Kitchen Garden Forum

I can't say I know much about this subject, but if anyone's up for an experiment follow these links...

http://www.bigbiocharexperiment.co.uk/

http://www.bigbiocharexperiment.co.uk/get-started.html

http://www.bigbiocharexperiment.co.uk/rationale.html

Ahh, traditional Slash and Burn agriculture as practiced since the stone age.
Now due to overuse in conjunction with chainsaws and bulldozers to the detriment of rain forests across the world.
Must be good because our ancestors once did it, next week knap your own garden tools from flints.

And the sad thing is that in the end it won't make any difference to anything. Oil will still be burned, forests destroyed, countryside concreted over, toxic waste dumped in the oceans.......

Still, on the plus side, the people involved in the experiment can feel good about themselves.

This is put out by a university!

ATTENTION! The variety of plant that you use, the time of sewing and the density of sewing must be exactly the same in both the control and biochar plots. However watering frequency, pest and weed control can be conducted as appropriate to the plant growth in each plot.

I take it that my old RAF Housewife will be of use after all these years!
As Peter has said back to slash and burn. Having slashed and burned they then used to move on so where as we supposed to go.
A definite no no for me.
JB.

It would be good if you read the description properly before making spurious comments.

Quote:

What is biochar?
Biochar is a carbon-rich product, created by the slow burning of plant material with little or no oxygen.

That doesn't sound like slash and burn to me.

The term “biochar” was coined by Peter Read to describe charcoal used as a soil improvement.

So,Biochar is a fancy label for Charcoal.Another ruse to get us Gardeners to pay through the nose if we are foolish enough to buy it!!

According to the wiki article on biochar the term was in use in 2006 - Lehmann 2007a (ref 4) before the Peter Read article of 2009 (ref 7). An inconsistency in the article.

The trial offers a free bag of the biochar to use.

Lots of people buy soil improver products and this Oxford University study is trying to find out if the product really does work and therefore worth buying. I would have thought that allotmenteers or anybody with enough space would welcome the chance to join in a properly organised trial.

The wiki article seems to give a comprehensive background to the topic.

It is my understanding that Charcoal is very highly alkali in a PH ranging 9 to 13 on the scale and should be used very sparingly. Most vegetables have a low optimum growing PH e.g. acidic to slightly alkali above PH7.
PH 7 being recognised as Neutral on the scale.
Very few people have the equipment to make charcoal so to me the Bio Char is really going to be just another soil improver on the market.
If so much is known about this subject then what are Oxford University trying to do? What are they trying to find out? According to what I have read so far the Oxford Project will give you a bag of Bio Char in the hopes that the next one you will buy from them!
It is still a no no for me.
JB.

Johnboy You should take part in this trial.


Let me explain. If the only people who take part are those who "know in advance" it's going to work then the result will be a foregone conclusion as a resounding success.
Whereas if people like yourself who have a different point of view take part then the results will be much fairer and more representative of the true effectiveness or not of the product.

I think I would rather buy a product that has been tested fairly by a broad range of users to know how it works, rather than the ones containing "recycled green waste" where you have no idea what they contain and where they come from.

Reading all the blurb it seems too good to be true!

I note that

We are committed to ensuring the use of our products will result in quantifiable emissions reductions. So all our products are Carbon Neutral. One bag of pure biochar contains 1.2 kg of carbon, so your carbon footprint will be reduced by burrying it into the soil.

Wonder if that includes transport emissions?

So, what was done to turn it into charcoal, some form of heat input presumably?

Peter the following wiki link explains. It also explains Colin's "too good to be true" comment as well as how biochar production differs from charcoal production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

So that's a yes, heat input is needed, hope they included that accurately in the carbon calculation.

Hi MikA,
Because just at present I can do little else I have been trying to gen-up on Bio-char and it would appear that it is all tied up with areas that are within the tropical rain forests. see box below

Oxisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest, 15-25 degrees north and south of the Equator.

The more I read the more I become less convinced that this is something we should even entertain.
One paragraph suggests that Bio-char should be buried and the next we are to make a metre square bed and spread it on the surface and grow our crops in it.
I find the entire reading on Bio-char to say the least confusing. But I will persevere.
JB.

Like MikeA i have an open mind on this subject, it appears to have lots of beneficial effects for microbes and fungi, but I agree it would need to be used with caution. It would seem it is preferable to compost it first or to add compost tea to charge it. LOL i notice a lovely crop of fungi where we had a bonfire in the garden and burned woody trimmings that were a bit damp to start with probably resulted in biochar ! Also benefits against transport and process emissions etc need some checking.

http://michiganbiochar.com/?p=678

http://biochar.pbworks.com/w/page/9748043/FrontPage