About 5 years ago I read an item on the American site of garden banter giving some of the history of biochar and its uses. The claims made intrigued me and I spend long hours googling it, finding out how to use it and, more importantly, how to make it in relatively small quantities. The most difficult part for me was that I couldn't find anyone to discuss my findings. I needed to make relatively small quantities, up to about 20 litres, getting to be a little bit on the ancient side and unable to handle anything very heavy. I also needed to be able to use wood shavings as these were fairly easy to obtain. At that time I grew very little in the garden, anything I tried my wife would never use. I now think it was probably due to the slugs etc that she would find in the veg. I now like to grow things that will store, freeze or pickle and to that end I have made raised beds totalling 16 sq.m. My first batch of biochar went into a 5 sq.m bed, and was relatively successful in the first year, but failed in the second year. Biochar absorbs a large amount of liquid, but in the first year it also absorbed a lot of nutrient from the soil. I overcame that by soaking it in liquid nutrients for a few days . I now use whatever I have available in the beds, and that is probably about 300 litres. The manure l use is alpaca which goes directly on to the beds and l put some to soak to use for priming the biochar. My crops are good. and whilst I normally trench out my runner beans, this year l just added a couple of buckets of biochar to the row. Fewer plants, and an even better crop than last year. Initially, I must have spent about £250 perfecting a technique for making the biochar. The drawback with the method I used was a small amount of smoke produced, but enough to upset my neighbours if the had washing out. The new method I use costs about £60, produces no smoke (virtually none), has double the output, and should produce about 200 litres before parts need replacing (£20 to £25). I think the Mayan Indians of Brazil got it right when they just kept adding it to their soil making Terra Preta. Believed to have been used for 2,000 years in the Amazon valley. Nothing added to it for 500 years and farmers still using it without adding any fertilisers. A lot of research is being done by universities. A couple of companies producing it and charging a small fortune for it. I get my shavings free so I calculate that it is costing me about 10 pence a litre. I think the time l spent looking it up and working on it has been really worthwhile . And l would recommend giving it a try.

How well does it work with astroturf?

On 06/09/14 18:15, Bigal wrote:

About 5 years ago I read an item on the American site of garden banter
giving some of the history of biochar and its uses. The claims made
intrigued me and I spend long hours googling it, finding out how to use
it and, more importantly, how to make it in relatively small quantities.
The most difficult part for me was that I couldn't find anyone to
discuss my findings. I needed to make relatively small quantities, up
to about 20 litres, getting to be a little bit on the ancient side and
unable to handle anything very heavy. I also needed to be able to use
wood shavings as these were fairly easy to obtain. At that time I grew
very little in the garden, anything I tried my wife would never use. I
now think it was probably due to the slugs etc that she would find in
the veg. I now like to grow things that will store, freeze or pickle
and to that end I have made raised beds totalling 16 sq.m. My first
batch of biochar went into a 5 sq.m bed, and was relatively successful
in the first year, but failed in the second year. Biochar absorbs a
large amount of liquid, but in the first year it also absorbed a lot of
nutrient from the soil. I overcame that by soaking it in liquid
nutrients for a few days . I now use whatever I have available in the
beds, and that is probably about 300 litres. The manure l use is alpaca
which goes directly on to the beds and l put some to soak to use for
priming the biochar. My crops are good. and whilst I normally trench
out my runner beans, this year l just added a couple of buckets of
biochar to the row. Fewer plants, and an even better crop than last
year. Initially, I must have spent about £250 perfecting a technique
for making the biochar. The drawback with the method I used was a small
amount of smoke produced, but enough to upset my neighbours if the had
washing out. The new method I use costs about £60, produces no smoke
(virtually none), has double the output, and should produce about 200
litres before parts need replacing (£20 to £25). I think the Mayan
Indians of Brazil got it right when they just kept adding it to their
soil making Terra Preta. Believed to have been used for 2,000 years in
the Amazon valley. Nothing added to it for 500 years and farmers still
using it without adding any fertilisers. A lot of research is being
done by universities. A couple of companies producing it and charging a
small fortune for it. I get my shavings free so I calculate that it is
costing me about 10 pence a litre. I think the time l spent looking it
up and working on it has been really worthwhile . And l would recommend
giving it a try.

On 06/09/2014 22:21, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 6 Sep 2014 19:15:09 +0200, Bigal
wrote:


About 5 years ago I read an item on the American site of garden banter
giving some of the history of biochar and its uses.

snipped

Biochar was apparently used extensively by the Amazonian Indians,
before Europeans came along.

