Siripin

Hi folks

As I mentioned yesterday there has been a thread running on something called biochar thread which some of you may have read. It's also pertinent because Loong has raised the question of is it safe to use charcoal ? I've been doing a spot of research and come up with the following;

First to answer loongs query

"Can I use commercial charcoal as biochar ? absolutely. While the bio-oil condensates in biochar definitely play a role in soil fertility, charcoal without bio-oil condensates has been demonstrated to produce excellent results.Although it is normally advisable to avoid industrial charcoal briquettes because the binders used during manufacture can add undesirable constituents"

obviously your charcoal contains no binder and as long as the locals are using raw timber and not treated or painted wood I guess you've got the all clear.

" What are the benefits of using biochar ??

The following benefits occur with additions of biochar

Enhanced plant growth

Suppressed methane emission

Reduced nitrous oxide emission (estimate 50%) (see 5.10 below)

Reduced fertilizer requirement (estimate 10%)

Reduced leaching of nutrients

Stored carbon in a long term stable sink

Reduces soil acidity: raises soil pH (see 5.01 below)

Reduces aluminum toxicity

Increased soil aggregation due to increased fungal hyphae

Improved soil water handling characteristics

Increased soil levels of available Ca, Mg, P, and K

Increased soil microbial respiration

Increased soil microbial biomass

Stimulated symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes

Increased arbuscular mycorrhyzal fungi

Increased cation exchange capacity"

heres some links that explain biochar and its uses;

A good general overview and very readable biochar

an article on biochar in Thai rice growing black soil - green rice

loads of good info and links pus some video biochar - home production and usage

FF was asking about rice straw so here's one for you ( more about producing on a commercial scale but I'm sure a man of your calibre could put it to use, bit scientific I'm afraid ) technologies for the energy use of rice straw

also a happy coincidence bearing in mind my recent post

"Biochar enthusiasts generally agree that raw biochar needs to be processed further prior to being added to the garden. Composting, or soaking with compost tea, is commonly used to charge the pore volume with beneficial organisms and nutrients. Soaking in a nutrient rich solution (examples are urine or fish emulsion) prior to composting is accepted practice."

Finally heres a PDF on building your own kiln as used in the Philipinnes to produce biochar from rice hulls on the farm

Farmcarb...nmachine.pdf

There's loads of info out there on the net and biochar can also be used as a fuel . Many hope it could be the answer to save the planet and there's plenty of ongoing research !!

happy carbonisation folks !!

Jandtaa

Hello,

I like to make biochar on my own in the future but as a first test I use commercial charcoal. It comes in big chunks and I take a hammer to break it down into smaller pieces. What is the perfect size of these pieces? I saw commercial biochar pellets that looked to me like 0.7 - 1 cm long and maybe 0.3 cm wide. Would this be the perfect size? By hammering the charcoal into smaller pieces a lot of dust comes with it. Besides this dust could be blown away someday (what is not a big concern to me as I have only a small garden), is the dust as beneficial to my growing soil as bigger pieces?

Re the insane conspiracy theory. That is most probably what it is but I would not doubt that both Israel and The US could and would cook up a plan like this so it is not completely out of the realm of reality.

ISIS consists of extremely poor people. Give them 100 $ / day and they will fight against whom their master says. And when their master says I want some beheadings then they chop off some heads. Show some beheadings on the news and the sheeple are ready for an all out war. That's how it works.

The Military Industrial Complex has to be fed everyday and if there are no opponents some are created.

I have Diatomaceous Earth. It's a bit lower than food grade (to eat for humans) but it's suitable to eat for animals and of course suitable as an insecticide. I'm located in Patong Beach, Phuket.