[Terrapreta] scored

[David Yarrow]

you are about to discover the power of char to hold substances inside its 
micropore matrix.  danny day showed this at EPRIDA trying to flush ammonium 
nitrate out of biochar where it had been embedded by vapor deposition.  even 
after a dozen washings, ammonium nitrate was still being tenaciously held 
deep inside the char's micropore sponge -- slowly leaching out in each 
successive rinsing.

ever try to wash a table with a sink sponge that someone has saturated with 
liquid soap concentrate?  leaves behind a trail of streaks and bubbles.  and 
then repeatedly wash and squeeze the sponge to rinse the soap out?

so, similarly -- worse, actually -- your free char is fully saturated with 
alcohol and other highly concentrated -- and thus toxic -- residues of 
whiskey making.  just the alcohol will do.  at parts per billion, alcohol is 
high energy food for cellular fuel cycles.  at parts per thousand, it's 
poisonous.

and it will take time and persistence to get those innermost pore spaces 
flushed of their toxic excesses.  soaking, washing and rinsing will only get 
you so far.  heating will help, but it will take sustained heating for a 
long time with adequate air flow.

ultimately, you'll have to rely on microbes to get inside the micropores and 
eat stuff up and transform it.  which means inoculation and rest time for 
mold hyphae to grow and penetrate the char's micro-structure.  someone 
suggested mycorrhyzae as a proven biotool for such a job, and widely 
available for commercial purchase.

molds and fungi like warmer temperatures, but lying in direct sunlight is 
likely too hot -- to far beyond their optimum 80-90 degrees.  good quality 
compost, EM, BD preps, or compost tea are other possible inoculation 
strategies.  instead of full sun, light shade under some trees seems a wiser 
site to let your char sit and mellow out for a few weeks.  a thinner wider 
bed will be more effective than a heap.

for a green & peaceful planet,
David Yarrow
44 Gilligan Rd, E Greenbush, NY 12061
www.championtrees.org
www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org
www.farmandfood.org
www.SeaAgri.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Joyner" <jimstoy at dtccom.net>
To: "Terra Preta" <Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 12:33 PM
Subject: [Terrapreta] scored


>I just scored a ton of charcoal! It's all ground to a powder to pea
> size. Just one little drawback: it has Jack Daniels whiskey in it.
>
> They filter all the fresh made whiskey through sugar maple wood charcoal
> (then it gets stored in charred white oak barrels). They wash the
> charcoal with water to get as much of the alcohol out of it as they can.
> They normally make charcoal briquettes out of the charcoal left over but
> I convinced them they should give me a ton to experiment with.
> (Actually, they charged me $30). So, now I have a ton of charcoal with
> the very sweet smell of Jack Daniels.
>
> The fellow who loaded my truck ask me, "whatcha gon with it?" I told him
> and he grimaced. Said they used to mix the charcoal with wood chips and
> apply it as mulch until they found that it "kilt all the shrubs".
>
> So, I've got the charcoal setting out in the sun, evaporating the
> alcohol out of it, hoping it be will be OK when I put it in the soil.
> Any comments or suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jim
>
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