Biochar Trench Burning Method
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- Опубликовано: 23 фев 2021
- If you have a lot of brush to burn, here is an easy way to make biochar. H/T to my man Skillcult.
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I laughed pretty hard at using that tractor to move wheelbarrow amounts of wood, then cutting to you digging a tractor size trench by hand! Thanks:)
Gotta get my exercise.
i was thinking the exact same thing lol.
Lol
@@SpellsOfTruth it's not so much humorous as "clearly this guy is a lot younger than me."
He'll (probably) learn ;)
This was a great demo on this technique in a very accessible way for most people. I also really enjoy hearing the kids playing in the background. You can just tell they're happy. Thanks for this David!
Did that one year.you will b amazed by the increase of worms.they luv the stuff
Hey David just want to say best wishes from Ireland to you and your family 🇮🇪
Thank you.
Wish I could give you 5 thumbs up. One thing I love about finishing with a hose is all that very high temperature steam that is generated. It's supposed to help react with residual tars in the biochar to break them down. Might seem like it takes a long time to cool it all down with the hose, but it's doing all that great work you can't see. Excellent video again Mr.The Good!!!
I made 100 gallons yesterday in two 55 gallon drums laid on their sides. A lot of time in that method but I feel it makes a better end product.
If you get a chance to film the method I would love to see it.
It's always refreshing to see you keeping things simple and effective. Also, sharper is safer. Looks like you're really burning up that chain with such a dull blade.
Absolutely, that's the first thing I noticed. Holy cow.
agreed, the chain could be sharper. Watch out for "safety chains" they're dull on purpose, go figure.
When will you accept the title of "David The Great?"
Iol
lol..He has to stay a bit humble, as “Pride goeth before a fall”, and no one wants to fall in that biochar while it is still smoking. Not that, that would be the fall though..
I love watching videos of you making massive amounts of biochar
What a timely video. I had some limbs and trees fall due to the ice and snow we had last week. There's a small ditch at the back of my property. I think I'm going to try this method to make bio char!
Perfect!
Thanks for this! I don't compost brambles and blackthorn as the thorns hang around for ages and the pile doesn't retain moisture, so they usually go on the bonfire. Yesterday I dug a 1.5m trench with raised sides and turned a big pile of mostly fresh brambles into 100 litres of biochar. Definitely a win.
I have nearly solid clay dirt here in CA. I built a biochar trench and lined it with about 4" thick of loose clay (everywhere that touches flame) and did a burn similar to this. After the whole procedure, I end up with about equal parts biochar and calcined clay, which seems to serve many of the same functions as biochar when used as a soil amendment (moisture buffering, improving drainage, preventing compaction, etc.).
After some 2 week long tests in plastic cups, it seems to have about the same water absorbtion per volume and drying rate as char. I'm sure it has much lower CEC, but it also has the advantage of not requiring aggressive charging/innoculation. Now I just use a blend of the two for soil amendment. This started as the best way I could think of to make some additional use of the excess heat while making char.
I really appreciate everything you post on here and on TheSurvivalGardner website, keep up the great work!
Interesting soil layers in that trench you dug looks like they had a few fighters go through over the years
I used to make my blacksmithing charcoal in pits which works well if you don't mind dirt in the char and somewhat more wasted wood. Not a problem with biochar on a woodlot of vigorous trees :P
Now I use 55Gal drums (used to contain machining oil so they were cheap and mildly flammable. Beware of creating sparks if you get ones that contaned volatiles and air them out before cutting or punching holes). 4 holes in the bottom 1/2 - 3/4" across, each evenly spaced out. Sit the barrel(s) on 4 bricks so they're raised a few inches up and align it so that the air holes are able to intake.
