Biochar

[j_cornelissen]

I know this was a very long thread a while ago, but I'd like to know of other peoples experiences using the stuff.

I've been using charcoal from my pizza oven in my veggie garden and things are growing OK this year, as a lot of other things have changed and the weather's been much wetter compared to previous years, I'm not sure whether the charcoal is responsible for this (at least there were no negative effects).

So:

who's been trying using biochar

were there any positive or negative effects

I'd be very interested finding out!

Cheers, Jan

[Michaelangelica]

I have been playing with it for three+ years now.
Problems
1. I have VERY high pH soil SOME charcoals also have high pH the combination has been disastrous. As too; putting a lot on acid loving plants.
Your Pizza oven ash would not just be charcoal but "lime" as well which would exacerbate this effect.
2. Over-enthusiasm. I have the typical male gardener's problem of thinking that if a little is good more must be better. So i think I have used too much.
3.Charcoal in pots is different from charcoal in soil. Yet to work out exactly how yet.
4. Not realising that best effects happen when combined with lots of organic carbon (mulch compost).

The theory is that the charcoal will provide "housing" for soil micro-organisms there by increasing soil fertility
Also it should soak up any excess chemical fertilisers before it fertilises the creeks, rivers, lakes Ocean or the Great Barrier Reef.

In the American Terra preta soils their is a lot of porous clay. This seems to have a symbiotic or catalytic effect with the char's soil improving effects. Rather than break up all my terracotta pots I have been combining charcoal with some Australian Zeolite. Again i have used too much. I initially could not believe that stuff that looks and feels like sand would hold as much water as claimed. It does, and then some. I am beginning to suspect though, that if you let a pot dry out it sucks the water out of the plant--as do water holding polymers. (???).
The Terra preta soils are in the Tropics so they would get rain on a daily basis. The clay and charcoal should collect the N and any other fertiliser in the rain and make it more available to plants.

All still just an ongoing experiment I'm afraid, no definite answers for you --at least from my experience-yet. However i am always 'playing" and experimenting in my garden 'laboratory'.
BTW
I still have half a tonne of Zeolite and Charcoal (high pH) to sell. Probably enough, I've discovered, for the average suburb or two.

BTW Did you build your pizza oven or buy it?

[j_cornelissen]

Hey Mike,

built the oven myself, my back is just about feeling right again, and i try to get rid of mot of the ash before I use the coal.

I chuck the glowing embers in a fire pit, extinguish them with water, put the the shovel on the coal to get small fragments and then put it through the compost pile (which contains chicken poo)

Haven't test the soil pH, but we're on clay here in Melbourne. So far I haven't used that much, but like I said, the tomatoes seem to be going Ok this year

regards, Jan

[Michaelangelica]

Got a pic of your oven? Perhaps we should start a new thread. i am interested in building one.

[j_cornelissen]

plenty of pics

but seem to be unable to paste them in, is this only possible when they're on-line on flicr?

[j_cornelissen]

Come on people,

surely this the biggest thing out there when it comes to carbon sequestering / crop increasement (even that poor Mr Turnbill seemed to think so)

where's your stories!

did I mention I'm a tad impatient?

[alfamick]

I'm interested in biochar, primarily as a possible by-product from clean-burning stoves.

I've been running a bunch of experiments with a TLUD stove burning palm fronds and seeds, and I put the char into the compost. No idea yet what impact it has on the garden; I'm certainly not going to use it around the blueberries.

Currently making a couple of other stove designs, and getting ready to do some more controlled experiments to measure the amount of char retrieved from palm fronds/seeds.

[j_cornelissen]

is that one of the double walled stoves that'll accommodate pyrolysis of organic matter?

[alfamick]

is that one of the double walled stoves that'll accommodate pyrolysis of organic matter?

Yep - I've got some photos from my earlier attempts here:
http://backyardpermaculture.blogspot...rch/label/TLUD

I've got that one burning really well now; just finishing an "EverythingNice" stove (from WorldStove), made from stainless steel.

[j_cornelissen]

cool!! (I'm teaching an alternative energy unit at the highschool and trying to make a rocket stove for starters)

check this site out for the anila stove, which is something I thought you'd made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-SLnWTAoW0

Jan