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HABSTINE NEWS
Biochar is slash pile gold
iochar is among the
B panaceas of regenera-
tive agriculture. This
charcoal produced for soil
amendment enhances most
solutions to waste disposal,
carbon capture, liming, soil
health, and water retention.
Any kind of organic mat-
ter that undergoes pyrolysis
(from lysis “cracked” by the
action of heat —- “pyro”) can
become biochar. The trick is
to control the burn to exclude oxygen,
so that the volatile portions of the
feedstock off-gas and the adsorptive
carbon latticework is left behind. One
folk method for checking its quality is
how it sounds: a crystalline tinkling
means thorough pyrolysis.
For home or farm production,
burning in a trench or barrel is good
enough. I personally prefer burning in
a barrel because the- smoke is easier
to tolerate. I know of another person
on Harstine who uses a similar ap-
proach. He uses an open-top barrel
that he manually feeds prunings from
an apple tree, damping oxygen by
stacking fuel. I close mine with a lid
and ring to minimize smoke and fo-
cus the pyrolysis gases out of a small
opening in the top.
Some folks in Belfair are working
with a trench setup that I plan to vis-
it. While these practices don’t produce
the finest biochar, they still retain
33-50% of the carbon in the feedstock,
preserving it for millennia as a. useful
soil additive.
We know that biochar lasts for mil-
lennia from discovering historical de-
ar" HCC I
Blllhg Name:
kmmk Number:
lmnte Mum-v:
B3; ALEX
FETHIERE
posits in the Amazon basin
and the soils of midwestern
U.S. plains, where indige-
nous burning practices filled
the soil with carbon that
helped account for the gener-
ations of grassland fertility.
Because cattle have shown
a preference for grass grown
in previously-charred fields,
this probably concentrated
buffalo populations for more
convenient hunting.
The “Terra Preta do Indio” of the
Amazon basin, made by the mass
burial of charcoal, animal bones, pot
fragments and human waste, sus-
tained large populations in marginal
soil until the arrival of European ex-
plorers.
The Amazon’s soils are lashed with
heavy seasonal rains like our own.
Via its cation exchange capacity, bio-
char retains nutrients, like ammOni-
um and potassium cations, that might
otherwise be leached out. It also pro-
vides safe harbor to the microbial life
that maintainsnutrient cycles. Plant
roots and fungal mycelia can still ac-
cess them through their own electro-
chemical exchange processes.
Biochar users assert that their
turnips double in size, and tomatoes
yield twice as much. Corn produces
at least two more improved cobs per
plant, broccoli has 30% larger and
tastier heads, and cabbage is twice
the size with the same shelf life.
The same carbon matrix that gloms '
on to nutrients also stores water. One
biocarbon researcher found biochars
to have internal surface areas of 100
360—898-2481 | www.mcnet '
0 150.00
2161 at each mom at-
.222
(360) 998-2481
(360) 8984357
(800) 553-4344
www.meml
msz ifiam. ,_
Union
305's ileum l
' Never miss a payment; ' l ,
square meters per gram (~30,500
square feet per ounce)! These cham-
bers adsorb moisture when water is
abundant and release it when scarce.
As water shortage grips vineyards
in the Willamette and smoky skies set
us all sneezing, one winery that had
cleared a hillside rented a $600,000
CON EX-sized kiln that produces 12.5
cubic yards of biochar every day, all
without significantly polluting the at-
mosphere. Other Vintners have been
inspired by biochar’s benefits and are
in talks to rent the “Carbonator—500.”
Smaller-scale production requires
only a trench or barrel, but it is
' dirtier. I make a brush fire and pack
dried maple limb prunings into a bar-
rel with a ring-locking lid. The lid has
a hung in the top, and when the brush
fire is roaring I roll the barrel into it.
Once the contents are pyrolyzing a jet
of gases blasts from the bung, which
can be aimed into the wind and down
This excavated
wedge trench
has the conical
shape that
encourages a
slow buildup
of char from
the poorly-
ventilated
bottom
. towards the
top. Journal ,
photo by Alex
Féthiére
toward hot coals to accelerate the
burn. After the vapors cease, the can
is rolled out and stood upside down
to plug the hole. The next morning
the barrel can be opened and the char
removed.
Once made, the char must be
“charged,” 01‘ else it will adsorb nu-
trients from everything around it,
including your plants. Aging it for
‘2-8 weeks with compost (many mix
it in to their aging compost), grass
clippings, worm castings, fertilizer
teas like comfrey or nettle, urine or
manure will fill it with microbes and
nutrients to kickstart the food web
anywhere you place it.
I Alex Féthiere has lived on Harst-
ine Island long enough to forget New
York City, where he built community
gardens and double-dug his suburban
sod into a victory garden. He can be
reached at onlandist@gmail.com.
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