No experience whatsoever with making biochar, but want to give it a go. Like tomorrow, lol. The first step of the project seems like something I'd delegate to my better half, who enjoys relaxing in a chair while watching things burn. Can you recommend a clear set of written instructions for making biochar?
I'll do it now - simplified version: 1) Get a 55 gallon drum with a hole cut on the side (like mine), or dig a cone shaped hole/trench. 2) Get a bunch of sticks/twigs, ideally the thickness of a mans thumb, or smaller. The smaller, the hotter the fire will be, and the easier it is to get a thru-burn. 3) Jam and weave the sticks into the container/pit trying to get it as tight as possible. You want as little air in there as possible. 4) Light it on fire from the top. Ideally there should be a complete surface fire from one end to the other. It will smoke at first, don't worry about that. Just keep that fire going as much as possible - you want it to get HOT. 5) Keep stacking wood into the top layer, but trying to keep the fire in the top layer. I.e. you don't want to smother the fire, and you don't want it pushing down too far into the container. You want the fire on top.\ 6) As the heat drives gases out of the underlying wood, you will notice a point where the pyrolysis reaction (the fire) has a firm grip and is self-sustaining. I.e. it will keep burning what feels forever with no added wood. This is the gases being pushed out of the lower wood being recombusted. Aside - Troubleshooting: If you start smoking a lot when you add wood, it's probably because the wood is wet and the heat is being absorbed by the water, and the combustion gas layer is temporarily not hot enough to recombust the gases. Try to add as dry wood as possible (and thin, thin sticks burn at 1200F, thicker wood burns closer to 400-500F). Get that hot gas layer hot again, so the combustion gasses are recombusted and don't exit as smoke. This is the self-sustaining reaction you need - we're not having a campfire, we're doing pyrolysis. 7) At this point, the fire will be almost unstoppable. Keep adding wood as the top layer starts to ash. Once the new wood looks like it's burning, give it a pound with a tamper and/or poke through the lower stuff with a branch trying to not disturb the top layer much. You are trying to get all those hot charcoals to fall to the bottom and increase the density of the entire pile (i.e. filling any air gaps inside the pile with crushed finished char), but keeping the fire at the top. 8) Eventually you will either run out of wood, or your container will be full even after tamping and poking. At this point, let that top layer finish combusting (wait until you start seeing ash), then FILL YOUR CONTAINER with water. I cannot overstress this. There is so much heat in here, and it's pure-fuel at this point, so if you do not SOAK IT it will re-ignite overnight, and could cause a forest fire. You want a drenched slurry . This is one advantage of the sealed drum, as the water will stay in it. If you do a cone pit method, I would recommend re-slurrying it after about an hour. Soak, and stir, and soak and stir. It should be a like charcoal smoothie. 9) Add into an active compost pile at roughly 10-20% charcoal. Make sure it spends a good 3 months inside a compost or manure mix. Alternatively you can mix in some spoiled flour, powdered molasses and water. Urinate on it (if that doesn't gross you out - and it shouldn't). The best part about charcoal is that is absorbs everything - including smells. There will be very little odor of any kind - I mean, that's what it's used for in industry after all. A filter media. Going to include this in description of video.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Perfect--thank you so very much! A good three months inside an active compost pile...my compost isn't especially active over the winter. Assuming my weather conditions roughly parallel yours, how would you count those three months if you made biochar this weekend?
I would say November until planting season is decent. The compost breaks down due to biological organisms (mostly bacteria) going into quasi hibernation. But they will still move through it and occupy those little hotel rooms. The temperature also doesn't impact (too greatly) the binding of nutrient to the charcoal. Many of the chemical bindings require activation energy, but its not like it needs 180F worth of heat to be added to it in order to bind to carbon. To be concise, the compost pile can be rather inert biologically speaking, but the charcoal will still soak stuff up.
