Biochar

[plotstoeat]

Has anyone used Biochar? I would love to hear of your experiences. I believe it is an attempt to produce something similar to terra preta, the ancient fertile black soil. http://commonsensehome.com/biochar/

[plotstoeat]

[daveyboi]

This is the first I have heard of this but a bit of a search around makes interesting reading. Will be interested in the results of the University research over the last two years.

http://www.bigbiocharexperiment.co.uk/

[plotstoeat]

Thanks for the link Davey. Might be fun to join the experiment! I wonder if we could make an approximation of biochar? Can't wait 100 years though!

[InfraDig]

I have looked at this many times but not tried it!


http://www.holon.se/folke/carbon/simplechar/simplechar.shtml

[InfraDig]

And this!

http://www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/charcoal/

[Vinlander]

The thing that gets me (not in a good way) is the evidence that the amerindians used to just burn waste in a fairly random manner and bury the partially carbonised result to produce this incredible soil. They probably didn't worry about the few % of tars etc. involved as long as the plants survived and evidence from communal city gardens confirms that mild contamination can't affect fruit & seed at all, and only affects leafy stuff by rain-splash.

On the other hand we have the companies making money hand-over-fist from those newbie gardeners with more money than sense - how else could they sell "cleaner" charcoal ( I have my doubts) at many, many times the cost of barbecue charcoal?

A great idea with potentially massive cheap and cheerful benefits hijacked by bottom-feeding spin doctors preying on fashion victims.

Cheers.