Biochar
Lock carbon into your soil by making biochar at home !
So much is talked about carbon & how it is causing the climate crisis we are witnessing. There’s much we can do, like, cycling, recycling, refusing plastic packaging, driving electric and the big one … Becoming flight free.
One easy answer lies in leaving oil and gas in the ground and returning carbon to the soil. Carbon embedded in the logs we use for cooking, hot water and home heating can be usefully returned to the soil via our compost heaps as charcoal.
There, in the form of charcoal- something amazing happens. The heap’s fungal & bacterial ecosystem populates the tiny charcoal pores with the vital good fungi & bacteria. When topdressed onto your veg patch, this will spark a chain reaction creating the nutrients your veg plants need to grow healthily. Helping to fend off pests & diseases AND providing you with nutrient rich veg.
The best part is how cheap & easy it is to make:
1: Take two tin cans, crimp one so that the second fits over the rim of the first.
2: Pack one can with dry firewood, pop the 2nd can over the top and place in the hot fire. (Don’t worry nothing will explode).
3: Pack a few dry small logs around to create the heat necessary to pyrolise the wood inside the cans. There should be the same amount of wood inside the can as there is around it for maximal efficiency.
4: After 15 minutes flames will emit from between the cans, and you will benefit from the heat of burning woodgas, while making perfect biochar AND more nutritious veg.
5: Then after 30-40 minutes when flames are no longer emitting from the cans and the fire is safe, remove the paired cans with tongs. They will be hot.
6: DO NOT SEPARATE THE CANS. Leave cans to cool completely on a fireproof surface, and do not open as the charcoal could spotaneously ignite.
7: The next day, or 12 hours later, empty biochar out of cans, crush to 1 inch chunks & spread evenly into the compost heap.
8: After many uses, holes may develop in the cans. If the holes that develop are too large, oxygen can get in, preventing the formation of biochar, and the cans should be replaced.After a year of maturing the compost containing the biochar will be ready to thinly spread over your veg garden, and you will be enjoying the benefits of a lost art, fit for confronting modern day challenges.
Call Oz on 07920447550, or email us on greentech@echengineering.co.uk for help and supply of ready crimped tins, plus lots of tips for a greener lifestyle.
Tins – £1 each. Tongs: £10 each.Pickup from Yatton, Winford or Hallatrow. Contact us to get a date or time.
The video above is not an affiliate, but it is a very good explanation
Below are a few useful links: