Improving the soil for generations - with soup cans!?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.พ. 2024
- Now this is a fun idea - and more useful than you might think!
We've been obsessed with making biochar for years, often making char in pits and open burns. We've also learned to make traditional charcoal, and have even used a Kon Tiki style biochar cone.
Yet recently we can across a video from @LiveOnWhatYouGrow sharing his method of making a biochar retort from two cans - for free! We had to give it a try. This is what we've discovered.
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The wit, the low key sarcasm, the knowledge drops, the cultural memery.....infotainment at its finest.
aryan kid was right, needs more cowbell...🐮🔕
Agreed
Hear here!
What movie was he referencing or culturally mimicking? I would like to watch them.
@@koltoncrane3099 SNL skit w Christopher Walken
Thumbs up for recognizing the work of a smaller TH-cam channel and sending viewers there, rather than just reproducing what he did. I'm going to go check his video out now!
Sending people to the other channel to learn how to build is just noble. Good on you! Also....old tacos! Awesome.
Evidently DtG can teach an old taco new tricks
I trust this man. You can too. ...not so much because he knows what he's talking about... though he does that too... but rather because he wears a Good sport coat. The man who wears such a Good sport coat is trustworthy.
🤭😆😊❤
I was wondering when David will talk about Ancient and mysterious lost civilizations !
Ya I was like this guy is wearing a church coat. But you called it a sport coat. Haha it’s like ya he’s sophisticated. Probably what people wore a century ago even doing chores. I’ve seen some old photos black and white and it’s like they dressed up.
I had an English teacher in high school. No one ever wore a tie to school except maybe prom or if they had football players dress up.
But I had an English teacher that wore a bow tie everyday he taught. He made me smile haha. He dressed up with a bow tie and button up shirt. He had to quit cause he had some illness so he ended up working at the prison to teach cause there he only had to work three days so he could recover or have more time off at that job.
That English teacher also rode a unicycle in the Fourth of July parades. Haha first time I ever saw one super unique.
This video featured the greatest Corning dinner plate ever made.
Yep, l noticed that, too! They ask amazing prices on the internet....! 😳🤭
Mom used those for 30 years. Then decided she was sick of them. If only she knew to keep them.
We got those when we married and are still using them. Just celebrated our 55th anniversary!
Live On What You Grow
Is a great channel. Good you gave them a shout out.
When the professor has tweed on I take notes. ; )
And the spitcurl😊
@@debrabeghtol4332like Superman!!!
I didn't know about the curl until Rachel told me most of the way through the video. "I thought you did it on purpose!" she said...@@debrabeghtol4332
He's drippin'
David, I learned this technique years ago in Boy Scouts. We used old steel paint cans with the hammer on lids. We would load them with any old cotton fiber cloth we could find. Old blue jeans were the best. We did this to produce char cloth because it catches a spark from a flint and steel remarkably well. We all would bring our cans to our first spring camp out and everyone would set them in the fire. We would have char cloth for the whole summer! I have used this same technique to make a gallon of char for art purposes as well.
Ah yes - char cloth!
Around here, after the early corn crop they switch to cotton. About October when the cotton is picked afterwards there are bolls in the ditches and they form a second white line along the edge of the road. Any of that could be picked up. Watch occasional traffic, face traffic.
Those steel cans aren't coated in plastics like food cans are.
@@davidthegood a 55 gallon drum with a small hole punched in the top drum needs a lock ring removable lid
When compared to our ancestors, we are very lucky to have readily-available tools. Stores are full of anything you could need and with online shopping, you don’t even have to leave the house. The trouble comes when we must discern between a quality tool and a silly gadget. The best way I’ve found to do this is to look for a type of tool that has been around for a long time. The crucible of longevity proves a design.
Yes. Something that has been around for a long time, is likely to continue to be around. Taleb discusses this. Lindy Effect.
@@davidthegood thanks, I'll look more into that. Having multiple purpose adds more upcycle value.
Been using two tin cans for a couple months now and absolutely loving it. Avocado pipes and bits of bone come out the best imo. The man is not lying, you really can put anything in them. But like literally anything.
