Biochar: A Better Way To Use Yard Debris!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Hi Folks! In this episode we are showing how to use the open trench method for turning yard debris into biochar that can help improve your garden soils. We'll talk about how the trench should be constructed and why. We'll also show you the entire burn process through to quenching as a final step. This is a super way to make a large quantity of biochar for little or no cost. We always want to give credit where credit is due. So, a big thanks to SkillCult and his TH-cam videos on biochar for sharing this method.
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Appreciate seeing what level of age on your blackberry vines. Mine are very dead. A workshop on Biochar on Sauvies Island last Saturday mentioned that the vines make a fine Biochar. He built the pile which was almost completely smokeless. It was cool to watch the fire pull any smoke back into the flames. He built it with a Conservation Burn mindset. I would like to see less smoke from my neighbors brush burns here in SW Washington. Steam is ok, smoke not so much.
Thanks for your videos. I've learned enough to go out and try it.
SkillCult yes!
Yeah! He has a great channel with lost of good videos!
While scrolling through gardening sites.. on TH-cam...as we gardeners do... I found yours.. which I find very informative..I also watch the WEEDY GARDEN.. very entertaining ! Take a look !
Love The Weedy Garden, and how he photographs amazing events in the garden. I'm grounding some flowers for his test!
Thanks @Shelley Edwards I'll be sure to check this out!
you're pretty good with a shovel
sped up it was rather relaxing to watch
Oh. I did same for my homemade soil. Thanks for sharing
Hi @Hungs blomster hus This simple additive can really help poor soils! Thanks for watching!
How did you round up your blackberries without being clawed to ribbons by the thorns?
I make my biochar similar to yours. But my pit is round and just as deep as yours. But add one other special ingredient--- I go to my local deer processing shop and pick up at least a dozen carcasses that they were going to throw away anyway. When my fire is going really well I throw the bones on the pile and keep adding wood to the top period as the Embers burn I dig them out of the bottom with a long-handled shovel and throw them in a barrel of water for instant cooling and fracking. Last year I made about a hundred and twenty pounds of biochar and I have about three gallons left. Can't wait for deer season
Brilliant use of nature's waste. And people's waste too. Good job.👍😁
I use 2 self-made pyramid kilns to make my biochar. They work great.
My garden loves it (once I have charged it). Have to chase up my neighbor to get them both back soon.
Skill Cult lit his from the bottom.
He actually has done both. He has a lot of different videos. Love his pruning videos.
Why a trench as opposed to using a cone shape? Please let me know I’ve got a significant amount of material from leaves pine needles small twigs to tree branches 2’ 10’ I don’t want to wastes any of the material that I don’t have to!!, I’ve been searching and I’m down to a trench with steep angled sides to the cone,please!!!
hi @Allen Dean Huscusson we got this idea from a Channel on TH-cam called SkillCult. He worked on this design and found that the angled sides kept the material falling toward the center as it burned and also reflect the heat back into the material to be burned. This design when lighting the fuel to burn from the top down kept the oxygen levels low below the flames just like is a cone shape the fire intensifies and the material below the flames turns to char instead of ash. So basically the trench when designed with sloped sides and a narrow bottom performs just like a cone shaped kiln. Its performed amazing well in making char. Check this SkillCult video on it:
th-cam.com/video/ixtxNfU9Rb8/w-d-xo.html Hope this helps!
If you have long pieces, use a trench. If you have short pieces, a cone or a trench.
University test says you need 5% biochar to see results. So your adding 1% to your tunnels every year will not be near enough. Other say it will take 3 years before you really see it improve the soil.
The whole point of real charcoal is anaerobic burning… the carbonaceous material has to burn in the absence of oxygen ie. continued burn while covered up with dirt or tin roofing sealed around the edges with dirt.
Hi @Andrew McDonald You're spot on! The process of pyrolysis is burning in the absence of O2. The design of this open pit and the fact that additional fuels are added to and burned from the top chokes off the O2 to the burning material beneath the flames as the heat builds the unburned material turns into char. Now, this system doesn't necessary get to the super high temps of a retort burner but for no cost it does a pretty good job. You can stop the process by smothering like you suggested or by immediate quenching the hot fire with water which is what we do. Both methods work . Our last burn in the pit produced 8 cuft of char. Thanks for watching!
I never have too much flames because it turns to ash, don't remember him saying that!!?
But if course many have pay channels and charge for more information!?
Only slow the flames and keep turning
I do biochar overnight will continue to burn, I don't use water if at all possible!!
I was thinking why the water, too, but i live in a humid environment. If you live somewhere dry, you want to keep an eye on it so as not to start an (unhelpful) wildfire.
It would make sense to look at techniques that indigenous peoples used with success (before we Europeans stopped them 🤦🏻♀️) to learn helpful techniques. They use(d) great techniques for making biochar (i.e. filling the pit back in with dirt, which will put out the flames, but will keep in the heat to turn more of the bigger pieces into char) as well as for wildfire prevention.
Native populations used to keep destructive wildfires under control by using controlled burns on smaller areas to clear out the dry brush. There's a great podcast episode on that, by the way - Ologies with Alie Ward, the episode is called "Indigenous Fire Ecology (GOOD FIRE) with Amy Christianson".
You can make bone sauce while making biochar. The bone sauce can be applied to trees to ward off animal from eating into ur food forest 🤔
I'm struggling to see the difference between this and a bonfire.
The aim here is to shoulder the bottom level, with the continuous input of finer material. The goal is to not let the bottom level turn to ash. Ash can be used as well, in the garden, but differently. Hope that helps...
Shady Man's answer is spot on. Also by starting the fire from the top in a trench accomplishes the task of keeping a low oxygen level and creating char
That helps a ton. THank You!
I'm the first thumb down.
Look... 8400 subs and we don't need to watch you dig that trench by hand.
You told us how big the trench was. You told us the process. This video should be 5 minutes, or 10:05 to make YT algorithm happy, and that's it.
Hi @Frank Summerlin I want to thank you for your critique. Many times its easy to get a little wandering on the trail to a destination and its important to cut to the chase. As for the YT algorithm, honestly we don't have a clue as to how it selects to promote or demote a video and as soon as we think we did understand it our knowledge of its working would probably be obsolete. Mostly our view is to proceed with content with a purpose and then let the chips will fall where they may. Thanks again for watching and taking the time to comment.
Actually, I kind of like watching him dig. Wanting to see what's underneath too. Music is nice. I listen to Shawn on My Self Reliance build his cabin and it is quite restful. What is this manic race to death? You can scroll ahead. But the dislike is still good for him. I'll add my like before I go out and dig my cone pit, very small, for old dead blackberry vines.
Frank- please post your link to making biochar. I’m watching all kinds of videos on Biochar. I’d love to get your thoughts on this subject