You are such a scientist!!! I love all your scientific references - it sounds so plausible. But actually Keith, you made mud! 🤣😅😂 To actually show the difference between your biochar and soil you needed 2 more glasses with soil and water so you could actually make mud. Then you could have a third option as well, say, horse manure. But it still just looks like mud to me.
Just make sure it didn't used to actually have oil in it. You don't want that in your char ajd then in your soil. Mine used to hold kitchen sanitizer, safe to using on food preparation surfaces, so I know it is pretty clean and won't have any negative health impacts based on what used to be in the barrel.
I love it. Was thinking of trying but I was on the fence because so many conflicting videos.... makes total sense especially if you precharge it not just dump it in the soil.
Yeah, it suffers from the same thing as woodchips - user error. So many people put woodchips down and then till them into their soils, tie up nitrogen in their beds 6 inches deep, then say woodchips are bad. They aren't, you just tilled them in and made a wood core bed! Similarly with biochar, people will make it and then put it in their gardens. This is like putting a dry sponge in a glass and wondering where all the water went. Only with nutrients.
I have to mention Dr McLaughlin, there is a video of him explaining how to use biochar properly. Just make it and incorporate it into your compost system from the start. He says it will speed up your process if you want. Plus, the main benefit of doing so does 3 things to your char. The compost conditions, charges, and inoculates the char. 1 part char to 3 parts compost. At the end you will have a 50/50 blend of compost and char. That could be a little too much to handle for the home compost system that usually composts a cubic yard at a time or so. But even if you don't have the whole "part" for your system, get it in there! I mixed in a 5 gallon pail of char this past Fall into my "batch." I can't wait to get in there and have a look to see the difference. The snow is still too high to get at it.
Hey, props to the young fella in the background for having the class to move the chair quietly while you were filming. :) I know this is an older vid but I have a biochar question if you have a moment. Nobody seems to go into any detail regarding how our plants roots get all the stored nutrient back from the charcoal which we've established is very good at grabbing and holding things. Good enough to filter our air and water. By which mechanism do the stored molecules get released or made available to plants? And thanks for the vid.
Same as how plants get access to the nutrients stuck inside soil aggregates and mineral deposits: fungi and bacteria. The plant root puts out root exudates to attract them. The bacteria eat it. They secrete acids to break apart mineral deposits (or break molecule chains hanging off biochar). Think of them as little coat hangers hanging on a coat rack. The bacteria consumes the nutrients it breaks off, then lives and dies and its cell walls rupture as it dies. It pees and poops also. The nutrient in this biomass now the plant can consume. The key to unlocking it all is the microbiology. The biochar just acts like a coat rack with many many pegs that catches any nutrient flowing by during rains and such, and holds onto it for later.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Riight.. The microbiology. Of course. That was the piece missing from my thought process. Thanks heaps for the prompt and detailed reply. Much appreciated.
What type of soil are you working with on your site? And what is your annual rainfall? Do you generally have problems with excess water, dry periods or both? How much biochar do you use per unit area? Do you incorporate it into the soil, top dress,...?
Annual rainfall is about 750mm. Soil is sandy, rocky garbage. When they built, they just dumped gravel and an inch of topsoil, tossed grass on that. This was 40 years ago, so the grass is on dead gravel now. I'm rehabbing it with shredded leaves and clover overseed. We are mostly overly draining, due to both the gravel sandy soil, and also the elevation change of the house up on a hill. The lower area with the paw paws (where I did this fire) was wild for about 10 years and has much better soil. It's more of a clay, with standing water in rains - in spots. I need to absorb that water inside the soil, inside the biochar in order to prevent soaked ground. I have another video on how I add it into the soil. I put it in the compost. I typically have 5-15% biochar by volume, depending on how much time I have to make it, vs how much compost is coming in.
@@bernhardhohlweger8640 In most agricultural situations worldwide, soil pH is low (a pH below 7 means more acidic soil) and needs to be increased towards 6.5 to 7 range. Biochar retains nutrients in soil directly through the negative charge that develops on its surfaces, and this negative charge can buffer acidity in the soil, as does organic matter in general. CEC stands for Cation Exchange Capacity, and is one of many factors involved in soil fertility. “Cations” are positively charged ions, for example plant nutrients such as calcium (Ca2+), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+) and others. These simple forms are those in which plants take the nutrients up through their roots. Organic matter and some clays in soil hold on to these positively charged nutrients because they have negatively charged sites on their surfaces, and opposite charges attract. The soil can then “exchange” these nutrients with plant roots. If a soil has a low cation exchange capacity, it is not able to retain such nutrients well, and the nutrients are often washed out with water. This is the strength of biochar. Holding onto nutrients. When there is little biochar and organic matter in the soil, these cations bind with OH-. Lowering pOH and rasing pH. This isnt the only impact though, biochar holding positive charged ions and preventing them from washing away with water will mean more positive ions around (especially the +2 +3), which means more OH gets pulled out of soil before the positive ions are washed away. In this way biochar has a "return to balance" effect on soil chemistry. As long as you didnt make too much ash (pH of 12 to 13), then adding biochar should return soils towards pH of 7. However that is all textbook stuff, and its great for controlled conditions in labs, but should be only guidance on your land. The best way to handle this is to actually measure this with a simple soil tester. Thst being said, biochar is typically added on small amounts, 5 to 10 percent of soil volume, and shouldn't have much of an impact on soil pH, unless your soil pH is greatly out of whack. So basically dont sweat it, but at the same time observe and monitor it. If your soil is extremely acidic, let a burn go a bit longer to make more ash content, and this will help raise your soil pH. If your soil is high pH, then focus on not making ash, quenching earlier. And as always, innoculate it first by adding it into your compost pile, or urinating on it for a few months before adding it into your garden.
I don't know if you know the channel, but 'the weedy garden' has anice video on making a bacteria solution, I think it is called Bokashi or something. Would that kind of thing work as well to inoculate biochar? Even though, the way I understand it, it is anaerobic?
Yeah, I love his channel - pretty new channel, but super talented at film making (was his old career). I have my concerns with his batch because it's a lactose ferment. It's anaerobic and the bacteria bred are bacteria that break down milk. Now, someone smarter than me in soil science can tell me if there's even any point to that or not. For now, I think I will stick to Dr Elaine Ingham's work and focus on aerobic innoculations such a nettle/comfrey/compost/manure teas, run with an aerator.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy okay thanks I was worried about that as well though he mentioned that the lactase is supposed to kill the bad bacteria. Maybe I'll check Dr Ingham out then
Just put it on top. You can rake back mulch them put on top. You can even just put it on top of chips. Rains will bring it down. Then if you want to speed up the process, you can walk on them, especially if they are on the walking path.
Hi, this is great and I would love to be able to make biochar myself but unfortunately I can't at the moment because I can't get a hold of wood or a place to burn it in right now(I live in the city) but hopefully after our current covid-19 lockdown phase is over here in Melbourne Australia I can sort that out. I had a thought though, and despite it possibly being silly I'm still willing to ask you this question 😂 . . . I have a box of artists charcoal, do you think I could use that as a substitute for now? I'm never going to draw with it so I thought perhaps I could try to improve my soil with it? 😁 It's okay to laugh (with me not at me) if this is a silly idea. Lol 😂 I'm so enjoying your videos, you give me hope! Cheers, Ginny 💚
what happens if charcoal absorbs nuclear radiation? anti-radiation or even keep radiation longer? which if a disaster occurs all farmers must dispose of their charcoal that has been planted for decades at a very high cost.
Depends on what molecule absorbs the radiation and if the event is absorption, scattering, etc. In charcoal there is a ton of carbon, so it's most likely carbon absorbs a flying neutron. Most likely it makes C14 which is relatively stable. Half-life of 5700 years. One of the neutrons in the C14 atom will emit an electron, will turn into a proton, and the C14 atom turns into non radioactive N14. This reaction happens a lot in a nuclear reactor in systems which use a CO2 cover gas. This gas is used because carbon is a good and fairly safe absorber. Infact carbon (graphite) was used in Russian designs as the moderator. Now remember, the neutron Flux inside a reactor compared to whatever radiation we are talking about here is like the relative difference between a candle and the surface of the sun. This is one reason people take charcoal pills as an anti radiation strategy. C14 is quite stable. For gamma radiation absorption, it gets more complicated. There are 4 main ways it can interact, scattering, Compton effect, pair production or photoelectric effect. The differences between all of these vary from a deflection, to producing a high energy electron, to producing an electron and positron. I don't know how deep into nuclear theory I want to get here, but its pretty complicated. All in all, carbon is a great radiation absorber because it tends to do it relatively safely. And you would rather the carbon take the hit than say an atom in your DNA chain.
You are such a scientist!!! I love all your scientific references - it sounds so plausible. But actually Keith, you made mud! 🤣😅😂 To actually show the difference between your biochar and soil you needed 2 more glasses with soil and water so you could actually make mud. Then you could have a third option as well, say, horse manure. But it still just looks like mud to me.
I learned a lot from the video. I will be looking for an oil barrel tomorrow.
Just make sure it didn't used to actually have oil in it. You don't want that in your char ajd then in your soil. Mine used to hold kitchen sanitizer, safe to using on food preparation surfaces, so I know it is pretty clean and won't have any negative health impacts based on what used to be in the barrel.
Good info
I love it. Was thinking of trying but I was on the fence because so many conflicting videos.... makes total sense especially if you precharge it not just dump it in the soil.
Yeah, it suffers from the same thing as woodchips - user error.
So many people put woodchips down and then till them into their soils, tie up nitrogen in their beds 6 inches deep, then say woodchips are bad. They aren't, you just tilled them in and made a wood core bed!
Similarly with biochar, people will make it and then put it in their gardens. This is like putting a dry sponge in a glass and wondering where all the water went. Only with nutrients.
I have to mention Dr McLaughlin, there is a video of him explaining how to use biochar properly. Just make it and incorporate it into your compost system from the start. He says it will speed up your process if you want. Plus, the main benefit of doing so does 3 things to your char. The compost conditions, charges, and inoculates the char. 1 part char to 3 parts compost. At the end you will have a 50/50 blend of compost and char.
That could be a little too much to handle for the home compost system that usually composts a cubic yard at a time or so. But even if you don't have the whole "part" for your system, get it in there!
I mixed in a 5 gallon pail of char this past Fall into my "batch." I can't wait to get in there and have a look to see the difference. The snow is still too high to get at it.
Hey, props to the young fella in the background for having the class to move the chair quietly while you were filming. :)
I know this is an older vid but I have a biochar question if you have a moment. Nobody seems to go into any detail regarding how our plants roots get all the stored nutrient back from the charcoal which we've established is very good at grabbing and holding things. Good enough to filter our air and water. By which mechanism do the stored molecules get released or made available to plants? And thanks for the vid.
Same as how plants get access to the nutrients stuck inside soil aggregates and mineral deposits: fungi and bacteria.
The plant root puts out root exudates to attract them. The bacteria eat it. They secrete acids to break apart mineral deposits (or break molecule chains hanging off biochar). Think of them as little coat hangers hanging on a coat rack.
The bacteria consumes the nutrients it breaks off, then lives and dies and its cell walls rupture as it dies. It pees and poops also. The nutrient in this biomass now the plant can consume.
The key to unlocking it all is the microbiology. The biochar just acts like a coat rack with many many pegs that catches any nutrient flowing by during rains and such, and holds onto it for later.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Riight.. The microbiology. Of course. That was the piece missing from my thought process. Thanks heaps for the prompt and detailed reply. Much appreciated.
Anytime!
Best biochar vid i've seen. Thanks.
Would you be alright with me mentioning your channel to some of the gardening folks that I watch? They are all wonderful people.
I would be honored of course.
What type of soil are you working with on your site? And what is your annual rainfall? Do you generally have problems with excess water, dry periods or both?
How much biochar do you use per unit area? Do you incorporate it into the soil, top dress,...?
Annual rainfall is about 750mm. Soil is sandy, rocky garbage. When they built, they just dumped gravel and an inch of topsoil, tossed grass on that. This was 40 years ago, so the grass is on dead gravel now. I'm rehabbing it with shredded leaves and clover overseed.
We are mostly overly draining, due to both the gravel sandy soil, and also the elevation change of the house up on a hill.
The lower area with the paw paws (where I did this fire) was wild for about 10 years and has much better soil. It's more of a clay, with standing water in rains - in spots. I need to absorb that water inside the soil, inside the biochar in order to prevent soaked ground.
I have another video on how I add it into the soil. I put it in the compost. I typically have 5-15% biochar by volume, depending on how much time I have to make it, vs how much compost is coming in.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy is there a danger when adding too much biochar? Does it for example change the PH value? Thanks for you videos! Cheers
@@bernhardhohlweger8640 In most agricultural situations worldwide, soil pH is low (a pH below 7 means more acidic soil) and needs to be increased towards 6.5 to 7 range. Biochar retains nutrients in soil directly through the negative charge that develops on its surfaces, and this negative charge can buffer acidity in the soil, as does organic matter in general.
CEC stands for Cation Exchange Capacity, and is one of many factors involved in soil fertility. “Cations” are positively charged ions, for example plant nutrients such as calcium (Ca2+), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+) and others. These simple forms are those in which plants take the nutrients up through their roots. Organic matter and some clays in soil hold on to these positively charged nutrients because they have negatively charged sites on their surfaces, and opposite charges attract. The soil can then “exchange” these nutrients with plant roots. If a soil has a low cation exchange capacity, it is not able to retain such nutrients well, and the nutrients are often washed out with water. This is the strength of biochar. Holding onto nutrients.
When there is little biochar and organic matter in the soil, these cations bind with OH-. Lowering pOH and rasing pH.