We make smaller batches, at 95% charcoal efficiency. We use a barbecue grill and light the kindling and build up the material radius as fast as possible, then slowly build down the radius of new material added as the largest logs burn towards the center. All the material burns through to the center at about the same time, and we douse it heavily when the most charcoal exists at the same time. We call it "The Inferno Method"~
Do you crush your char either before or after inoculation? I’ve been turning BBQ charcoal into « biochar » but discovered it wasn’t very good for that purpose as it composts down because it’s not properly treated. But one thing I’ve figured out is how to smash up the bigger charcoal bits, because I don’t want large chunks in my beds, especially the carrot bed. I have an old hammer style Kemp shredder which I wheel onto an old tarp and then tie the tarp up around the shredder to contain the flying bits. Works WELL! because I do this right after emoting the biochar from the manure tea I use as an inoclulant, there’s no dust!!! this is the first time I’ve seen an open « retort » oven,. But I think this is likely closer to what the Amazon natives did to create their biochar than what we do in retort burners. Greetings from Sudbury !!!
Indeed, I just put it on a tarp and run it over with my truck a few times. Also, the way I make it, I'm constantly pounding it to get all the air spaces as vacated as possible. When I'm done with my batch, its quite smashed up already. Sudbury is nice. I used to go fishing up in Azilda.
I think you forgot to mention the #1 "Convert non-believers in Northern Climates"reason for adding biochar... it darkens the soil which may extend the growing season due to heat storage... ;)
Hey cool side job! My food forest is roughly 30x50. Will you be doing videos? It would be great to show how you work a small space. Congrats. I did some biochar this year for the first time. I did the cone pit style (dug a hole lol) It worked great, I added to my compost pile. Exciting to think how beneficial it is supposed to be for my garden soil life. Cheers
Congrats on your biochar! A worthy investment in your future. I will he doing videos of the consult job. No details on location or name, but progress videos and such.
Burn baby burn, disco inferno, burn baby burn. Hey Keith, did you need to notify the fire department in your local area? Since it is a 2000 year soil amendment, does it matter at what time of the year you should do it?
Weird, didn't get a notification for this comment. Sorry for the late reply... I didn't no, and no definitely doesn't matter what time of year you add it. The only thing would be that I'd want to be innoculating it in somewhat warm temps so that the critters can get inside it. Biological activity really slows down in the cold temps.
Oh, I've wondered recently about charcoal as a fungal condo, and worry about which species of fungus are living in charcoal. I started thinking about it after reading about one of the strawberry plant diseases, "charcoal-rot", or "dry rot". Anyway there are several fungi that eat strawberry plants, including one currently spreading in georga/florida called neopestalotiopsis. I'm just hoping that the bad fungus doesn't set up in the charcoal that I've already put in the garden, especially in the strawberry patch. It's a puzzle that I don't know the answer to yet.
Now thats a tough one. There was research done in Sweden that showed upwards of even 75 percent (wow!!!!) was beneficial. Most sources say to make it roughly 10 to 15% of your compost mix, and let it sit and innoculate for 3 months before adding it to the garden proper.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy if you have really hot summers, black soil is problematic if it's on the surface. One needs to make a sandwich type layering where the biochar ammended compost is covered with something like cardboard, woodchips, sawdust, straw or even rocks to keep the surface cooler while plants grow.
This is one of those moments where I'm thinking through something in my head and just assume everyone else is part of the conversation lol. Basically, I was saying that we should quench with water, but at the same time I had also just been talking about innoculating the biochar with nutrients and microbiology. Pond water is very high in both, so when I quench with pond water (versus say hose water), then the result should be a biochar that is also innoculated with water microbiology. But then I remember the heat of the charcoal, and question in my head if the microbiology would survive being tossed onto hot coals. Something big wouldn't, but stuff that is so small that it is better shielded by water would. For example, consider dropping a human who is contained inside a house-sized volume of water, and dropping that on a basement sized pit of coals. Chances are the water would absorb the heat of the coals and the human would survive that. Similarly, I think a lot of microbiology in the water actually will survive being dumped on the hot coals in this barrel. Some will certainly meet an unfortunate end, but I think a lot of it survives. Infact very quickly after a full slurry of water, the coals can be picked up comfortably with your hand. Sorry, for the confusion - I was kind of hoping people wouldn't zone in on that. I had a clip to explain it, but then the clip was kind of too much speaking about a tangent for no reason, etc. So I cut it out in editing. It's little tangents like that which take some of my videos to the 25 minute mark, and offer little value. TL:DR, I was basically just saying that the life in the water will likely survive the douse, because water can absorb so much heat, that the coals are quite cool by the time the water microbiology hits it. And then they can find homes inside it, and start making microbiology babies.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy that’s a very understandable explanation ,thank you. I am here to learn, and my brain goes in different directions while thinking so I followed the thought process no problem. A human excased in water bubble is an analogy I can totally handle!