There was a TV program about ten years ago on the Amazon rainforest,
where they reckoned that at one time it was much more densely
populated than it is now, confirming reports from one of the earliest
Spanish explorers. But no-one in recent times could believe it,
because the soil is so unproductive, and the slash-and-burn methods
currently practiced only gives a couple of years of useful agriculture
before the soil is exhausted, which means it cannot support a large
population.

However, they'd discovered that three or four centuries ago, they used
to cultivate areas of soil enriched with charcoal (they didn't say how
it got there, whether from natural burning or man-made fires), and
this greatly improved the fertility of the soil and sustained a much
greater number of inhabitants. They call this soil Terra Preta. Sadly,
with the arrival of European diseases, this large indigenous
population mostly died out to the level it is today.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta


Never tried it. How does it differ from just adding lots of BBQ
charcoal?

I thought that all charcoal was Bio.
Many years ago when we lived outside Hastings we had a friend who was a
charcoal burner and we used to get sacks of charcoal dust and spread
that on our heavy clay soil.
It helped to make the soil easier to work, and certainly did no harm.

On 06/09/2014 22:38, David Hill wrote:
On 06/09/2014 22:21, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 6 Sep 2014 19:15:09 +0200, Bigal
wrote:


About 5 years ago I read an item on the American site of garden banter
giving some of the history of biochar and its uses.

snipped

Biochar was apparently used extensively by the Amazonian Indians,
before Europeans came along.

There was a TV program about ten years ago on the Amazon rainforest,
where they reckoned that at one time it was much more densely
populated than it is now, confirming reports from one of the earliest
Spanish explorers. But no-one in recent times could believe it,
because the soil is so unproductive, and the slash-and-burn methods
currently practiced only gives a couple of years of useful agriculture
before the soil is exhausted, which means it cannot support a large
population.

However, they'd discovered that three or four centuries ago, they used
to cultivate areas of soil enriched with charcoal (they didn't say how
it got there, whether from natural burning or man-made fires), and
this greatly improved the fertility of the soil and sustained a much
greater number of inhabitants. They call this soil Terra Preta. Sadly,
with the arrival of European diseases, this large indigenous
population mostly died out to the level it is today.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta


Never tried it. How does it differ from just adding lots of BBQ
charcoal?

I thought that all charcoal was Bio.
Many years ago when we lived outside Hastings we had a friend who was a
charcoal burner and we used to get sacks of charcoal dust and spread
that on our heavy clay soil.
It helped to make the soil easier to work, and certainly did no harm.
"Did no harm" That was a favourite reply to me when I asked Dad why he
was doing such and such a thing to the soil. It puzzled me then, as if
does no harm implies to me that it does no good either, so why bother?

Thank you Chris for adding in some of the history. It actually dates back over 2,000 years, and the large population of the Amazon Valley 500 years ago. Terra Preta was only discovered during the last century. It is thought that it got there through the cooking fires and the fertility from the middens. A lot of pottery shards was found in with the Terra Preta, and some reconstruction of them indicate very large pots. A large population, probably millions, has not produced any graves, skeletons etc., and another body of thought is cremation using the pots. Still an interesting thought. BBQ wood chunks can be used instead, but it is harder to break up. Probably due to being made at a different temperature. Like biochar, it does need to be primed with a liquid fertiliser before use.

Marvelous with astroturf. Stops it from growing.

Pity you didn#t prime it first. You would have seen a big difference.

The problem with Britain is that is is full of sceptics until fully proven. That is why our universities take so long to prove that it is useful. Absolute proof is needed. We are lucky in Britain in that our soil is generally quite fertile. But some of that fertility is maintained at a cost - nitrates on the fields getting into the water systems. Biochar has millions of miniscule pores which lock in the fertiliser, and more importantly, retain it. It can also lock in something like 10% of its volume with water. Could be useful if we end up with very hot summers, although it doesn't look that way at the moment. It certainly isn't a fertiliser but does seem to work like slow release fertilisers. Biochar is carbon which can take thousands of years to break down and be released into the atmosphere. The deadly carbon type gasses are also burned off during itsa manufacture.. Anything left in the ground to rot gives all of its carbon back to the atmosphere. My method of making it burns off these gasses, but on an industrial basis they could be collected and used to run motors, generate electricity by either steam or running a small generator. No matter how much I try to inform people, scepticism steps in the way and it is forgotten, much as will probably happen here. I have attended garden forums where even the experts know nothing about it, and I have then had to offer what knowledge I had on the subject. Fortunately, it is being taken seriously in some countries. I thank you for reading this, and unless anyone has any questions, l shall retire to my 16 sq.m of vegetable garden to continue picking what is left to keep me supplied through thee winter via my freezer.

