I have been looking into the benefits of char (carbon solids) as a soil builder and natural fertilizer. The Terra Preta video was life changing. A good source in Latin America is the local coffee roaster. Here in Panama they use rice hulls as fuel for the roaster. They have literally mountains of the charred rice hulls for the taking; with permission, of course. I get 10 sacks at a time to mix into my potting soil and for lining the hole of the transplant site.
Related to this subject… Can anyone prove or disprove that there is much difference between charcoal fines as a fertilizer vs. biochar? I use the throwaway fines of charcoal or what is leftover from charcoal making and it works great. Am I missing something by not making biochar? To me, the results should be similar although I would expect biochar to potentially release the nutrients in the charcoal more quickly.
Thanks. I really believe we need to speed up gardening when we can which improves income per hour and maximizing the blessing God has given us through his creation. If we are going to a lot of extra work to make biochar and we can get the same net benefit by just using fine charcoal then it is good to cut back on labor and improve time efficiency. That leaves more time for other activities in the garden/farm or time for spiritual activities.
The nice thing about burned rice hulls, other than being free, and easy to incorporate, is that they keep their shape after burning so they form little hollow cos that hold water in dry season.
Preparing the soil is the most important aspect of gardening. Biochar is a huge benefit to soil composition. Especially where the soil is clay, like you n the jungle, and where the seasonal rainfall varies greatly.
@Dan_Janzen
I did a project with Solidaridad ( a Dutch Organisation) in reclaiming sustainability program. I tried Both charcoal dust (Powder) with biochar made from cotton stocks. (The Biochar is tending to perform better) unlike charcoal dust, we had 8 treatments
biochar only
Biochar mixed Cowdung
Biochar Mixed with Charcoal dust
Charcoal dust
Charcoal dust mixed with Cowdung
Charcoal dust mixed with Tea Manure (Animal manure liquid extract)
Biochar Mixed Tea Manure
Control
In all the treatment were Biochar was present exibited good an increase in yield unlike control and charcoal dust.
Is there a forum for debate at ECHO on biochar, its advantages, and disadvantages? I could be wrong and that is why we need to welcome debates on subjects like this, the more research that I do on biochar the more it appears to be a fad that will when the proper analysis gets out it will become seen as similar to the Ethanol fad that environmentalists eventually all admitted it was a bad idea to turn corn/maize into ethanol. It was bad on multiple levels, it costs a lot of energy (including fuel-carbon emitting and for many that is a big issue) to produce maize/corn and it drives up prices which affects peoples purchasing power of food (including meat), devastating to the poorest of the poor and it is hard on engines which has cost small engines a lot of problems and car engines not designed for the way it eats the gaskets. For me (this is my opinion) I see a lot of parallels between the ethanol fad and the biochar initiative which will (in my opinion) be eventually seen as a fad. This article is not necessarily the death knell of the biochar initiative but for many who are doing it for climate change, it probably should be if you carefully consider and weigh the facts: https://www.permaculturenews.org/2010/11/18/beware-the-biochar-initiative/
If sequestering CO2 is depleting oxygen as well as Carbon that can now be seen as a bad thing. And look at all the other negatives of making biochar. Just like ethanol production, it is an incredible inefficiency since it competes with charcoal and other energies. You have to justify bypassing the importance to the world of use of the wood for energy and how it could be used in Cogen plants to substitute for natural gas or for coal in coal plants. And yet it produces a lot of smoke which includes CO2 (1/2 the Carbon in wood is released as CO2 in the biochar making according to one study I read) and which Cogen plants and coal plants reduce (particulates in smoke). To have any significant impact on CO2 in the atmosphere this would require massive production of biochar which would produce so much smoke and affect people’s lungs–cancer, strokes, heart disease, inflammation of the lungs and eyes, and the list goes on. Wood smoke is the number 1 environmental killer in the world (by 4 times as many as other environmental killers) and if you have an inversion weather event it could be particularly deadly, potentially killing large numbers of people. And it is so inefficient a use of organic matter not only because it reduces the energy available to other uses but it could be used for mulch or in raised beds keeping them fertile for up to 20 years or more. And there is no way to control the balance of tree planting and cutting if the biochar hype really ramps up with big funders. These big funding programs are often corrupted so you could get reported one thing on tree planting while those engaged give false reports on the number of trees planted. Or if demand for biochar increases without outside