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OrganicOzarks
I was just thinking that burnt up rice hulls would be a double wammy. Thanks!!!!
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I was just thinking that burnt up rice hulls would be a double wammy. Thanks!!!!
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OrganicOzarks
They have them, and they be cheap.
There ya go! Problem solved!
LOL
LOL
Yes this is in containers.
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OrganicOzarks
They are sending me a sample, but there product is a complete ash, and not chunks.
Microbeman, do you think that it being ash would be a negative as far as microbe colonization?
I looked at your site but could not see a design for an Adam retort. Do you have one?
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CulturedHeathen
I actually have a pretty cool design for a retort somewhere on my computer ill try to dig up. I'll pm if you if I can find it.
I'm specifically looking for an Adam retort which can be made with bricks or stone.
Yeah just had a look at at those Adam retorts. Looks good but apparantly a bit of a fiddle getting it ti work properly. There is a good page on facebook in Laos is you are into that...
http://www.facebook.com/adamretort
http://www.facebook.com/adamretort
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OrganicOzarks
So has anyone tried mulch as biochar? The reason I ask is it would seem to be a good size for an aeration material, and also very cheap in bulk. Or you can just buy a chipper, and then it is almost free if you live in the woods like myself. 
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SeaMaiden
We got DUMPED on yesterday, all kinds of accidents (you know how Californians can get when this stuff called "water" falls from the sky), so no trip downcountry for me to pick up wood shavings. I'm going to do what I do when I can't find answers to my questions--just try it, see what I get & what happens. Snow & ice should be melted off by this afternoon.
Been wanting a chipper, too. Just haven't gotten around to it.
Been wanting a chipper, too. Just haven't gotten around to it.
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OrganicOzarks
I was looking around my property, and I have plenty of wood to char up I would just need to chip it first. It seems to me if you are going to mix it in the soil then you would want to chip it first. I watched the videos on the aussie guys website, an he was doing giant pieces of wood. I can't see how that would be as beneficial as doing small pieces that had been chipped up. I am most definitely very interested now in making my own.
I love this forum by the way. I am on some other forums, and there is not near the level of info that is on this one. It seems like the others have the early 20 something kids, and this one has seasoned veterans.
I don't own a flat brimmed Colorado Rockies hat that I tilt to the side to look cool.
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SeaMaiden
Everyone I know who uses char has been buying it ready-made, which is in chunks, and then they have to go through this whole rigamarole of wetting it down before getting to breaking it up. For me, breaking it up ain't easy, so I stopped doing that a long time ago. Once I saw how the rice hulls can be done in the open, no pyrolizer or special chamber or anything more special than a rake, a shovel and an active hose are needed, I decided that's the direction & method for me.
But, not on windy days.
There are some very seasoned veterans on that other forum. They're the ones who led me there.
It sounds like you've got a good-sized parcel with woods/forest. Do you practice this organic stuff on that in any way (permaculture, agroforestry or forest farm sort of stuff)? When I think of the Ozarks I think of heavy deciduous forest.
There's a special hat...?
But, not on windy days.
There are some very seasoned veterans on that other forum. They're the ones who led me there.
It sounds like you've got a good-sized parcel with woods/forest. Do you practice this organic stuff on that in any way (permaculture, agroforestry or forest farm sort of stuff)? When I think of the Ozarks I think of heavy deciduous forest.
There's a special hat...?
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OrganicOzarks
I live on a mountain side(by definition it may not be an actual mountain) so any thing I do has to be built. It is all rock, and thick trees. Tons of pine trees, and plenty of oaks, and the like. So my outside gardens are raised beds that have a shit ton of soil brought in to fill them. One of my beds is 10' long, and on 1 end it is 10" tall, and on the other end it is about 32" tall. If you want to grow shit outdoors here it will take a ton of work, but once it is set up it is easy. Growing on a large scale here is very difficult. I do no till(easy in raised bed right?). I make my own compost, but I also have a friend who owns a compost farm so if I ever need extra I can get it for cheap. I dump all of my compost tea bags in my garden so I don't really add much extra shit to the soil. Just the spent compost tea bags, and new compost every year. Other than that it is easy sailing.
I think I am going to get a chipper, and build a cooker so that I can make some biochar. Seems like there would be a local market for it around here. Ok I really just want to do it because it sounds fun as hell, but to sell it to the wife I will have to go the "I can make money off of it route". Gotta do what you gotta do.
I think I am going to get a chipper, and build a cooker so that I can make some biochar. Seems like there would be a local market for it around here. Ok I really just want to do it because it sounds fun as hell, but to sell it to the wife I will have to go the "I can make money off of it route". Gotta do what you gotta do.
That works pretty well - up to a point!
VOE
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CulturedHeathen
Sounds like rice hulls would be great, however I know of no rice grown within a few thousand miles of us up here. I run a restaurant that uses several bags of mesquite charcoal per day, which produce abound 5 gallons of fine "duff" that can't be used for cooking. Should be plenty for my plants and farm...
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CulturedHeathen
Maybe just sell the wife and not have to deal with the explanations? This is what I am considering...
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OrganicOzarks
No way in hell. She is the yin to my yang. I really don't have to sell her on shit. I was just making a joke. She lets me do whatever, whenever. She is a keeper for sure.
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CulturedHeathen
I kid as well OO. I don't know what I'd do without my beautiful lady. Probably a bunch of dumb shit.
