Making Biochar

[MikeH]

Is anyone making biochar? I've been aware of it for some time but that's about it until I came across this slide from a Steve Diver presentation - www.slideshare.net/MauraMcDW/emimo-kcsa-resilient-farmer-april-2013



We've been using a water soluble mycorrhizal fungi product from Paul Stamets' company fungi.com.  We've inoculated all of our fruit and nut trees.  We're also looking at growing our own on the roots of Bahia grass so that we have an ongoing source.  This will have a bit of creativity since Ectomycorrhizal fungi, the ones that attach to trees cannot be reproduced this way.  Since most of the fruit and nut trees we will be planting will be on rootstock in our layering bed, I'm going to inoculate our layering bed.  Whenever we pot up rootstock in preparation for grafting, we'll make sure to add soil from the layering bed to the pot which should insure that the roots are inoculated when the grafted tree is planted.  

Having done a side by side test of mycorrhizal fungi on our miscanthus giganteus, I'm increasing convinced of the value of mycorrhizal fungi.  Half the planting was innoculated and within 4 weeks was 20-25% taller than the half that was not inoculated.  Now that half is catching up with the inoculated half but in a very interesting way.  The plants closest to the inoculated plants are taller than those farther away.  That's what I would expect if there is indeed a mycorrhizal network developing. 

My interest in mycorrhizal fungi and the slide above make me interested in making biochar.  We certainly have enough small wood as we open up parts of our wood and replant parts of our woods. 

I know there's tons of info on making biochar on the net (this one seems to be within my reach - www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/13196941#) but I'm wondering if anyone here has actually tried it. 

[richardw]

Ive never tried making biochar but certainly interesting reading

[petitvilaincanard]

This my trial,way down this page

link

[khoomeizhi]

a berry-farmer friend of mine makes biochar out of his spent raspberry canes every year, but his system didn't seem terribly fine-tuned. basically loading a metal drum with dry canes, getting them blazing and smothering it with a lid a what seemed like the 'right' time...

[steev]

No doubt folks in Amazonia had a much finer-tuned system than that; probably a superbly-crafted hole in the ground.

[templeton]

Not allowed to light a fire outside, here, without a permit
Would love to make some of those big smoker barrels in that youtube video on the the other thread.
But I can offer that the when I made my first garden beds, and burned all the wood that was in the derelict playhouse I pulled down, that garden bed produced wonderfully for a few years, and I add charcoal and woodash at every opportunity.
T

[steev]

However ill-considered, "slash-and-burn", is not unproductive, in the short term. I admit to a degree of shadenfreude in my winter immolation of dried starthistle, but I don't doubt that I'd be better off turning that crap into biochar. So much to do, so little time. Although the plants aren't very substantial, the seed-heads must have a significant oil content, as they take a fair time to burn; probably a good thing to keep on the project list.

[steev]

Whenever I have fireplace/woodstove capacity, I consider the ashes "gray gold"; many folks with woodstoves don't really like oak, saying it leaves too much ash; that's exactly why it's my first choice of hardwoods. Black acacia (California Koa) is spoken well of, but I've not given it a fair shot. I like Blue euc, except it takes so long to dry and really craps up the flue if at all wet. I once made the mistake of tossing a big, fresh chunk of Flame euc into a hot fireplace; kind of like a melon-sized solid ball of tire rubber.

[mnjrutherford]

I've made it with a TLUD (top lit up draft) stove made from tin cans. About half way down the page of the same link Petit posted, there are a series of photos of a man with a bunch of barrels. Those come from a video he posted (he lives in Florida) and my tin can stove is a miniature of his model.

The nifty points of a TLUD system are numerous and intriguing for a broad spectrum of issues. They include but are not limited to:
1. Can be used to provide indoor heat because the gasification process nearly (completely?) eliminates deadly fumes that come from a "normal" fire.
2. Creates a lot of heat for a longer period with less fuel.
3. Can be made very cheaply.
4. Can use nearly anything for fuel, manure to old clothing, to ....
5. Whatever is used for fuel becomes bio-char.

So Templeton, give it a shot but on a smaller scale, something you can put on a porch perhaps?

A TLUD system is a little like the pigs, it supports so many processes from cooking, to magically transforming useless materials into productive materials, and you can even warm the house and toast marshmallows while doing so.

[templeton]

Jo,
I never thought of scaling it DOWN...what a great idea! little tins, no complaints from the neighbours...I'm all over it!
T

[mnjrutherford]

LOLOL Well see, that is why we are a community!!! YOU GO DUDE! I am looking forward to hearing results!!!!

[steev]

I think I can do this with salvaged clay flue-liners; they should come cheap, as they're generally being discouraged in favor of stainless steel.

[mnjrutherford]

The question I want answered is, "are these safe to burn indoors?" I know they are safeER because they are selling them in undeveloped countries for use as cook stoves.

[steev]

I think that may depend on what you mean by "indoors"; to our "benefit?" we tend to think of indoors as a much more sealed-off environment than is the case in less developed countries. Depending on climate, I am much looser in my concept of "indoors". There is a lot of the world where one really isn't interested in keeping warm, so "indoors" has an entirely different meaning. I think, as a general rule, those underdeveloped countries are in areas where mosquitoes and such are more to be feared than is cold, so cooking is commonly done in well-ventilated areas and heating is not an issue.

[12540dumont]

We make biochar every time we have a BBQ. So we save the bones from all meat eaten in the freezer. I start a BBQ of last harvested corn cobs or bean shells and fruit wood from trimmings and the old bones. When our food is cooked, I close all the vents on the Weber. Next day, I have clumps of charcoal and smallish bones.

I take all of these and add them to a bucket. These buckets are tucked away in bushes. As the urge takes someone, they administer their urine into the bucket. When the buckets are 1/3 full of urine, I drag them to an "old garden bed", add 1/3 of a bucket of water and then dump them on the ground.

I keep doing this through the season. It takes about 4 buckets to do one 25' bed.

Since I started this project, I've done 8 beds.

That bed is then left to sleep until the following season. So the ones I've been using all summer will be planted to favas this fall. (which is hard upon us).

I like that everything from the farm is being recycled and put back into the field.

The burning of the corn cobs and bean shells also have eliminated much of the pesky weevilish type bugs that sometimes arrive at the farm.

We also can't burn in the open, but BBQ's are allowed just about everywhere.