Timmo
Well-Known Member
I just made a great big batch of biochar. I haven't learned how to use it yet, but it was kind of fun to make, so I thought I'd share some pics.
We had a willow tree fall down this winter, so I cut up a bunch of the branches and twigs and put them in a room with a dehumidifier.
When they were all bone dry, I loaded them into my pyrolyzer (an old hot water heater tank).
I've never done this before, so I used a bunch of different sizes to see how they'd come out.
Closed 'er up.
Buried it in the middle of the burn pile I've been amassing for the last two years.
Many hours later...
The finished product (the next day).
Everything looked exactly the same as when I put it in, only smaller and black.
The burn pile itself also yielded a lot of biochar. There's at least another full garbage can's worth waiting for me to shovel it up.
Grinding it up with a makeshift mortar and pestle. The twigs grind up instantly. The bigger chunks take a little more work, but it's not super hard. Powdering it exposes the most surface area, but I think I'll leave some chunky for aeration and use it in place of perlite in a future batch of soil.
Next time I do this, I think I'll separate the branches by size and do different batches. Twigs have the advantage of drying out very quickly and they can really be packed into the tank. I assume that charring them by themselves would also be faster.
Voila.
We had a willow tree fall down this winter, so I cut up a bunch of the branches and twigs and put them in a room with a dehumidifier.
When they were all bone dry, I loaded them into my pyrolyzer (an old hot water heater tank).
I've never done this before, so I used a bunch of different sizes to see how they'd come out.
Closed 'er up.
Buried it in the middle of the burn pile I've been amassing for the last two years.
Many hours later...
The finished product (the next day).
Everything looked exactly the same as when I put it in, only smaller and black.
The burn pile itself also yielded a lot of biochar. There's at least another full garbage can's worth waiting for me to shovel it up.
Grinding it up with a makeshift mortar and pestle. The twigs grind up instantly. The bigger chunks take a little more work, but it's not super hard. Powdering it exposes the most surface area, but I think I'll leave some chunky for aeration and use it in place of perlite in a future batch of soil.
Next time I do this, I think I'll separate the branches by size and do different batches. Twigs have the advantage of drying out very quickly and they can really be packed into the tank. I assume that charring them by themselves would also be faster.
Voila.