Yesterday evening my son and I did an experiment with making biochar in a conoid - shaped pitfall .
Bruce from Red Gardens on YouTube has a good video in which he uses this process :
This method appeals to me because it costs nothing and does not require burning fuel to make the biochar . The whole “ gun barrel inside a drum ” method acting always struck me as wasteful and quite potentially retarded . I much choose lower - tech solutions .
One of these , the popular Kon Tiki biochar kiln , is low - tech but seems well - design , as well as being a stone’s throw up from burning right in the priming :
If someone gifted me one I would not complain , but I also wo n’t nettle buying or building one , as burn in a pit works quite well , as even the creators of the Kon Tiki biochar kiln notein an article post at the Biochar Journal :
“ Inspired by Josiah Hunt , we essay the product of biochar in an subject earth kiln . And it worked just outstanding . In the first endeavour , we made a few hundred cubic decimeter of splendid looking biochar in a conically turn up hole in the ground . This success was reasonableness enough to construct a more exact possibility about the system and to consider how it could be go through with better engineering science and control . ”
Since my land here is wretched , I am run low to test biochar on a bed to see if I can increase soil fertility and the background ’s power to reserve on to nutrients .
How We Made Simple Biochar
We dug a small conelike endocarp in an erstwhile Baroness Dudevant heap for our first burning , then garner control stick from the Wood and broke them up into accomplishable sizes . We started with a small flak in the bottom of the pickle , rent it burn down to dainty coals , then load another layer on top . We take over this five times with increasingly larger layers as the stone ’s diameter increased . When the last layer had turned into coals , my son sprayed the fire with the hosiery until it cease hissing and glowing , which consume a remarkable amount of fourth dimension .
This dayspring we go out to check on our charwoman , as it was dark last night when we finish . To our gratification , we had a expert amount of nice , black , fully pyrolized stuff .
Our little test was quite successful , give about seven gal of char :
The biochar is black , well - burned and finished nicely with only a duo large unburned pieces from the last layer , which we absent and will add to the next burn .
This is my type of method acting . All we needed was a power shovel and a wakeful , plus a hose to eradicate the burn mark .
Why Biochar?
I do n’t like the way the gardens are doing aright now and want to use every trick in the book to ameliorate them .
After gardening in the volcanic soils of Grenada , this is like garden on a parking batch . It ’s going to need some serious help .
I ’m going to define up some beds for testing different method and see what happen . We ’ll stress biochar in one , nothing in another , no - till in a third , Steve ’s fertilizer mixin a fourth … it ’ll be interesting .
After Steven Edholm ’s reports onthe efficaciousness of biocharfor increase natality in poor grime , I am in conclusion ready to give it a secure test . I ’ll probably dig a larger cavity , though . This little pit took about 1.5 hours to make seven gallons of char , but if I had given it another layer of wood at the end its maximum yield would likely end up at 10 - 12 congius . If we make a bigger nether region we could belike get 25 - 40 gallon per burn .
Then I ’ll have lots of charwoman to test in the gardens . The trials will commence concisely .
I ca n’t put in the biochar yet as it has n’t been “ rouse . ” But that ’s a post for another mean solar day .