@@Ni-dk7niNothing good comes from that, far too toxic.
Very much like what my neighbors built but he made his with the large barrels. He's been hooked on making it ever since he built his contraption. His raised beds are making some seriously nice produce. I finally got him into making his own fish emulsion and now he's gonna charge his char with it once it's done. His original charge method was running his pond water through it with a pump. That appears to work pretty well too. I generally use urine myself on the off chance it have char around from fires etc. I'll try to build one of these small ones eventually. Always hard to get the necessary fertilizer to grow the amount we do.
Several years ago I made one of these out of a paint can to show my grandson, on our family camping trip, how to make charcoal and also collect the pine tar that comes out under the bottom hole of the can. the small top hole released the wood gas. I still have that paint can and never made to connection with bio char. Gonna dig it out of the camping gear and try it this weekend. TYVM David
Our oldest pecan trees (80+ years old) all had tin cans & old strips of metal buried about 20 ft out from the trunk of each tree. Blessings from NW Florida!
peCAN trees
PeckON trees, peeCAN is something you find in a semi truck, full of lemonade you don't want
@@1millionpumpkins542lol it’s a Native American word and isn’t pronounced like can Pih-KAN. If you’re going to try and correct someone at least be correct
@Just_A_Name14 I wasn't "correcting someone", I was making a pun based on the tin cans buried around the pecan tree. Derp.
@@My1Appy th-cam.com/video/-DcA0p8Tvnk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=rcJDnbkz8P5UFvz-
David I've got a FEVER. And the only prescription is MORE BIOCHAR! Seriously this method is a game changer for many. For the beneficials I'm thinking take the DFSW, add some worm castings, compost and a little molasses and aerate for a few days it so the char soaks in a brewing compost tea.
Great Job...
Makin Biochar on the down low.
For artists, they cna get willow twigs of pine twigs and make really nice charcoal for drawing that way too.
My daughter and I made some drawing charcoal out of grape vine prunings. I will try willow - thank you.
Just watching Shawn James interview Huw Richards and they mentioned your name. You're really starting to get noticed by some big names. You've earned it! I knew you'd end up changing the gardening world.
That was nice of them.
I will definitely be on the chat with you guys, I wouldn't miss it for anything!
Bushcrafters do this on a smaller scale to make char cloth, for use with flint and steel fire making.
I thought you were gonna say Cow Bell 😂😂
Nice, this is how artists who make their own charcoal for drawing do it :) Also EdibleAcres made a video that someone might find useful: Biochar - Making it in the wood stove AND heating our home.
I using this way for a fer years. Works well.
Much gratitude David, I been binge watching the videos. This method is so doable for me. I've known the value of biochar but was overwhelmed at the processes as I'm 62. So very excited, going to get my new home, new garden off to a good start.
That little star wars 'but how?' intro had me laughing 🤣
All u "Good" folk crack us up! Keep it coming..plz! Can i add a additional tip? I burn the cans empty first, to burn off that inside coating. Then soapy water scrub out. Jus to be safe. Not sure if the coating is toxic after the burn & maybe ruins the nice char. Thanx for most excellent work on video by all!
Yes, l thought that, too. There is always a liner coating. I would want a paint can to be Very Clean, too! 🥫
Yes, that's a good tip
Biochar and cowbells. Perfect combo.
Yea a little more bio char ....1
2
3
😂
What could turn out to be more important then improving the soil is purifying drinking water! Doing the process described in this video so you have carbon on hand to filter rainwater (nowadays thanks to geoengineering, weather manipulation/cloud seeding etc rainwater is loaded with barium, cesium, strontium and aluminum for starters) is a great way to eliminate at least the organic chemicals. Charcoal is one of the go-to materials used in the water filtration industry for filtering out chlorine and other chemicals they add to municipal water.
We used this method to make char cloth for starting fires with flint and steel.
Excellent, thankyou. I shall pop across to the other chappy shortly, but your explanation is already quite clear. And thankyou for doing the right thing by him, too, where credit is due. God bless. 🙂👍
His video gave us many hours of entertainment - I am happy to share the fun.