Add some loose brush at the bottom and larger bits of wood between the air holes to support the rest that'll sit on top. Fill the drum 2/3 - 3/4 the way up with branches and kindling, could fill all the way to the top but it gets too exposed to the wind. I find 1" to 2.5" diameter wood to work the best, and if you have fire-tolerant trees removingt he bark or splitting branches helps them burn well. light it from the top and as soon as it starts to ash up or just before, add more twigs/sticks/chopped kindling to that spot. Over the next hour or two, it takes some micromanaging to keep it from becoming a smoke geyser or to get the top to blaze up again (fanning with the lid helps), but the yields are great and the quality is good for forging, and not so firm that you couldn't make biochar. If there is a strong wind, just kick some soil up against the windward side of the bottom to stop it from burning too fast on just that side.
Once the char reaches to top, or the bottom of the barrel feels hot (whichever comes first) I grab some gloves and bung the lid on it and seal it up, shovel soil around the outer edge to choke the intakes and leave it to cool overnight. Usually after cracking that giant can of black beans open in the morning it's filled ~3/4 to the top, and after sorting out the brands (not completely charred wood) I'm left with ~2/3 to half a barrel of charcoal; around 30+ gal. The drier the wood, the more uniform the burn tends to be I find.
This might be a decent alternative if you have alkaline soil and want to minimise ash that winds up in your soil, as the sorting I find tends to send the decently small quantity of ash that is produced flying or to the bottom of your sorting spot, rather than all concentrating in your burn pit. Also useful if you use junky wood with nails and staples and want none of them to wind up in your soil. Sort it on a tarp with a powerful magnet on hand.
Cheers!
Excellent comment.
@@davidthegood Why thank you!
Excellent videos!
Gotta get my tractor fixed and try this method. My steel pail retorts about done anyway. Been using a TLUD/retort combo to make 5-10 gals at a time.
Fire is always so satisfying. That reminds me that I have a ton of dead wood to burn.
Need a bit of “bad to the bone” in Rachel rendition as her hubby starts up the chain saw, although I enjoyed all the engine sounds I could see that in those farm equipment and burning scenes. Of course it would be a DTG remake biochar trench burning edition.
I wonder what the dry weight of charcoal is per gallon ..
This is good stuff!
Thank you so much!
i have thorny trees where i leave pluse eucaliptus. these go to the barbacue grill (here we call it churrasqueira, basically a fireplace to roast meat) and close the opening leaving only the chimney. a bit safer in my case cause its summer right now, but when its winter and it rains ill be doing trench or openfire.
im working in cutting the eucaliptus and propagating them so i can have more organic matter in the soil with their leaves, more aeration, more shade for some things and when i down them, biochar. may even get some sheep to graze in their space so i can have even more organic matter.
Nice,get it done
Amazing black gold 🪙
You've gone mad 😡 I love your techniques I love it!!!!!
Did you sharpen that saw?
One study I saw said adding as much as 40 percent char to soil mix was good, from a university in NY. I saw it about 15 years ago so don't remember much else except that yields didn't get any better after
Max yield peaked at 40
Thanks!
Thank you
I’m currently building a very rough geodesic dome and I’m going to pit burn biochar in its footprint before assembling the bones of the structure
Cool.
Hey D. I've been wanting to do a few big batches like this, but all the open areas within reach of my hose are planted out except the crushed rock driveway and over my septic.
So, lots of small burns in my little pit it is... which I rather enjoy in the colder months.
When you estimated the 60 gallon yield, is that before crushing or after? Crushing seems to reduce the volume by half.
Pre-crushing
That looks pretty easy thanks! About how many times a season can I add this to my garden soil?
Any time you like; however, there is probably an upper limit on effectiveness. I am adding some this year as I go, but it sticks around for a long, long time and I don't want to over-add and possibly see a decrease in productivity. Mostly experimental right now.
@@davidthegood thank you!
Hey EM. From the research I've seen, soil with 10% biochar yields the best results. Some is better than none though.
That said, I store my excess biochar in a big contractor bag with a few drainage holes in the bottom until I need it, and roots from nearby plants grow up into the bag of 100% char, so I don't think you need to worry about having more than 10%.
Just in case you didn't see it, don't skip the charging step that D showed in a recent prior vid, because raw char will hurt your yields for a year or more.