On 06/09/2014 22:38, David Hill wrote:
On 06/09/2014 22:21, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 6 Sep 2014 19:15:09 +0200, Bigal
wrote:


About 5 years ago I read an item on the American site of garden banter
giving some of the history of biochar and its uses.

snipped

Biochar was apparently used extensively by the Amazonian Indians,
before Europeans came along.

There was a TV program about ten years ago on the Amazon rainforest,
where they reckoned that at one time it was much more densely
populated than it is now, confirming reports from one of the earliest
Spanish explorers. But no-one in recent times could believe it,
because the soil is so unproductive, and the slash-and-burn methods
currently practiced only gives a couple of years of useful agriculture
before the soil is exhausted, which means it cannot support a large
population.

However, they'd discovered that three or four centuries ago, they used
to cultivate areas of soil enriched with charcoal (they didn't say how
it got there, whether from natural burning or man-made fires), and
this greatly improved the fertility of the soil and sustained a much
greater number of inhabitants. They call this soil Terra Preta. Sadly,
with the arrival of European diseases, this large indigenous
population mostly died out to the level it is today.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta


Never tried it. How does it differ from just adding lots of BBQ
charcoal?

I thought that all charcoal was Bio.
Many years ago when we lived outside Hastings we had a friend who was a
charcoal burner and we used to get sacks of charcoal dust and spread
that on our heavy clay soil.
It helped to make the soil easier to work, and certainly did no harm.

Woodash is great for fruit trees and shrubs that like high potash and
any left over charcoal helps the drainage on things like onion beds.
Allegedly it helps keep bulb fibre sweet although I remain unconvinced.

Biochar is just a fancy US name for wood charcoal.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Actually biochar is a name in its own right. It can be made from any material that was once living. Even that has a proper name 'biomass' If you had made it you would realise that there is a difference which you can actually feel.. Personally, I use wood shavings and it is made at a very simple level. Incorporated in the burn has occasionally been chicken bones and lamb bones. My burns are too short to warrant trying the larger beef bones. The biocharred bones are easily crushable between two fingers.. Biochar can be made out of larger pieces of wood, which I have occasionally incorporated in a burn, but the easy availability of wood shavings give me as much as l need and the excess l pass on to my friends. My crops are better than l have ever had. Being on my own, l have to freeze of lot of what l produce, and this year, without extending my garden, I have had to buy and extra freezer. If you have a spare sixty quid and can get a supply of wood shavings (a good carpenters work shop) I can tell you how to make it. Then you can develop tour own Terra Preta.

Hi Chris. When l first started to look at biochar, l bought a bag of lumpwood charcoal, and tries smashing it down into very small pieces. Hard work. Thus, l decided to look at making it with wood shavings. A lot of questions were being asking which l also wanted answering. l spent a lot of time finding out. When l started making my own, there is a difference, and you can feel it. And there is a slight difference in the way it is manufactured. With biochar all the carbon enhancing gasses are burned off, but l suspect some of these escape when making charcoal. l'm 100% sure of that, bu there is a difference in temperature. l have looked at the two sites and what they sell is useable as far as l am aware. l couldn't see any prices but hopefully it will be a lot cheaper than carbon gold. l prime mine with liquid manure (from soaking alpaca manure [because l can get it] in a bag), diluted worm pee from my small wormery, and liquid sea weed fertiliser. Much the same as added to carbon gold. As for the amount to use? Well l reckon that the Mayan Indians added it to their soil for 2 thousand years, and to make a soil depth of 2 m, must have taken a hell of a lot. So add it as you can afford it. Making my own with a £60 outlay lets me produce about 200 litres at 35p a litre including fertiliser. This year l added heavily to my row of runner beans. Single row of 12 feet and at the rate of 2 1/2 litres per foot (shallow trench). nothing else added, Not quite doubled last years crop which had a few more plants, but plenty more to come. By the way, not all of the £60 outlay will need to be replaced, so the next lot will be cheaper,