Watched a RUclips video from edible acres where he stacked functions by making biochar, making tea,cooking and heating the home in his wood stove. Loved that idea, just tried it with a small cast iron pot in my wood stove. Worked beautifully .
Nature, the great leveler (of more than just paw paw trees). Do you know how many times poets and musicians throughout history have tackled this very subject?
Do you need any material to make biochar? One of my neighbours at work was throwing in the trash chestnuts that were beginning to mold ,so I offered to take it. I tried making biochar with it in the wood stove so I assume it would work the same with your technique. I have way too much , probably 1000 lbs too much. I’m in the Durham region (Bowmanville rd/407)
Anything organic works, since all live is carbon based. If it was once alive, it can be turned to charcoal. Wood works really well because it's such dense carbon, but yes anything will work... bones, bark, and yes even Chestnut husks will work well. You just may need to use some wood to control a nice hot gas layer. It needs to be hot.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy That's right. In Mistborn, they have what are called the "ash mounts" which shower the local cities with a near constant stream of ash, so ash falling is just commonplace. I figured that anyone getting the reference would probably be a longshot (these two areas of my nerdiness don't often intersect), but I had to say it, just in case I found a fellow fantasy lover who also loves permaculture. Lol
I've only listened to the first 2 books (on my drive into work). I like to mix permaculture podcasts with various books. My favorite genre is fantasy, which was borne off my love of LotR when I was a kid. I think Sanderson is my favorite active author, and he will probably go down as one of the best fantasy authors of all time. I like wheel of time more than mistborne, but I should probably re-listen to the 2nd book, as I remember constantly zoning out when listening to it, thinking of designing my land. It was bad timing to try to read that book at the same time I just started getting super into permaculture stuff.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Now that you're commuting again, you could probably pick it back up again. The third book payoff of phenomenal. I haven't finished the first Wheel of Time book yet, but I've liked it so far. I absolutely agree about Sanderson. He has changed the genre completely, and will surely go down as one of the greats.
No experience whatsoever with making biochar, but want to give it a go. Like tomorrow, lol. The first step of the project seems like something I'd delegate to my better half, who enjoys relaxing in a chair while watching things burn. Can you recommend a clear set of written instructions for making biochar?
I'll do it now - simplified version:
1) Get a 55 gallon drum with a hole cut on the side (like mine), or dig a cone shaped hole/trench.
2) Get a bunch of sticks/twigs, ideally the thickness of a mans thumb, or smaller. The smaller, the hotter the fire will be, and the easier it is to get a thru-burn.
3) Jam and weave the sticks into the container/pit trying to get it as tight as possible. You want as little air in there as possible.
4) Light it on fire from the top. Ideally there should be a complete surface fire from one end to the other. It will smoke at first, don't worry about that. Just keep that fire going as much as possible - you want it to get HOT.
5) Keep stacking wood into the top layer, but trying to keep the fire in the top layer. I.e. you don't want to smother the fire, and you don't want it pushing down too far into the container. You want the fire on top.\
6) As the heat drives gases out of the underlying wood, you will notice a point where the pyrolysis reaction (the fire) has a firm grip and is self-sustaining. I.e. it will keep burning what feels forever with no added wood. This is the gases being pushed out of the lower wood being recombusted.