You seem so happy up there in 'Bama. I'm seriously thinking of leaving Florida, and I thought about Alabama or Mississippi. I'm originally from SC, so I'm a real southern lady. I miss the real South. I know people here think Gainesville is the South, but it isn't, really.
Naw, Gainesville ain't no place to live.
Why is biochar better than just the wood? Is it b/c it breaks down faster or are there more minerals in it. Please tell me Mr. Good. I so enjoy your videos, always gets a thumbs up from me.
Biochar does not break down quickly, which is good in our poor soil. It also acts as a battery, holding nutrients, and as a living space for microlife.
What kinda ratio do you mix that into your garden soil.. Like a bucket worth per x feet of row..?
Still experimenting.
Did you find a wood chip supplier in that neck of the woods? I would love a tractor like that to help me spread them around my property!
Oh yeah!
What does charcoal do?
Been awhile thought you were closer to the equator
I got burned a few years ago buying/using hay as mulch in my garden, The hay had been sprayed with that weed killer that killed the garden. I liked the Alfalfa pellet apply you talked about a vid or few back; How do I know alfalfa pellets don't have the same weed killer in them?
The way you know is that Aminopyralid kills broad-leaf plants but not grasses, therefore it is only used on grass crops.
Thanks, but I'm still confused. and worried it took a year, I had to bring in new dirt and haul off truck loads of was very good garden dirt. If I buy Alfalfa Pellets at Tractor supply am I good to go.
Have you ever charged biochar with worm leachate? Seems like a good combo
I would if I had a worm bin.
I wonder what kind of infused water the ancients used to put out the fire?
Dasani
What do you add to charge the biochar? Do you just add to the soil like that? Or do you charge it with inputs? Biochar is one thing i would like to learn how to make, would of been nice if you showed or gave some extra details, but great video.
I show my charging process in another video.
@@davidthegood Thank you i will check it out .
Another thing I do is add a biodegradable surfactant to the barrel I charge the char in. It makes the water wetter. So it can enter the pores in the char easier.
Make the trench wider, and you could use the bucket on the tractor to scoop it out.
Good idea.
Ok ok ok, I was hung up on the conflict that you don't want to burn the wood to ash making biochar.... but you ARE inevitably going to burn some of your wood to ash in an open fire like this. Now I think I understand that this ash is a necessary sacrifice that gets hosed away with water. Leaving you with just the charred wood that you're after. Not as "efficient" as a pyrolysis burner, but way more simple to execute. Do I understand this correctly?
Yes
It would be great if you used ag waste instead of otherwise useable wood. Rice hulls are high in silica and make great biochar.
I'm not able to harvest rice hulls. But i have plenty of usable wood. And I use it!
@@kimfroman2023
Too bad you lack a rice hull resource, rice makes a superior biochar over wood char (rice has a high silica content). You likely have other ag wastes that are being wasted and ignored ie weeds that you might be sending to the dump. Weeds can be dried then burned for charcoal.
I'd avoid the trench method for making charcoal foe a couple reasons. This method means what you put on your garden 1) has had viable weeds seeds killed but all the minerals and benefits of charcoal remain. 2) Trenching likely loses more carbon to the air- meaning less remain to the garden.
Less efficiency is a poor return on efforts in my estimation.
@@b_uppy Oh, good, I'm too lazy to dig a trench anyway!!
@@kimfroman1812
There is a method of creating carbon that keeps most of it from going into the air and being lost to you for your garden. The Rodale Institute has an online article called WHAT’S BIOCHAR? HOW TO STABILIZE CARBON IN YOUR SOIL. It talks about efficiently using a barrel, versus pile.
I saw another article (source unknown) that talked of (I believe) putting a lid over it at some point and limiting the air. Wish I knew who wrote/published that article
Important!!! Smokeless, local bilaws preventing open fires here.
Any ideas?
Barbecue grill. Or a kiln type process.
There are a few companies that sell biochar, or you can find a friend outside the city limits where burning is allowed.
If you can purchase inexpensive hardwood charcoal you can charge that and use it. That's my plan for the first year. Good luck.
