So I’v been hearing a lot about this whole biochar business so I decided to investigate it a bit with some on-line videos on utube and watched some good vids regarding " Tera Pretta" the soil down in S. America that’s the richest soil in the world and how it was made thousands of years ago and it really pique my interest so why not make my own char? Next step is to charge it with compost and/or worm casting tea!
This is “the” charcoal in most of africa .
I could see a hundred of sites as that, daily…
Ds
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How many use this in there soil mix and have the results been significant?
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One reply? Is there really no interest of biochar added to ones planting container?
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I have some store-bought biochar, uncharged. I throw some in my worm bin every-so-often in the hopes that my compost will have charged bits in the end, but haven’t tried it in my plants (uncharged) as of yet.
I wasn’t sure if this thread was going to be biochar-specific, or if it was a general thread about manly wild west plant experiments. If you want people to chime in with their biochar experience, might be worth changing the thread topic to something biochar-specific.
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Thanks @oranje will do a name change!
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I’v heard that uncharged biochar in soil could be detrimental for the first crop it may take a season or so!
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Here’s my bio-charlie I’m gonna use to make my biochar and rice husk char. It’s made from 26g steel ducting with end caps. One side has a series of 3mm holes drilled along it to allow some out gassing so I don’t have a big pipe bomb lol
The issue with non mature or non inoculated biochar is that it’s 99-100% carbon, so when added to soil mixes or to beds it acts much like wood chips and bark pulling the plant avaible nutrients. The microbes after taking up residencey proceed to use it like turtle said “as a home and food source”.
This is why places like builasoil sell inoculated biochar. Once the “life” stock is in there you don’t get the nutrient thieving seen with fresh char.
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Sweet lookin man I assume that goes directly into a burn barrel then, something like a TLUD burning system?
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The crop and soil division at my school Colorado State University is doing research on Biochar in the crop and soil science division.
The exact action of Biochar is still being researched. It seems to aid soils that have been fertilized with manures and nitrates and assists in the action of using those nutrients.
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Just curious as your location when you speak of CSU? You live in FC?
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I believe it stems from the info here:
Videos regarding " The lost city Eldorado" also touch on this soil building phenomenon
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I make biochar in a TLUD (Top Load Up Draft) stove. I then charge it with fish emulsion. This is then dried and added with other amendments to my soil. I can’t say I notice a difference because I added many other amendments.
Next is the rice hull biochar. I’m not sure if it will work in the TLUD or if i will have to do it on my grill in a paint can with air holes. Either way, it will be a silica source.
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That is seriously the way I learned about biochar. I watched the documentary. There’s farmers in that area that have never added fertilizer to their fields. For 40 years! But they also have feet of biochar in their soils.
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Will lay out my experiment, results? How can I tell…
My bokashi bucket lower chamber collects the leachate and didn’t want
liquid sloshing around so dumped enough activated charcoal pellets
(leftovers from DIY fan filter) to soak up the liquid.
After a few weeks when it was time to prepare containers, they both
got a layer of it about 2 inches up from the bottom along with the other
inputs, kelp, neem, CalMag, humus, etc… lots of good stuff when it
gets roots into those areas.
Had a free sample size of this: Vital Char Soil Builder
The ‘soil guy’ recommended it for rebuilding and reusing soil.
Really like some of the sustainable products this company carries.
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Bio char is an excellent host for microbes. It has been used for thousands of years. For a fun read, check out terra preta; an excellent example of living soil.
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Thanks for that @GrowerGoneWild. Sounds right on. My research concurs. 
Anyone making biochar from cannabis stems?
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With the recent reactivation of some recent biochar threads I decided to cary on with my char experiment. Awhile back I decided to make some char , why? Cause I’m a guy that likes to play with fire ! No I’m not a pyro or an arsenisit or anything like that. So after I made my char I decided to quick quench it in water left it out side for a couple of weeks and of coarse if froze solid , brought it in thawed it and decided to work with it!
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