BIOCHAR | Better Than Any Compost You've Ever Used (NO Fire Needed) 

The way the natives did it was that they simply burned their fields every spring for decades. Then they raked the charcoal, adhes and soil up into mounds and they planted their crops in small hills or mounds. These fields of hills extended for hundreds of yards all around their villages. Burning the weeds back kept the ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes away and it prevented wildfires from burning the village. Keeping the area clear for several hundreds yards around prevented an enemy from getting close enough to send flaming areas into your thatched roofs. I do things in a different way. I make my own charcoal by burning wood then when the flames start to die down I put out the fire with a hoae. I wait an hour then I stir it up and hose it down again. . The next day I sift it through a piece of 1/2" rabbit cage wire. I store the charcoal in metal trash cans. I spread the charcoal about an inch thick over the chicken coop floor. I let the chickens break it up a nd mix it into the dirt of the chicken coop floor. After a few months the charcoal is no longer visible. I use a flat shovel to take off the top two or three inches of chicken coop soil. I use that soil in my container garden

Thanks we call it ‘charcoal’. Then it becomes ‘biochar’ once inoculated. -great video thanks

I make my own charcoal out of oak heating pellets. More uniform product and the correct size. No smashing needed. But I do have to use fire to make it. It does take a long time to make those small batches though - about 3 hours per 12 quart batch. 1 bag of those HEATING pellets yields about 1/2 to 2/3rds of that bag in the form of charcoal, I put in RAIN WATER, some Azomite, Epsom salts. Sometimes other goodies like sulfur free molasses. Or even plain table sugar if no molasses, A handful of soil gets it all started. I use an air pump to aerate the solution. Once finished and reasonably moist but not wet, I sprinkle on some bone meal (shake-n-bake method). Save any liquid left over for the next batch or use it to water existing plants in your yard. You can use a screen type kitchen wire strainer to strain out the charcoal. Pour from one bucket through the strainer into another bucket. Let drip till it doesn't drip anymore. You could use a colander but it clogs quickly and lets some of the charcoal pass through. Or you can simply spread it out on cardboard in the driveway and let the sun dry it but sunlight can kill some of the microbes. Optimal biochar rate is about 8% to 10% by volume in the root zone to the surface. Note: the hotter the temperature when making the charcoal the better the product will be. Hot enough to melt aluminum is about right. Or roughly 1400F+ degrees. Use a stainless steel crock pot with lid. You can make 30-50 batches before the pot gets holes in it. If you need large batches, you need to build a TLUD. If you are poor or just plain CHEAP, do the trench method. Of course buying 'Cowboy Charcoal' can be easier but you have to smash it plus the pieces are not uniform in size. You want no bigger than pea size if you can. Powdery size can get washed out of the soil when you water or it rains. Powdery size best for indoor potted plants (but NOT Orchids for some reason).

Your bonsai in the background are works of art ! ❤

We toss charcoal in our chicken run to keep smells down and inoculate the charcoal at the same time

I prefer long videos so that nothing is missed . And I like your ending with closing the doors on your greenhouse at night . This is usually the time of day when I feel finished in my garden , I work in my garden from can till can't. That means from when I can see till when I can't. 😂

The term you were hunting for in the South American experience is Terra Preta. Good clip, kept is simple.

Best information I’ve seen yet on how and why to use biochar - thank you

I add JADAM Microbial Solution to my biochar to activate it, work great😊

This is the best video about bio char.

Lots of great information ! I have been meaning to make a batch but we have been dry here as well . That was a good idea with the tapper . I have been making it for several years now and love using it . I always wanted to filter pond water over it from Spring to Fall and collect all that goodness. Basically a big fish tank filter . You would be cleaning aerating and collecting fertilizer all in one shot . Thanks for sharing and have a great day !

"Terra Pretta" is the name for the Amazonian soil that's full of bio char and beneficial microbes, that is estimated to be thousands of years old!

Great information, have a wonderful day!

Everything I ever carbonized I put it a metal can with a lid on it and burned the can in a fire until it was black all the way through to make the charcoal and then ran it through an activation process which just increases the surface area/ makes it more porous. I have noticed that digging thought pots and containers and even in the ground and the garden that there was small chunks of charcoal mixed in it, I have no clue where it came from but I have never put any in anything.

So if I inderstand correctly urine can replace the worms and compost?

So how do you char without fire?

So.. I used to make a char cloth for use with flint and steel for fire making . Basically it was a clean cotton cloth , inside a clean metal paint can with a lid and a small hole poked in the lid. You set the can over a heat source which did exactly what you described, it was a restricted oxygen burn. The smoke out of the hole stopped ,once burn was complete . You allowed the can to fully cool before opening the lid or the rush of oxygen would allow it to burst into flame and eventually turn the cloth to useless ash. For the technique, the charcloth would be wrapped around the steel and flint applied to make spark into the charcloth and a fire is easily made. Im assuming your charcoal procedure is similar if not exactly the same. Sorry to be long-winded to lead to my question , but could a bag of lump charcoal be used to save time.

Thank you that's a great idea. How much urine would you use?

How deep into the soil should I dig the biochar?

Great video one questis there any plants or vegetables? You do not want to use biochar.?

So how do I inoculate, and can I just buy that way?

So happy to have found your channel you have excellent information very accurate and without a bunch of unnecessary hype . But couldn't you mention anything anecdotes in a humorous way or try smiling 😊. Please

did you say in the dog food section of walmart?

I must have mist the amount of worm casting you add to that 5 galon pale

Can't you just put that in a garbage bag before crushing to keep the dust in the bag?

Informative but respectfully, about eight minutes too long.

Get to the point. I don't have all day,

So happy to have found your channel you have excellent information very accurate and without a bunch of unnecessary hype . But couldn't you mention anything anecdotes in a humorous way or try smiling 😊. Please