com.au/home-garden/...000007071/weber-compact-kettle-charcoal-grill
I can get this one locally. Looks pretty nice...
You mean making char from hardwood?
RanchoDeluxe
Member
Silver wanted to run this by ya. I made about 3 gallons of char and put it in a 5g bucket w/ water, a couple handfuls of alfalfa, and oh yea the water was actually a dandelion FPE. My plan is to do this several times...until I make about 20gals of char. This will be added to my compost. My compost pile will be about 200gals once it is finished, this will make the char = 10% of my compost.
Sound good to you?
My compost pile gets loaded w/ a lot of coffee grounds and occasionaly some pine bark/chips from cleaning up the wood pile...so I think the char would be a good addition in regard to pH.
Really doe the pH matter if the compost only makes up 20-30% of the soil mix?
Sound good to you?
My compost pile gets loaded w/ a lot of coffee grounds and occasionaly some pine bark/chips from cleaning up the wood pile...so I think the char would be a good addition in regard to pH.
Really doe the pH matter if the compost only makes up 20-30% of the soil mix?
Sounds good Rancho mate. That will be one sweet compost heap.
The main point to remember is:
Run through the compost and forget its there.
Its only the nutrient soaks and using the char directly where ph is the issue. But again i labour at the point that if you are in a Cootz or Gas style mix you NEED a liming agent for the peat where as my soil mixes usually come out neutral so dont...
If i had a shit ton of neem cake that would make an excellent slurry to charge the char with nitrogen and bring down the alkalinity.
The main point to remember is:
Run through the compost and forget its there.
Its only the nutrient soaks and using the char directly where ph is the issue. But again i labour at the point that if you are in a Cootz or Gas style mix you NEED a liming agent for the peat where as my soil mixes usually come out neutral so dont...
If i had a shit ton of neem cake that would make an excellent slurry to charge the char with nitrogen and bring down the alkalinity.
RanchoDeluxe
Member
I'm hoping a friend of mine can bring me a bag or two of neem, otherwise I'll have to pay for shipping a 100lbs. Yep, Coot-style mix had to sub alfalfa for neem, otherwise the same. I've got a bottle of that 'organic based' Alaska 5-1-1 I was gonna use to soak the char in. Figured it wouldn't matter much since it was being composted but ultimately I chose to use alfalfa/dandy instead.
Thanks
Thanks
Jerry
That term refers to the type of charcoal that is true charcoal vs. briquets. Here is The Naked Whiz's Lump Charcoal Database & Lump Charcoal Reviews
In the manly sport of competition barbecue, lump charcoal is the only type of charcoal that would be used and even then not all manly men use charcoal at all. Depends on which category - ribs, shoulder, beef brisket (toss a bone to the Texan BBQ wannabes) and chicken - another pussy category. Manly men smoke hawg.
Briquets are a manufactured product and are the perfect choice for girly men who grill and then pretend it's barbecue. Pussies if you will - that Boston crowd.
Barbecue is what you'd find in Piedmont, North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas City - real BBQ cities. Grilling you will find anywhere since it doesn't take any manly skills - heck, even women can do it!
They have a big plant south of Portland. If you drove by there and smelled what is coming out of that factory you wouldn't use briquets either. It's pretty disgusting..
CC
Quitelost
Hardwood lump charcoal is recommended for a couple reasons...
One - it is of a higher quality than briquettes, containing actual wood and no filllers, sprays, etc...
Two - microbes like the aromatic rings preserved in certain hardwoods using them as food. Lump charcoal is usually mesquite which is perfect.
Im using royal oak lump charcoal, which i got for cheaper than briquettes.
Hardwood lump charcoal is recommended for a couple reasons...
One - it is of a higher quality than briquettes, containing actual wood and no filllers, sprays, etc...
Two - microbes like the aromatic rings preserved in certain hardwoods using them as food. Lump charcoal is usually mesquite which is perfect.
Im using royal oak lump charcoal, which i got for cheaper than briquettes.
OrganicLearner
Member
Bamboo is not a hardwood yet it is very hard material but people that sell biochar advertise bamboo biochar as superior than other biochar. Is this true or just a selling point? What do you guys think?
Hi,
From what I understand there are people whom charge their char only 24-72 hours with nitrogen and then add it to there mix, can one do this and plant directly? I thought this possible from what I read here but vonfone came in a thread I started here and told us that he charges for 6-12 months and less will cause issues, what are people doing here?
A link to my thread:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=264338&page=2
From what I understand there are people whom charge their char only 24-72 hours with nitrogen and then add it to there mix, can one do this and plant directly? I thought this possible from what I read here but vonfone came in a thread I started here and told us that he charges for 6-12 months and less will cause issues, what are people doing here?
A link to my thread:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=264338&page=2
I assume it depends how you're charging your char. Bury it in your compost pile and it'll take longer. Soak it in some high-N liquid solution and it'll be ready sooner. I soaked mine for about a week before mixing it into my soil mix.
I have some biobizz grow that I havent used in a while and can add that at full strenth to the water plus I can add urine and compost. Thinking of putting the urine and biobiz at full strenth(biobizz 4ml/L and urine 1/10 water) in some water and mixing the char 1/1 with compost then adding the liquid untill its muddy, does this sound like a good method? I have fish products, would like to add them but this is for outdoors, dont want animals messing with it and I want to put it out yesterday or in a couple weeks or so at the lastest.
manly men make their own char.
that was tongue-in-cheek so don't get tweaked. you don't need biochar, but if you're gonna do it, you might want to listen to ClackamasCoot. i have yet to get bad/false/misleading information from him. we're not all politically correct here...
that was tongue-in-cheek so don't get tweaked. you don't need biochar, but if you're gonna do it, you might want to listen to ClackamasCoot. i have yet to get bad/false/misleading information from him. we're not all politically correct here...
C
Carlos Danger
Bumping because that biochar is an incredible amendment when loaded right. Gonna politely disagree with the former poster's advice to listen to the coot on this one. SS is easily the frontrunner around here for making his own.