Okay that’s one I haven’t heard before 😅
@EdibleAcres has a video called "MAXimize your wood heat - Low/no cost tips for much more warmth" where he shows his method of this using a steam table tray and lid in his wood stove.
Classic.
We have that EXACT SAME PLATE!!
I've been eating off one of those Corelleware beauties for about half a century!
Corelle family here too! "Stole" this pattern from MIL when we moved out, grabbed the identical blue pattern from goodwill and finally "grew up" and bought a brand new set. Like everyone else I know we now have a mix of various patterns 😂
"I have 10 minutes free before we leave for church. I think I will go into the garden and play with some fetid swamp water, some biochar, and the filthy container I made it in..." 😀
I love that the kids have been sucked into the sarcastic music genre. Yes!
I like this for small scale biochar production. Instead of methane polluting the air in composting or an inefficient fire, you add some CO2 to the air which is more benign and make your fireplace more efficient for a time.. For tree trimmers and other owners of industrial amounts of organic material who currently burn, a methane generator powered by solar kiln-style drying, with added Brown's gas from electrolysis - also from solar/wind/battery would produce emission free biochar. Cities have large amounts of nitrogen products to "charge" the biochar. Present technology is sufficient for a vast improvemnt for gardeners and farmers benefitting society and the environment.
that was a great riff on the cowbell skit
I constantly amaze and annoy my husband. I did not explain what I was doing as I went and gathered two big cans, banged them together, popped a hole in one of them, then filled a 5 gallon bucket of wood chips to sit next to our wood stove. THEN, put this double can looking thing in the wood stove and cooked it. He was so baffled at what I was doing. But guess what? It worked. I have a small amount of biochar, but now if I just keep a batch going at the end of the day, and let it burn over night, I'll eventually have a pretty good supply of bio char. Ta Dah!!! Amazing indeed.
Replacing the triangle with a mini retort is THEE best amendment of all. So appreciative of the Good Gardeners. Education with a smile.
Give thanks!
thank you Professor Good, always a pleasure attending your lectures.
I too enjoy the nerdy thrill of, say, an acorn made of charcoal. It reminds me of the cool science teacher who would dip a rose in liquid nitrogen and shatter it.
I use a 5-gallon metal can with a lid, because I already had one. Some nail holes in the lid and around the bottom. Fill it with (whatever), throw it in the firepit while I'm siting around pondering life, the universe and everything... and presto, excellent results. The soup cans make sense, too. Whatever works, baby.
My grandma had those corelle dishes with green flowers 🥺 oh how I miss her!!!
She loved to garden, I would loved to have her with me on this new journey I’m starting with gardening.
Buddy, I've got to hand it do you. When I watched your multi bed test, I honestly thought you were trying to grow in an old gravel parking lot. Your soil looked exactly like some of our back dirt roads here in Alberta. You've done some amazing things. Well done sir.
Thank you
Thanks for dressing up for us.
Favorite video ever!!!!! You are my #1 source for biochar how-to, but the entertainment value of this one is unmatched. Soooooo appreciate how much “good” info you provide bookended with the SNL skits. Best combo ever 🏆
Apart from the content which is awesome as usual, the style of the video is just chief's kiss
Love the intro. I bet your kids don't even know what they are re-enacting, that's pretty funny. Also the best cinematography in permaculture!
You're a good man, David!
Billy. It’s a biochar kind of day
thank you for your shout out to Live on What You Grow for the retort construction. Way too many TH-camrs try to profit from videos they watch but never credit. I'm here because someone over there referenced your channel and I subscribed because of your honesty and integrity. I look forward to learning more from you.
Thank you. It is good to give credit.
I used to do this trick with creating biochar for Firestarter for camping out of a Altoid can. I've been using charcoals in my terrariums for years. last year when I was cleaning my garage, I found my charcoal bags with tiny bit left so I discarded it in my strawberry bed. When the next season came around, it did the best in the past 7 years.
Very cool. I've used store bought all natural lump charcoal before.
Buy it, bust it up, run it through a garden shredder and you have nice fine char you can then charged.