This isnt the only impact though, biochar holding positive charged ions and preventing them from washing away with water will mean more positive ions around (especially the +2 +3), which means more OH gets pulled out of soil before the positive ions are washed away.
In this way biochar has a "return to balance" effect on soil chemistry. As long as you didnt make too much ash (pH of 12 to 13), then adding biochar should return soils towards pH of 7.
However that is all textbook stuff, and its great for controlled conditions in labs, but should be only guidance on your land. The best way to handle this is to actually measure this with a simple soil tester.
Thst being said, biochar is typically added on small amounts, 5 to 10 percent of soil volume, and shouldn't have much of an impact on soil pH, unless your soil pH is greatly out of whack. So basically dont sweat it, but at the same time observe and monitor it.
If your soil is extremely acidic, let a burn go a bit longer to make more ash content, and this will help raise your soil pH. If your soil is high pH, then focus on not making ash, quenching earlier.
And as always, innoculate it first by adding it into your compost pile, or urinating on it for a few months before adding it into your garden.
From other Biochar videos. They say the Biochar needs to be the size of tip of your little finger. Not a powder. You prove it needs to be a powder.
I don't know if you know the channel, but 'the weedy garden' has anice video on making a bacteria solution, I think it is called Bokashi or something. Would that kind of thing work as well to inoculate biochar? Even though, the way I understand it, it is anaerobic?
Yeah, I love his channel - pretty new channel, but super talented at film making (was his old career). I have my concerns with his batch because it's a lactose ferment. It's anaerobic and the bacteria bred are bacteria that break down milk. Now, someone smarter than me in soil science can tell me if there's even any point to that or not. For now, I think I will stick to Dr Elaine Ingham's work and focus on aerobic innoculations such a nettle/comfrey/compost/manure teas, run with an aerator.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy okay thanks I was worried about that as well though he mentioned that the lactase is supposed to kill the bad bacteria. Maybe I'll check Dr Ingham out then
I’m curious how to get the bio char into the soil in the garden without tilling or digging up and disturbing the soil...
Just put it on top. You can rake back mulch them put on top. You can even just put it on top of chips. Rains will bring it down.
Then if you want to speed up the process, you can walk on them, especially if they are on the walking path.
Hi, this is great and I would love to be able to make biochar myself but unfortunately I can't at the moment because I can't get a hold of wood or a place to burn it in right now(I live in the city) but hopefully after our current covid-19 lockdown phase is over here in Melbourne Australia I can sort that out.
I had a thought though, and despite it possibly being silly I'm still willing to ask you this question 😂 . . .
I have a box of artists charcoal, do you think I could use that as a substitute for now? I'm never going to draw with it so I thought perhaps I could try to improve my soil with it? 😁
It's okay to laugh (with me not at me) if this is a silly idea. Lol 😂
I'm so enjoying your videos, you give me hope!
Cheers, Ginny 💚
I don't think so. It likely has chemical stabilizers added to it. I know many charcoals such as BBQ charcoal is not safe. Carcinogenic chemicals.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy yes I did wonder about that. Thanks 👍
I shall wait until I can do it properly then. 🙂
how much biochar do you put in your soil?
I put it into the compost. It ends up being roughly 10 to 20% by volume.
Foolish neighbours, whahaha they will never be as smart as the us! :)
Microcosm of regenerative lifestyles 👀 #biochar
what happens if charcoal absorbs nuclear radiation? anti-radiation or even keep radiation longer?
which if a disaster occurs all farmers must dispose of their charcoal that has been planted for decades at a very high cost.
Depends on what molecule absorbs the radiation and if the event is absorption, scattering, etc. In charcoal there is a ton of carbon, so it's most likely carbon absorbs a flying neutron. Most likely it makes C14 which is relatively stable. Half-life of 5700 years. One of the neutrons in the C14 atom will emit an electron, will turn into a proton, and the C14 atom turns into non radioactive N14.
This reaction happens a lot in a nuclear reactor in systems which use a CO2 cover gas. This gas is used because carbon is a good and fairly safe absorber. Infact carbon (graphite) was used in Russian designs as the moderator.
Now remember, the neutron Flux inside a reactor compared to whatever radiation we are talking about here is like the relative difference between a candle and the surface of the sun.
This is one reason people take charcoal pills as an anti radiation strategy. C14 is quite stable.
For gamma radiation absorption, it gets more complicated. There are 4 main ways it can interact, scattering, Compton effect, pair production or photoelectric effect. The differences between all of these vary from a deflection, to producing a high energy electron, to producing an electron and positron. I don't know how deep into nuclear theory I want to get here, but its pretty complicated. All in all, carbon is a great radiation absorber because it tends to do it relatively safely. And you would rather the carbon take the hit than say an atom in your DNA chain.