Biochar , anyone using it , how do you like it ? :-)

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by mathuranatha, Dec 28, 2017.

  1. mathuranatha

    mathuranatha New Member

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    G,day all :) who is into Biochar ? How do you find it ?
     
  2. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    i would love to be making my own, but i cannot tolerate smokes
    of any kind.

    what little i get comes from charcoal chunks in ashes that some
    friends bring to me. it really isn't biochar as i'd want it to be but
    better than nothing...

    i think it can be helpful for some soils, but like any amendment
    it should be used with care/thought.

    a straight application to a garden is likely to be trouble if it
    isn't innoculated first (i've read of people who put it in their
    compost piles first which seems common sense to me - i've
    put a little charcoal through my worm bins to innoculate it
    and that went ok from what i could tell, but it wasn't much).

    considering that it will last a fairly long time and has such a
    huge surface area for bacteria, fungi and other soil creatures
    it seems like a pretty good thing, but then again, if you are
    in an area that is already pretty hot then adding something to
    the soil which makes it darker may be an issue unless you
    keep the soil very well covered with growth or mulches...
     
  3. James Kniskern

    James Kniskern New Member

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    Have you seen this video?
    It is a method of making biochar inside a wood stove, as you are heating your home. I make at least 2 small batches a day, burning wood chips, tree clippings, twigs, floor sweepings, and even old bones the dogs won't bother with anymore. Works great.
    I run the charcoal through an old food processor to powder it, then add to my compost pile. I've been doing that for a year now, but my first compost pile isn't ready yet, so I can't say how it is affecting my soil. But I can imagine I'm at least sequestering some carbon....
     
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  4. Jason_H

    Jason_H Member

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    Kathy Dawson from Manjimup is a local expert and proponent of using biochar. You could try contact her for more info.
     
  5. AnonymousAnomalous1

    AnonymousAnomalous1 New Member

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    We use it in combination with wood mulch and more "traditional" effluent from solid animal waste for the creation of highly enriched soil. In the more complex systems such as the food forests, it is almost a redundancy, but for some of the monocultural (or almost monocultural) agricultural growth, it serves its purpose very well ... also great for foot farming and the elevated or vertical farming methods.
     

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