Aside - Troubleshooting: If you start smoking a lot when you add wood, it's probably because the wood is wet and the heat is being absorbed by the water, and the combustion gas layer is temporarily not hot enough to recombust the gases. Try to add as dry wood as possible (and thin, thin sticks burn at 1200F, thicker wood burns closer to 400-500F). Get that hot gas layer hot again, so the combustion gasses are recombusted and don't exit as smoke. This is the self-sustaining reaction you need - we're not having a campfire, we're doing pyrolysis.
7) At this point, the fire will be almost unstoppable. Keep adding wood as the top layer starts to ash. Once the new wood looks like it's burning, give it a pound with a tamper and/or poke through the lower stuff with a branch trying to not disturb the top layer much. You are trying to get all those hot charcoals to fall to the bottom and increase the density of the entire pile (i.e. filling any air gaps inside the pile with crushed finished char), but keeping the fire at the top.
8) Eventually you will either run out of wood, or your container will be full even after tamping and poking. At this point, let that top layer finish combusting (wait until you start seeing ash), then FILL YOUR CONTAINER with water. I cannot overstress this. There is so much heat in here, and it's pure-fuel at this point, so if you do not SOAK IT it will re-ignite overnight, and could cause a forest fire. You want a drenched slurry . This is one advantage of the sealed drum, as the water will stay in it. If you do a cone pit method, I would recommend re-slurrying it after about an hour. Soak, and stir, and soak and stir. It should be a like charcoal smoothie.
9) Add into an active compost pile at roughly 10-20% charcoal. Make sure it spends a good 3 months inside a compost or manure mix. Alternatively you can mix in some spoiled flour, powdered molasses and water. Urinate on it (if that doesn't gross you out - and it shouldn't). The best part about charcoal is that is absorbs everything - including smells. There will be very little odor of any kind - I mean, that's what it's used for in industry after all. A filter media.
Going to include this in description of video.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Perfect--thank you so very much! A good three months inside an active compost pile...my compost isn't especially active over the winter. Assuming my weather conditions roughly parallel yours, how would you count those three months if you made biochar this weekend?
I would say November until planting season is decent. The compost breaks down due to biological organisms (mostly bacteria) going into quasi hibernation. But they will still move through it and occupy those little hotel rooms. The temperature also doesn't impact (too greatly) the binding of nutrient to the charcoal. Many of the chemical bindings require activation energy, but its not like it needs 180F worth of heat to be added to it in order to bind to carbon.
To be concise, the compost pile can be rather inert biologically speaking, but the charcoal will still soak stuff up.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Reporting back in to say, "Mission accomplished!" Can't wait for next season's field trial. Thanks again!
Nice! Remember the inoculation step, its critical. So many people put uncharged biochar into their garden and wonder why the bed sucks for 2 years.
Biochar a soil scientists (such as myself) field day. Pun intended. 👩🔬
Congrats on the consultant food forest project! That's exciting for you I'm sure.
Thank you, Keith, for such a clear explanation. This is the first time that I have really understood what biochar is and why it can be so valuable.
Thanks Bob!
Congratulations on your first consulting job! So exciting
Thanks:)
your lit pond is SO beautiful ! :)
Thanks 😊 the pictures do it no justice at all. I can't wait for next year to see everything grow and fill in... but I don't want to wish my life away!
Woohoo so excited about your new job! I hope you will document it on video.
Indeed, I got client consent to video the job. That being said, if they change their mind, I will honor their wishes.
We make smaller batches, at 95% charcoal efficiency. We use a barbecue grill and light the kindling and build up the material radius as fast as possible, then slowly build down the radius of new material added as the largest logs burn towards the center. All the material burns through to the center at about the same time, and we douse it heavily when the most charcoal exists at the same time. We call it "The Inferno Method"~
Sounds cool. I like the idea of having a way to do smaller batches.
Terra Preta - the gold of Eldorado
Congrats on the consultation.
