charcoal/active carbon in soil mix?

[ganja din]

Hi.

I got the idea in my head that the charcoal needed to be cooked with some organics before being added to the soil.Is this unnecessary?

If your using charcoal then yes, it is necessary. But not cooking, what do you mean by that?

The problem is the C/N ratio of charcoal is way to high. So, if you place naked charcoal in soil it will rob N from the surrounding soil, taking the N away from microbes and plants. Bad stuff. So, all you do is soak the charcoal in a mix of hydrolyzed fish and water for a day or so. Thus, the charcoal soaks up the N from the h.fish and won't rob N from the soil

Also, soaking charcoal in h.fish makes it much more microbally useful, especially for fungi.

You should break up charcoal as fine as you can, like the size of perlite.

At jay's urging,kitchen scraps will be replaced by a little biobizz pre-mix(mushroom compost,organic amendments,various rock meals and fungal/bacterial spores according to the label).

I wouldn't use it! Mushroom compost is bad stuff. It is really spent mushroom compost, already used by the fungi to produce mushrooms. After the compost is spent it must be treated and stored for at least a year to kill contamination like Trichoderma spp.. Most often very high levels of salt is applied and mixed into spent mushroom compost. This high salt content remains when it is bagged as sold as a horticultural supplement (which is fuc*ing lame imo).

You've inspired me to make my own char from sticks and branches from my own yard.I'll char them nice and slow in the fireplace. Much better than store bought,I'd wager?

Why not make biochar? Its easy, cheap and wayyyy better for the environment than charcoal. I use rice hulls to make biochar, it makes VERY high quality biochar and is already in small particle size, perfect stuff! I also use field dried horse manure to make very microbally useful biochar.

Two small metal buckets/drums, one smaller than the other, and your all set

HTH

 

[jaykush]

instead of soaking your char. if you compost you can add it to your composting process. by the time your compost is done, the char is "colonized" and ready to go. it helps make some real great compost too.

i agree with GD mushroom compost = crap 90% of the time. you might get lucky and find some decent mush compost. but the odds are against you, and most of the mushroom growers use chemicals in there mushroom compost.

Why not make biochar? Its easy, cheap and wayyyy better for the environment than charcoal. I use rice hulls to make biochar, it makes VERY high quality biochar and is already in small particle size, perfect stuff! I also use field dried horse manure to make very microbally useful biochar.

one thing GD, do you have to buy the rice hulls? i see nothing wrong with using sticks from your backyard. specially since its a local free source and home growers don't need that much. if the rice hulls have to be transported on trucks, it is much less environmentally friendly imo. i like the horse manure idea, i have a big pile i wont use for veggies, now im going to make char with it thanks.

 

[ganja din]

one thing GD, do you have to buy the rice hulls? i see nothing wrong with using sticks from your backyard. specially since its a local free source and home growers don't need that much. if the rice hulls have to be transported on trucks, it is much less environmentally friendly imo.

Yea that's true, I forgot to say I more often use bokashi inoculum, but its the same concern with wheat bran as you have pointed out. I use the inoculum because it is more nutritious than sans microbes. I use them mostly because I started using the inoculum when making biochar for mycological work and various agar mixes, and I got in the habit.

Terra Pretta was made from mostly raw OM like animal and human manure, kitchen scraps, hort. and agri. waste, yard waste, etc.

I like using dry and small OM (like rice hulls) because they char easily and require less wood to produce.

I believe twigs, sticks, ect, make fine biochar, however, they make much better charcoal or firewood. I find manures and composts (all pre-field dried) make the best biochars.

i like the horse manure idea, i have a big pile i wont use for veggies, now im going to make char with it ? thanks.

Np. I wish I could say its my idea, but I stole it from those who first made Terra Pretta

HTH

 

[jaykush]

no worries, i get into many habits and always catch myself.

i will be using the last yard of dried horse manure for char now. best part is...... its already small no smashing!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!

even still, good results come from wood charcoal. i dont want anyone to be hesitant with using it.