That biocharge trench is smoking hot 🔥🔥👍
How is this pyrolysis? Looks like burning wood to me
Just make char however
Good morning
Good morning, Carolyn! I hope you are well. We are planting potatoes this morning.
I'm on my way to the post office to pick up 60 cornish cross meat chicks I ordered. Three of us put in an order together. I got the high protein grower feed at the feed store yesterday. I 6 to 8 weeks I will be butchering these birds for the freezer. I have run out of chicken except for one pack of breast I have left. I need to get another piglet to raise too can I only have one pork roast left.
Great work.
Does this release a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere? Or is it negligible compared to if you used industrial fertilizers?
Less than if you let the fire burn to ash. The remaining coals are carbon and will be sequestered in the soil. That said, there is nothing wrong with some CO2 - plants love it.
@@davidthegood good to know, thanks! ive been getting into organic gardening as a way to fight climate change, so I'm trying to keep tabs on my CO2 footprint :)
You do realize that plants needs CO2 and plants releases oxygen back to us.
@@SoulSeeker770 Yes
@@SoulSeeker770 humanity is putting 43 billion of tons of CO2 in the atmosphere every year... so i think the plants will have enough to photosynthesize
What a surprise YT doesn’t send me notifications when you post , they don’t want people to be gardening and learning how to garden because that’s offensive apparently 😡
Nah, but it takes us out from under big gov's fat thumb to some degree. :) And it's low tech, which isn't what our high tech overlords approve of.
@@dans3718 yea god bless them 🙂
@@jettyeddie_m9130 As in "God bless their little hearts?" :)
@@dans3718 yes 🙂 , if I had the opportunity to grow anything for “them “ it would be Clemson SPINELESS okra 🤠
what about carbon dioxide released in atmosphere?
It is good for plants
Need to sharpen your chain there bud!
Front end loader for some branches? Digs trench with shovel? Ok!
I really can’t wait to try this! (Also, David, maybe get some chainsaw chaps? Even my risk happy hubby refuses to chainsaw without them 😊)
I never even heard of those, but I do enjoy having legs.
@@davidthegood Haha, yeah legs are helpful. They range from about $50-$150. It’s an expense, but cheaper than the ER. 😉
Oooooo ooh la la!! :)
Your lucky you don't have neighbors. I only did this is a small metal fire pit and had the nextdoor neighbor commenting about the smoke. Lol
Neighbors can be a drag.
Why wouldn’t you just bury it with dirt and let it smoother instead of water?
It's much higher effort to bury.
Use a tractor to haul an arm load of sticks and then hand dig a huge trench with a shovel… ? Lol 😀
What the hell is biochar
You should have given a Trigger warning for the beginning of the video: Extremely dull chain saw grinding through tree limb.
Only one weenie at that roast
sharpening a saw chain is easier than digging that trench dude.
Your chainsaw blade is dull, needs sharping.
send me your chain...that thing was struggling
We got it sharpened - it makes a big difference.
That chainsaw is really dull like horribly dull. Should have cut through that much quickier
The oak is hard on a blade.
I use a 2 in 1 hand sharpener. It's got 2 round files and 1 flat file for the rakers all in one. I dont use my fancy bench grinder any more. Clamp the bar in a stump vice. Easy peasy.
@marthale7 you file them down with the tooth so it cuts the proper amount. If you never file the raker, your chain can be sharp and still not cut right.
Thank you, all. This is the first chainsaw I have ever owned... blade is quite new, but dulled fast.
Also best advice to keep a chain sharp is Keep it Out of the Dirt and metal. Getting it in the dirt dulls it so fast, even a little each time you cut a piece off a tree adds up quick
That saw dull af
Biochar good for garden, but cancerous to the lungs :P Seriously
Think about joining us on the sunny side of life!
Hold your breath.
hope you've sharpened your chainsaw since this video
Nope. Now I just chop with it like a hatchet.
l@@davidthegood lol
Not biochar.
You made charcoal. NOT biochar.
Good grief man, sharpen that chain. Yikes! It's pretty easy, all you really need is a small round file and patience.