Thanks :)
Do you crush your char either before or after inoculation? I’ve been turning BBQ charcoal into « biochar » but discovered it wasn’t very good for that purpose as it composts down because it’s not properly treated. But one thing I’ve figured out is how to smash up the bigger charcoal bits, because I don’t want large chunks in my beds, especially the carrot bed. I have an old hammer style Kemp shredder which I wheel onto an old tarp and then tie the tarp up around the shredder to contain the flying bits. Works WELL! because I do this right after emoting the biochar from the manure tea I use as an inoclulant, there’s no dust!!! this is the first time I’ve seen an open « retort » oven,. But I think this is likely closer to what the Amazon natives did to create their biochar than what we do in retort burners. Greetings from Sudbury !!!
Indeed, I just put it on a tarp and run it over with my truck a few times. Also, the way I make it, I'm constantly pounding it to get all the air spaces as vacated as possible. When I'm done with my batch, its quite smashed up already.
Sudbury is nice. I used to go fishing up in Azilda.
This was excellent!
Thanks :)
Looking forward to seeing the rest of this
I'm planning on doing this today, and uploading tonight, but we'll have to see how the weather holds up. It's looking like it's going to pour.
I think you forgot to mention the #1 "Convert non-believers in Northern Climates"reason for adding biochar... it darkens the soil which may extend the growing season due to heat storage... ;)
Hmmm, I honestly never even thought of that myself. Benefits all over the place.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Actually I hadn't either, until Steven (over at SkillCult) mentioned it in a reply to one of his Biochar Videos.
Sorry about darkness.... Maybe can do a few over ur weekend...... First time... Subscribed... 😉
Hey cool side job! My food forest is roughly 30x50. Will you be doing videos?
It would be great to show how you work a small space.
Congrats.
I did some biochar this year for the first time. I did the cone pit style (dug a hole lol) It worked great, I added to my compost pile. Exciting to think how beneficial it is supposed to be for my garden soil life.
Cheers
Congrats on your biochar! A worthy investment in your future.
I will he doing videos of the consult job. No details on location or name, but progress videos and such.
great video!!!
Burn baby burn, disco inferno, burn baby burn. Hey Keith, did you need to notify the fire department in your local area? Since it is a 2000 year soil amendment, does it matter at what time of the year you should do it?
Weird, didn't get a notification for this comment. Sorry for the late reply...
I didn't no, and no definitely doesn't matter what time of year you add it. The only thing would be that I'd want to be innoculating it in somewhat warm temps so that the critters can get inside it. Biological activity really slows down in the cold temps.
Oh, I've wondered recently about charcoal as a fungal condo, and worry about which species of fungus are living in charcoal. I started thinking about it after reading about one of the strawberry plant diseases, "charcoal-rot", or "dry rot". Anyway there are several fungi that eat strawberry plants, including one currently spreading in georga/florida called neopestalotiopsis. I'm just hoping that the bad fungus doesn't set up in the charcoal that I've already put in the garden, especially in the strawberry patch. It's a puzzle that I don't know the answer to yet.
maybe you will say this later in the video, not there yet--but how much biochar should you or should you not add your gardens?
Now thats a tough one. There was research done in Sweden that showed upwards of even 75 percent (wow!!!!) was beneficial. Most sources say to make it roughly 10 to 15% of your compost mix, and let it sit and innoculate for 3 months before adding it to the garden proper.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy if you have really hot summers, black soil is problematic if it's on the surface. One needs to make a sandwich type layering where the biochar ammended compost is covered with something like cardboard, woodchips, sawdust, straw or even rocks to keep the surface cooler while plants grow.
“...thermal capacity of the water will protect it...” around 9 min mark referencing pond water added. What do you mean?
This is one of those moments where I'm thinking through something in my head and just assume everyone else is part of the conversation lol. Basically, I was saying that we should quench with water, but at the same time I had also just been talking about innoculating the biochar with nutrients and microbiology. Pond water is very high in both, so when I quench with pond water (versus say hose water), then the result should be a biochar that is also innoculated with water microbiology.
