[Terrapreta] Backyard Biochar

[Tom Miles]

Doug,

 

Thanks for the soil photos. I have taken the liberty of putting them on the
Terra Preta website at:

http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/claytonepridaapr07

 

We do not allow photos on the terra preta list in order to prevent spam. I
do let some photos pass through after reviewing them.

 

The images of the improvement in soil structure after two years are very
helpful. They are great examples of the soil amendment benefits of charcoal.


 

The example of Peter's chicken litter tests is not a very good one. Chicken
litter is an excellent fertilizer. You can see that in the many studies that
my associate, Bert Bock, Phd., (http://www.brbock.com ) has done on the use
of litters and fertilizers as a fertilizer. Bert is a soil scientist who I
have worked with on a couple of animal waste to energy projects including
chicken litter. When you pyrolyze litter most of the nutrients like abundant
potassium and phosphorous stay with the char so it will make the charcoal
look very good. It will be interesting to see what results Peter gets when
he uses his char made from bark.

See: http://www.brbock.com/br_bock_links.html

 

 

Many thanks

 

Tom 

      

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Douglas Clayton
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 5:20 PM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Backyard Biochar

 

Tom,

I see no one has responded yet so I'll throw in some second hand reports.
>From a conversation with Dr. Peter Fransham of Advanced BioRefinery in
Ottawa. He told me that some char he produced from chicken litter waste
(this would be from a system he did for Renewable Oil International) when
scattered on a lawn, in one week, produced grass 1" taller and darker green
than the adjacent untreated area . He thought there would have been some
nitrogen still in the charcoal. 

Seems like Dr. Fransham has been at this just about as long as anyone and
has some systems ready to go into production. But like most I think the
awareness of the value of the charcoal is new.
http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/


I'm sure everyone has seen the photos at Eprida:
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4


I took the below pictures when I visited Danny Day at Eprida last month. The
first shot is of the red Georgia clay before and after charcoal had been
tilled in two years prior. The second shows some "structure" as a result of
the charcoal treatment. The untreated had become very hard (compacted).
Three and four illustrate how tilth was improved.  In both shots Danny is
pushing the device (penetrometer??) with a force of 300#/ sq. in.

and it is obvious how much looser the soil in the fourth image is!

See Doug's Photos inked at:
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/claytonepridaapr07

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070406/95f6bcc5/attachment.html