Aged pine bark fines vs hardwood bark

[Chuck]

I just remembered a thread. Its by John Todd in the Organic Gardening forum titled BioChar for small farms and gardens. Have you seen it?

 

[DirtMechanic]

I just remembered a thread. Its by John Todd in the Organic Gardening forum titled BioChar for small farms and gardens. Have you seen it?

No but I probably have read any articles it refers to at this point. I located a suppler selling big sacks of rice grain sized ground biochar for 600-700. I did not order because I produce a lot of wood here just from falls alone. I toyed with making my own but in a neighborhood that is a little tougher even with estate sized lots. I think I may use a afterburner for a clean burn and spread the ash, which is both alkaline and potassium rich, 2 things my soil badly needs.

 

[Chuck]

No but I probably have read any articles it refers to at this point. I located a suppler selling big sacks of rice grain sized ground biochar for 600-700. I did not order because I produce a lot of wood here just from falls alone. I toyed with making my own but in a neighborhood that is a little tougher even with estate sized lots. I think I may use a afterburner for a clean burn and spread the ash, which is both alkaline and potassium rich, 2 things my soil badly needs.

Check out his posts. I think you'll find it interesting.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I did read that thread! I actually ran across the videos when I was trying to understand a retort system. I have 2 issues though, the first being physically chopping the wood to a useable size, and the second is chopping the char to a even smaller useable size. Its not easy either way without specialty equipment. Even my chipper will not make small enough biochar particles, and I got into casting a grindstone before I just stopped considering it as a home based process. While a wood splitter would be slow, its only a barrel at a time, which is feasible if I buy a splitter. I considered a wood blade on my bandsaw as well. Less palatable and some wood is to large a diameter to feed and must be split.

Or I could just burn wood cleanly and snuff the fire toward the end of the burn.

 

[treeguy]

Are you guys nuts? Outside of the fact that I don't know anything about what passes for bluegrass down yonder, what you guys are talking about sounds like a hateful expense.

 

[DirtMechanic]

It is hateful but I just do not think I can do a kickstarter campaign so compost, manure and ashes will have to do.

 

[DirtMechanic]

This is my soil. The pH is 5pH on the 2 major components and slightly higher on the lesser component. The trick is the lesser component must float up nearer the surface because I read soil meters in that range as well. You can find your soil as well HERE. There are these micro surveys, like my front yard is a different soil than the hill my house is on, and its full of charts and stuff, like the one that shows the depths the soil is found and a variety of its parameters.

Basically I already know its clay but it is nice to get outside acknowledgement that the pH readings I have been taking were more accurate than I expected.

 

[DirtMechanic]

wow. sticking my pH meter into the bags of "evergreen compost and manure", I actually observed a 2pH on the meter. I also saw a 6.5. I bought cubic yard for the new kiowa blackberries and the blueberries. I saw a lot of sub 5pH numbers.