But then I remember the heat of the charcoal, and question in my head if the microbiology would survive being tossed onto hot coals. Something big wouldn't, but stuff that is so small that it is better shielded by water would. For example, consider dropping a human who is contained inside a house-sized volume of water, and dropping that on a basement sized pit of coals. Chances are the water would absorb the heat of the coals and the human would survive that. Similarly, I think a lot of microbiology in the water actually will survive being dumped on the hot coals in this barrel. Some will certainly meet an unfortunate end, but I think a lot of it survives. Infact very quickly after a full slurry of water, the coals can be picked up comfortably with your hand.
Sorry, for the confusion - I was kind of hoping people wouldn't zone in on that. I had a clip to explain it, but then the clip was kind of too much speaking about a tangent for no reason, etc. So I cut it out in editing. It's little tangents like that which take some of my videos to the 25 minute mark, and offer little value.
TL:DR, I was basically just saying that the life in the water will likely survive the douse, because water can absorb so much heat, that the coals are quite cool by the time the water microbiology hits it. And then they can find homes inside it, and start making microbiology babies.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy that’s a very understandable explanation ,thank you. I am here to learn, and my brain goes in different directions while thinking so I followed the thought process no problem. A human excased in water bubble is an analogy I can totally handle!
White wash the pawpaw trees wounds it will help it heal during the winter and next spring...iv organic white wash
Indeed, I am going to pick some up this weekend. Thanks again for reminding me! :)
Watched a RUclips video from edible acres where he stacked functions by making biochar, making tea,cooking and heating the home in his wood stove. Loved that idea, just tried it with a small cast iron pot in my wood stove. Worked beautifully .
Great video!! Thank you so much for sharing and making the world a better place with your videos!
Thanks Ryan :)
Nature, the great leveler (of more than just paw paw trees). Do you know how many times poets and musicians throughout history have tackled this very subject?
Sounds like it's time to quit that pesky day job and be a full time bad ass permaculture dude!
Lol, my job funds my food forest. One day though.
Oh no, not the paw paw! Contrast!
Do you need any material to make biochar? One of my neighbours at work was throwing in the trash chestnuts that were beginning to mold ,so I offered to take it. I tried making biochar with it in the wood stove so I assume it would work the same with your technique. I have way too much , probably 1000 lbs too much. I’m in the Durham region (Bowmanville rd/407)
Anything organic works, since all live is carbon based. If it was once alive, it can be turned to charcoal. Wood works really well because it's such dense carbon, but yes anything will work... bones, bark, and yes even Chestnut husks will work well. You just may need to use some wood to control a nice hot gas layer. It needs to be hot.
Are we going to see some footage of your consulting job? Pretty please!
Indeed. I wanted to sort that out with the client first, and they agreed - provided no details of them or their location are provided.
When the ash tree fell, I couldn't help thinking of Scadriel.
Not sure I get the reference. I tried to google but all I got was some planet in the mistborne series.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy That's right. In Mistborn, they have what are called the "ash mounts" which shower the local cities with a near constant stream of ash, so ash falling is just commonplace. I figured that anyone getting the reference would probably be a longshot (these two areas of my nerdiness don't often intersect), but I had to say it, just in case I found a fellow fantasy lover who also loves permaculture. Lol
I've only listened to the first 2 books (on my drive into work). I like to mix permaculture podcasts with various books. My favorite genre is fantasy, which was borne off my love of LotR when I was a kid. I think Sanderson is my favorite active author, and he will probably go down as one of the best fantasy authors of all time.
I like wheel of time more than mistborne, but I should probably re-listen to the 2nd book, as I remember constantly zoning out when listening to it, thinking of designing my land. It was bad timing to try to read that book at the same time I just started getting super into permaculture stuff.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Now that you're commuting again, you could probably pick it back up again. The third book payoff of phenomenal.
I haven't finished the first Wheel of Time book yet, but I've liked it so far.
I absolutely agree about Sanderson. He has changed the genre completely, and will surely go down as one of the greats.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy What are some of your favorite permaculture podcasts?