Bio char

[seaofgreen18]

How many of you folks have used or even heard of Bio char? Id like to get the Ball Rollin I use this in my soil and my worm bin and there are many different benefits to using it ,water retention, microbe storage, nutrient storage since I've been using it my soil has been happy which in turn make my plants and clones Happy and it's helped reduce the cost of my water bill and nutrients which I use KIS mix and fish every now and again cal mag but other than that my input foot print is small and my watering frequency is much less it's much more of a beneficial if you have a fungul dominate soil so the hyphe can get into the pours of the çhar a root strand is just to big To access the char although the Exudates from the Roots can draw out some of the goodies I'm sure these are 2 weeks old from root and there's a Bubba Kush a Green Kush (crack) Canuk beans and then Barney's Farm beans of Blueberry OG and Pineapple Chunk with the 420 beans of Maui of course my veggies they like it to same mix same light same watering frequency Sometimes I just don't get the 101 bottles of nutrients these manufacturers say you need other than they want to steal my money, pollute my water ways and give us cancer and on top of that them synthetic nuits strip the land of all the biological goodies Bio char can help with over fertilization in the ground and absorb all the heavy metals especially when it comes the phosphorus run off from our farms

 

[garybo]

Bio char can help with over fertilization in the ground and absorb all the heavy metals especially when it comes the phosphorus run off from our farms

Interesting article @seeofgreen 18 ,

As a wee child growing up in rural Indiana, I remember my dad would pile discarded wood and limbs gathered throughout the year into a large pile and burn that pile of wood the following spring.

When the fire was completely dead and the ashes were cold, the ashes were scooped up and then they were spread over our garden, which provided us with a year’s worth of food.

I total concur that certain ashes are good for soil that is used yearly as a growth source.

Good post and thanks for sharing your knowledge and advice.

 

[seaofgreen18]

Howdy my friend thank you for the compliment Bio char is not a Ashe's but in fact Bio char is wood brought up to the point of combustion then starved of O2 so it's not ashes it's pieces of unburnt wood which is a good source of carbon and high in K and did you know that if you over water your plants the nitrogen and carbon will evaporates off and does no good for the soil or plants and the nitrogen and carbon goes up into the atmosphere instead of staying in your soil then as if a mystery you have plant problems Bio char can help stop that by retaining water this helps keep the nitrogen and carbon in the soil and that's where we want the carbon to stay you know when we have the Forest fires all those trees that are burnt release all their stored carbon that they have collected from over the years out of the atmosphere right back into the atmosphere but at a higher level that's part of the reason for global warming Bio char helps retain the carbon in the soil that's where we want it not in the atmosphere so farmers play a BIG PART of climate change!

 

[seaofgreen18]

 

[SmokingWings]

Started using it when I began building up my own soil mixes. Some excellent articles on-line about the history and science behind bio-char. Great stuff.

For anyone who wanders into this thread there are two bio-char products on the market. The inoculated one is ready to go. It has been mixed with amendments that were high in micro-organism populations. Based on some of the gardening sites a good ratio is 1 part bio-char to 10 parts soil mix followed by the usual "cooking" or "resting" time

Also on the market is bio-char that has not yet been inoculated and the char does not have any microbes living in it. It can be mixed right into a soil but it takes longer to build up the microbe populations so a longer "cooking" time.

 

[seaofgreen18]

I brew a Balanced compost tea then soak it To soak up All the GOOD NESS thanks for reply GOOD INFO

 

[seaofgreen18]

 

[kahoona]

where i am the forestry service burns huge brush piles in the winter and i get all the char i need. just have to watch for washed char when the rain comes in the spring. i cherry pick through it then grind it all up to add as amendments.

 

[seaofgreen18]

Thanks for the input I wish more states would do that it's not only good for the forest but it makes it safer for animals and the folks that live there here in Michigan they give out permits for $25 per 5 cord of downed or dead standing timber on federal land just got to follow the rules because some of the standing timber houses bats and owls and such critters Ron from Grand Rapids

 

[Stunger]

How many of you folks have used or even heard of Bio char?

Hey SOG, I'm with you on Bio-Char. I have been using it for the last few years. Like you, I have a worm farm and compost heap, even got some chooks contributing too. I add amendments every outdoor 'offseason' and let the soil cook for 3 months or so until I need it for the next grow. Whenever I have heard of something good, I added it to the soil, hard to tell what contributes but I view (hope) it creates an overall great synergy.

Bio-Char is one of those ingredients that has been in my soil for the last few years, my 3 current girls below seem to be doing ok on it. Recently, I have been thinking on some sort of pump for aeration that I can make compost tea with which seems another good thing altho the tea probably needs to be well filtered before foliar spraying I guess.

