>From Garden Web: Fayea comments on her/his Cowboy charcoal use:
I have tried biochar in my vegetable garden - quite casually and without scientific measurements, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. I crushed Cowboy charcoal (bought at Fred Meyers in Oregon). It was a very labor intensive messy chore. I put the lumps on a board under the empty bag and pounded with a sledge hammer. The board was in the garden so the powder was not wasted as it flew off the board. I rec you protect your airways with some type of mask because the dust is in the air. I added about a 1/4 - 1/2 inch layer to one of my pepper beds. That bed needed less water and produced larger, thicker walled, juicier peppers than the other beds which were otherwise composted and amended the same. Even if Cowboy charcoal is not the best, it sure seemed to be good. I especially liked the reduced tendency of the plants to wilt on hot afternoons. I only had to water that bed about half as much, and yes, it is equally "well drained". There are now federal grants available for medium scale applications of biochar technology (the latest Farm Bill). Here is a link to a large scale biochar operation using chicken litter as the source: http://www.biochar-international.org/projectsandprograms/memberprojects.html Rosewater writes about Australian 'how to" directions: The September/October 2008 edition of the Australian "Organic Gardener" magazine had an article by Peter Cundall on biochar which included the following instructions on how to make it from charcoal produced by a slow-combustion wood heater: 1. After the charcoal has cooled, add wet coconut coir to keep the moisture in and help absorb dust particles. 2. To crush the charcoal, use 2 hefty firewood logs, 1 of them with a fairly flat surface. 3. Spread a plastic sheet over an area of level ground, with the flat piece of wood laid on top, near the centre. 4. Thickly spread the charcoal pieces over the flat top of the wood and give them a good thumping, using the butt of the second log. It takes only minutes to make half a bucket of crushed charcoal. 5. Into this, mix one part coarse sand and garden (or potting) soil to double the bulk. If leafy or other nitrogen hungry vegetables are to be grown, add 2 litres of water into which 1 tablespoon of fish emulsion and another of seaweed concentrate is dissolved. When this is poured into the charcoal mix, a stiff black slurry, thickly dotted with fragments of charcoal is created. It can be stored or used straight away. Kate - The more you do, the more you CAN do! - Lucille Ball -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090130/752fb6ec/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