Making your own is more fun plus who doesnt have garden waste
I have been doing exactly this for many years. Paint cans come with a tightly fitting lid, you just need to puncture the bottom to let the fumes exit.
Can the paint cans be reused or is it a one time deal?
@@bevdixon9615
They can be reused quite a few times, but they don't last forever.
That was awesome, David. Oh my goodness....the cowbell (excuse me the biochar) will never die!!
Some cans are still lined with BPA so I torch the interior before putting material inside to char. I’ve also found cans that contain tomatoes had more of the lining, the cans that had little to none were chick pea cans which you can get from any Indian restaurant which many do not recycle and go into the landfill . I collect extra cans to make these and give away to others .The retort cans in the wood stove also produces 15-25% more heat to heat the home when going through the pyrolysis process.
I make my biochar in unused steel paint cans. I stuff the cans full of woodchips, poke a hole in the lid with a hammer and nail, and seal them tight. Then put them in a homemade kiln (basically a pile of firebricks) with the hole facing down towards the flame so the off-gassing vapors burn off. Then once it's cooled off, I just dump the charcoal into my compost bin to inoculate. I add at least one batch of two or three cans worth per batch of compost. It's been producing extremely high quality compost.
You get maybe 4 or 5 uses out of each can before it's too jacked up from the heat. My last batch was made out of this evil, all-splinter beauty bark that some contractors left on our property.
Thank you for this video, I've wanted to make biochar for years and now I can. Also thank you for linking us up with Live on What You Grow.
The socks would make great charcloth. To start a fire that is.
Wow, what an intro!
David, you just keep getting better and better, like a fine wine. Bitter, but you know it's good for you. Just kidding. Much love!
Never too much cowbell 😂
Big kudos to you for linking back to the original video!
I appreciated his work. Thank you.
I saw the video on the 'live on what you grow' channel. I was completely blown away too. I'm planning on making them from larger vegetable oil cans that restaurants and takeaways use.
I also love where your heads at, I also immediately thought of stuffing it full of weird stuff. My short list included acorns, black walnut and coffee beans.
Hi David. I watched the referenced video months ago and ever since, I keep #10 cans loaded for when I do my regular burn barrel fires. Or, whenever I do large brush fires. An absolutely ingenious method which produces a great product. Like you, I had to purchase the tool from amazon. That was the hardest part - waiting two days for the tool because I was so excited. I admire your nobility. Thank you!
Great way to convert your grass clippings into a soil amendment, mulch, filter media or for sequestration of some of that year's photosynthesized CO2.
Finally I discover something about the same time as DTG...😂. Nice plug for his channel...very nice. I like his blending the egg shell video too! Kudos David and family
This is the way......for small homes & gardens.
Here in the shoulder season of wood heating, stuffing the firebox and shutting off the air also provides an ash bucket worth of charcoal.
I used this method on acorns and also old grain and put it around the bushes of our home.
Have been adding biochar to the lawn as well so that way, if need be, the front yard can be converted into a big garden if things ever got that bad.
I learned the hard way about cow manure. I put a lot on my garden last year and it resulted in multiple new varieties of weeds.
Slick backed hair and tweed jacket. You look like a southern baptist pastor preaching about....biochar. good job!
I'm truly sorry to hear it took so long for you to make one of these. I wish I saw this video earlier! I live in MN and burn a wood stove for heat, i could have made a lot with these... I always try to keep and pick out good charcoal pieces but it's not easy when everything is burning.
I use a stove pipe with a cap that slides off. I fill it up with my materials, like walnut shells, twigs, etc. Throw it in my outside fire pit when burning brush.
David the soil wizard.
Oh thanks!! Exciting use for pine cones, wood shavings and bark, yay!
There’s definitely something to be said for the “magic” of charcoal. Just ask anyone that’s ever burnt off half a hayfield or meadow. The growth that returns after the burn will be so much greener and faster growing. By the way thanks guys (local FD) for helping me get things back under control before it got to the woods.