funding then it will be particularly hard to control the number of trees cut. Also if you focus on organic matter in the soil and increasing your fertility you are going to get better bang for the buck on time. I used to work for a company that manufactured liquid fertilizers and also made biochar-type products high in carbon and it was difficult to find a significant result in the tests from its use. If your fertility levels are high then biochar which is also an important supply of fertilizer is going to have less impact. Of course it does other things in the soil which is good. I have in every training I have done here suggested people collect the throw-away charcoal fines in town where people sell charcoal and from the piles that they use for marking charcoal. One or the other is not all that far away and a few bag can even be transported by a motorcycle. So what if people more efficiently just collected the charcoal fines already produced to increase their fertility. So that you don’t produce smoke that impacts people’s health that would be a good place to start. This is an excellent article on new research supporting tree planting. Water evaporated from trees cools global climate, researchers find -- ScienceDaily Biochar production competes with time spent planting trees or incorporating agroforestry in your system and what about the Great Commission, evangelism/discipleship? Biochar is an activity that competes with that as well. I want to emphasize that this is only the beginning of my research on this potential fad and I welcome others to discuss as “Iron sharpens Iron”. Please do not cater to the “cancel culture” to shut down this conversation. We need to have this discussion since the potential loss of time and even the amount of smoke entering the atmosphere from this practice is a very viable threat resulting from this fad.
I just try to keep bringing people back to an income per hour and return on investment analysis. I grew up on a farm and that has always made the most sense to me but I don’t hear people discussing things from an economic standpoint. Everything seems enmeshed in idealism which is very hard to follow as to what is really motivating people. Seems like adding rock dust would be very little bang for the buck. Sea salt would be the same and more of a change of damage to soil due to flocculation since you are likely adding more salt than you need to get those minerals in the soil. However, most soils are quite forgiving related to adding minimal amounts of salt except clay soils with depressions that do not drain, or desert soils where irrigation is drip and very limited. Limestone is great as the commercially recommended way to increase pH and also add some Calcium if you need it. If you need the minerals you are trying to add through sea salt and rock dust through a commercial product where you can be more precise and place it where you want and likely get the job done a lot more fast. In fact I just looked up with Google to see if there is any evidence that rock dust helps and found this: " What do trials on rock dust show? Fortunately, there have been two big, well-designed scientific studies of the effects of rock dust, one in Scotland and the other in Sweden, and both found exactly the same: nothing. There was no effect on yield, plant nutrient content or soil chemistry ." I think you are heading the wrong direction with your rock dust and sea salt, little or no bang for the buck, and that for others is not going to be a very good contribution to human flourishing if they follow your example. We have to get back to the science and the economic basis for why we do what we do and less about idealism.
Dan, can you share more about those two studies indicating there was little or no value to making use of rock dust?
Did they consider the type of rock dust?
Did they consider particle size?
Did they consider how it was used?
We use rock dust we make from volcanic rock. We use it in all of our fermentation processes like bokashi, etc. I would be surprised if it offered no benefit inasmuch as it has been tested to contain a large number of minerals and it is very fine particle size and is being processed with abundant microorganisms that normally break down rock. But your point is well taken that science needs to be considered which prompts me to think, I need to test our end product.
Mack, while the ashes you describe from the coffee roasting process would have benefit to the soil, it is not bio char. As I understand it, ashes have little carbon because in the burning process, the high temperatures of the fire have consumed the carbon while bio char is produced at a much lower temperature without the open fire that consumes the carbon and releases it into the atmosphere.
We use as many ashes as we can find and collect but not because of the bio char effect. We use them because of their higher levels of potassium that we need for our plants. We use many of the ashes in our bio fermenting process including large scale bokashi production.
I’m gonna look into the availability of the coffee ashes from coffee roasters but I don’t think they are available here because instead of burning them, they sell the hulls to commercial chicken farmers for bedding and use gas to heat the coffee roaster.