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• Stunger
• Feb 16, 2023

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• Stunger
• Feb 16, 2023

 

[seaofgreen18]

Howdy Stinger nice pics Yeah build your self a Brewer its inexpensive they got plans on YouTube for the one I have or you can buy one from KIS organic the air lift system works best a good tea recipe is 5 cups your worm casting ( I prefer castings to compost but either of good quality will work 1 TBS humic acid 1 table spoon Pacific Gro fish I prefer the 10% fish Bio char but good fish hydrolislate 1 TBS of alfalfa meal,1 tbs insect frass mealworm frass or black soldier fly frass,1 tbs crushed oyster flour,and a good microbe catalyst brew in a 5 gallon pail for 24 to36 hrs dependable on brewing temp anything under 72 f go longer to 36 or 48 hrs then strain with a paint strainer bag ( can purchase one at Lowes or the local hardware for a couple $) that's what I put the ingredients in as well get a couple of them anyway after brewing and straining put the char in a bucket and soak it with the tea it'll absorb all those goodies now remember if you're brew smells bad it is bad just like castings or compost, throw it away and start again and honestly the only way to Tell a good tea brew is to look at it under the microscope to see what and how many microbes you have foam is NOT an indicator of biology,the ideas of the tea is to multiply the biology of the castings or compost that your using if you buy tea brew kits ask for testing if they don't have test results for their brew bags DONT purchase them same with castings and compost but I'm like you I make all my own if I can't repurpose it I recycle it

 

[seaofgreen18]

I precompost for my worm bin so what I'll do is take a couple cups of the black owl and throw it in my precompost bucket along with some oyster shell flour for grit and into the worm bin the char absorbs the smells and give carbon for the fungi and the worm seem HAPPY HAPPY!! That's if I don't feel like charging it I figure that the worms do it for me

 

[Stunger]

Cheers SOG, I hadn't heard about precomposting but I'm not up on most things. Sounds a bit like, bukashi, maybe, I use a bukashi product for my chickens that acts to increase their gut diversity etc. I should start throwing a few more cannabis amendments into the worm bin! Anyway my Bio-Char is pre-loaded.

 

[seaofgreen18]

Cheers ! It is I use Bokashi innoculated with EM-1 I get it on Teragentex Good shit from what I read though you don't want to much Bokashi the rice I guess gives the worm a protein disease I'll have to re read it but I think that's what it said and by precomposting it let the pile heat up first so when you are ready to use it it's ready for the worms otherwise it tends to get hot from it breaking down and the worms sjy away from it for awhile

 

[seaofgreen18]

We are getting chickens I'm in the process of learning how to vermicompost chicken shit so far what I've learned is you need to let it sit for awhile because of the ammonium in it do you have any experience with vermicomposting chicken shit?

 

[seaofgreen18]

Most ppl put their scraps in like this I tried this all's it did was make them run to the sides of the bin for a week or so I started pre composting Much BETTER results they are all over it that's where I put the char, Bokashi and the oyster shell flour and I'll throw in some Neem seed meal and alfalfa and a few other things every now and again but I still add the amendment to the bed and pots when making my soil but WAY less amendments at start or during the run with that Bio char don't seem to have to water near as much either so I use 2 buckets when composting for my worms and it's not that much extra work either once you get going

 

[seaofgreen18]

Here's after 2 weeks or so and this is what I feed my friends

 

[Stunger]

Cheers ! It is I use Bokashi innoculated with EM-1 I get it on Teragentex Good shit from what I read though you don't want to much Bokashi the rice I guess gives the worm a protein disease I'll have to re read it but I think that's what it said and by precomposting it let the pile heat up first so when you are ready to use it it's ready for the worms otherwise it tends to get hot from it breaking down and the worms sjy away from it for awhile

I'm in New Zealand and some of the stuff available elsewhere is not so here. I know @Bill284 makes sprinkle layers of bokaski in his soil. My only experience so far is using a product called 'poultry bokashi' which I mix in to the chickens feed. Apparently makes them stronger and their guts stronger, and causes them to make firmer poops which I am noticing.

We are getting chickens I'm in the process of learning how to vermicompost chicken shit so far what I've learned is you need to let it sit for awhile because of the ammonium in it do you have any experience with vermicomposting chicken shit?

No, not really, except for taking a handful of two from the compost bin and giving it to them, which is precomposting altho up to this point I hadn't put the word to it. I have read of others saying the worms love it, but yeah probably letting it precompost makes a lot of sense as it can get hot initially.

Most ppl put their scraps in like this I tried this all's it did was make them run to the sides of the bin for a week or so I started pre composting Much BETTER results they are all over it that's where I put the char, Bokashi and the oyster shell flour and I'll throw in some Neem seed meal and alfalfa and a few other things every now and again but I still add the amendment to the bed and pots when making my soil but WAY less amendments at start or during the run with that Bio char don't seem to have to water near as much either so I use 2 buckets when composting for my worms and it's not that much extra work either once you get going

The best and fastest way for me is to blend up their food first. But I don't tend to go to the bother of that unless we've made something from pumpkin and have a lot of pumpkin skin for them, which they really love. Mostly to save the hassle of washing the blender I just finely chop up what I give them to help them rip into it,

Here's after 2 weeks or so and this is what I feed my friends

Yeah that looks like something they'd enjoy!

 

[seaofgreen18]

I'm going to have to try the pumpkin I've heard a couple ppl mention that my better half likes pumpkin maybe I'll talk her into eating more of it

 

[seaofgreen18]

Getting to be fall time where you are at then isn't?