Thank you! My garden needs some help, and I have a Sweetgum tree. I also like the liquid fertilizer idea from your daughter.😊
Yessir, its burn season! A week in..making charcoal along the way. Did I hear "in" or "on" fireplace? I did that few winters ago, for about a week. Creosote buildup, bad, I'll nvr do again. Outside..I use 5 gallon vintage metal can inside wash machine steel liner, (the circular thing full of holes). Heading out for nice moonlit burn now, cheers!
❤❤❤😂😂😂very informative and extremely entertaining!
Thank you
TY Sir, Fam, All❤❤❤
Here's the thing, I've watched all your biochar videos and none of them were really an option for my small urban backyard. This method however changed that! I had the whole family in the yard helping. My wife was collecting sticks, our dogs were chomping them down and I stuffed em in the can. I have been making a can or two after work everyday!
Thank you.
Y’all seem like Good folks.
This is THE SOLUTION I was after since months. For our cat litter we use wood pellets, as they are a byproduct and biodegradable, thus ecologically sensible. I only used them - the soiled ones - under non-food trees and hedges so far, as I have only small-scale composts that will not heat up and destroy any potentially harmful microorganisms. There HAD to be something more useful. And this is it. Thank you!!!!!
You can actually char socks. It becomes an excellent fire starter! Takes a spark really easy
He needs a little more “Bio-Char”. Love it 😅😂😅😂
Love it! My fetid swamp water is about 5 months old, too.
Tacos! Yeah! Mine has raw fish filets, and I thought winter would be the best time for that😅
I just watched the video over this weekend and was favorable impressed and it seemed logical so I bought the tool and am now collecting cans to make biochar. I was really glad to see you confirm what he said.
MORE BIOCHAR!
Was I the only person looking at all that bamboo in the background thinking....#BiocharThat ?
The biochar is presented on a dinner plate lol oh this is good. On all levels. Bio char for everyone!
kudos to you for sharing the info about the youtube channel that first showed how to make one of these mini retorts. I saw his video about a year ago and was amazed by how easy it can be to make high quality char.
Cool! Just my size. Thanks ❤
That tweed jacket takes some getting used to....🤣 (I think you must plan a family holiday to my farm...🙂)
I was fortunate to find this jacket second-hand. I'm very fond of it on these cooler days.
I have been charring with two 1kg coffee tins. Not perfect, but it's a cheap, easy to make and easy to handle, and does the job. With two more containers, I could just keep a fire going and rotate containers until the desired quantity is reached... Provided I have have enough material as well.
Edit: When I say not perfect I'm not referring to the resulting char. I'm referring to the cans. Without the proper tool I had to make a plan and refine my method a bit after the first go. I made duplicate cuts and bent the tin inward slightly creating a spiral "crimp", allowing me to fit it into the other can and leaving a few small openings for gas to escape.
Really only giving us 3 seconds of that gold at the end 😢
I laughed at first. It’s like this guy is the first person I’ve seen do garden type work wearing like a suit jacket or Sunday coat. Haha that’s cool
Was just thinking about the still mysterious Terra Preta and then ol' mate David puts up a new BioChar video. Ohh yeah!!!
This is how bush craft people make char cloth for fire starting. Any metal can tin or non flammable metal that's sealed with a small hole at the top does this, way better than a pit burning and covering. #10 can, you could do this with larger paint cans and or 55 gallon drums with a hole in the lid. Also it's done once you see the small amount of smoke stop coming from the top. Doesn't necessarily need to be done for hrs or over night. Shot 4 x 55 gallon drums around the centre of a fire and boom 220 gallons (110 when finished) worth
That's just like making char cloth. My Scouts and I make char cloth in a old Whitmans metal candy box with a whole punched in and a few spots. Flames come out of where the lid meets the bottom and out of the little holes. when the flames all stop, our chart cloth is done and it's great for using Flint and steel to start fires
I love it! We need more cowbells🔔 (IYKYK)
I am beginning to like your humor David 🙂 This was an excellent little machine. cha cha cha charged 🙂
Thank you, my friend.
I watched the Live On What you Grow video last night, and it was great. It is great that you didn't take away buy added to that video. Great content.
Thanks for highlighting love on what you grow, he puts out interesting content that has helped me a lot 🌸