[Terrapreta] Permaculture and Biochar Development - Qld Australia

[Tom Miles]

Barry,


Thank you for a great post. I've taken the liberty of putting it on the
Terra preta Website with images at:

http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/batchelordec607

 

Regards,

 

Tom

 

 

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Barry at Biochar
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 7:42 PM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Terrapreta] Permaculture and Biochar Development - Qld Australia

 

Hi All

 

First I would like to introduce myself, My name is Barry Batchelor and I'm a
Permaculture Designer living on a small scale developing sustainable farm
30km North of Brisbane Australia. I'm one of a handful of Permaculturists
who are using or testing Biochar in their food systems in Australia.

 

Permaculture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

 

While my talent is not the written word, I hope to show off some of the work
I have been doing here, this is where my talent is and where my time is
spent.

 

Note: most of the photo's are 200-400k

 

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/food_forest.jpg

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/polyculture.jpg

 

This area is the main focus of my permaculture development and is classed as
Zone 1 and 2 in permaculture terms. The 2000m2 area is developed as a
polyculture food producing environment, it contains many fruit and nut
trees, vegi gardens and many different layers of food. This area is 100%
organic and will produce most of our food in years to come, it was started 4
years ago from a compacted soil horse paddock. I make about 10000-15000 lt
of compost each year in the gardens by hand. I have been adding used coffee
waste to this area for years, I add between 50-100lt per week which I get
from a local organic coffee shop, while I'm not sure if the charred carbon
elements contained in coffee grounds break down or not, it has been an
excellent additive to my soils and it's what got me interested in Biochar.

 

I now produce most of my char onsite here with a 44 gallon drum, using
smaller chunks of dried timber, most of the larger logs are added to the
food forest as edging or for slowing water run off. I'm always getting my
hands on timber from local's around here, I'm also trying to setup a deal
with out local country fire crew to let me access timber or char from
controlled burn off's.

 

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/compost.jpg

 

One of the most impressive things I have seen in my composts is how worms
love the added biochar, in a 400lt bin I have noticed up to 80% of the worms
are focused in the layers which contain the char, I feel worms play a
massive roll in moving char about. As I also char beef bones I'm sure the
added calcium attracts them. I have noticed this over the last 4 compost
batches I have made.

 

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/biochar_brew1.jpg

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/biochar_brew2.jpg

 

I have now started making liquid brew's which to an organic gardener's nose
smells great. This batch was brewed for about two weeks with many different
inputs including worm farm liquid waste. The char and bio mud was drained
out and added to my vegi gardens and the remaining liquid was mixed 50/50
with water and added to my citrus trees, The potash from the char making
process, plus fine amounts of char and added fresh humus which slipped past
my filter looked like a great root feed for them.

 

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/vegi_garden2.jpg

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/vegi_garden1.jpg

 

This is fresh biochar brew and biochar compost which is added on top of my
vegi garden soil, the soil is already pretty good with heaps of added humus
and a pretty balanced mineral level, I have noticed more worm and bug
activity in the soil since adding the char, I have also noticed a better
water holding capacity, all soil here is covered with a thick layer of mulch
to reduce sun damage and dry out.

 

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/western_tree_block.jpg

 

This is a new area of native trees which were planted out with a compost and
biochar mix added into the drilled holes, growth has been out standing so
far but at this stage I feel that is to do with the tree guard system from
http://www.treesforearth.com.au/ I'll let the website explain the use of
pink, but I know they have worked well here compared to other areas planted
without the use of them. This photo shows about three months growth from
small tube stock. I'm sure the 150mm of rain a week after planting had
nothing to do with the amount of growth.  ;-)

 

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/biochar_swale.jpg

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/biochar_swale2.jpg

http://www.biochar.net/image_uploads/biochar/biochar_swale3.jpg

 

This is a two month old 250m long swale which was developed to slow and
catch water and create a feed belt for our three horses, I added a 44 gallon
drum of Biochar to the downward bank along the entire length and legume live
stock fodder trees have been seeded into this, I have been impressed with
the growth on the bank of the stabilising grasses which I also seeded. The
swale fills and over flows with just 15mm of rain, I noted last week a 36mm
heavy rain event increased our dam level by over 35cm because of the swales
which makes all the work making them worth while. Please note swales are
built on contour and do not flow they are design to fill up and soak into
the soil, water that over flows them spills into lower swales or from dam to
dam, Permaculture teaches swale design and P.A Yeoman uses these techniques
in his Keyline teachings. http://www.keyline.com.au/

 

For a more in-depth look at my swale and the construction process and costs
goto http://www.biochar.net/swale/swale.htm (please note this site/link will
break if you use firefox)

 

Well that's my show and tell for 2007 and as I do enjoy most of the
informative posts I'll keep reading and posting when I have something to add
from my non science simple farming background  :-)

 

Regards

 

Barry Batchelor

Permaculture Designer

www.biochar.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20071205/a4bc9df2/attachment-0001.html