Help with a basic,old school setup

[benjitsu]

I have decent land around here, lots of wildgrasses, weeds, and available firewood( seasoned an unseasoned).

 

I want to dig a hole, start a fire, put in some weeds, wait until the smoke is "less white" ,indicatig that the moisture is mostly burned away, then toss some dirt on it, and smoulder it. I would love to use it on my own land, give it to friends, or sell a bit, if the scale is reasonable...

 

Any cautions, hints, etc?

 

Thanks!

 

Post here, and email me as well if you dont mind!

benjamingbrant at hotml

PS It seems like I want to grind up the char, mix it with some kind of compost, and maybe some kind of bacteria? I don't mind adding some kind of nitrogen (to feed the "wee beasties"?), but I would like to keep it cheap and natural (bone meal is expensive, isnt it?"

 

Thanks again!

[mavrickjohn]

You've got the basic idea. Yes after grinding the ground charcoal needs to be charged with nitrogen. I use the cheep-est form available to me my urine. .Fresh cut grasses is another source you might use. Fish waste or aquatic weed can be used also. Check out organic web sites to find other nitrogen sources. After abortion has taken place the bio-char can be added to compost and then the soil. It seems to work better that way the compost helps to quickly charge the bio-char with fungi and bacteria. The alternative is to add the bio-char to the soil and add compost at the same time or later. The bio-char will become the home to fungi and bacteria but the soil does not contain the numbers and diversity of wee beasties found in densities in compost

[benjitsu]

I picked a spot covered in dense, tall weeds, cleared it, dug a shallow pit (only 6 inches because there used to be a gravel driveway. I used some newspaper and carboard to start a fire, added some logs, and once it was going, topped it off with all the weeds I collected. I let it burn for a ocuple of hours, and now have toppped it off with some dirt, it is a mound, and I dug some holes into the bottom for airflow (until the smoke changes colour). It is a pretty ghetto setup so far, we will see what kind of char i get out of it. I think allowing the weeds (or whatever green matter) to dry a bit would have been more useful, easier to burn, but fewer plants resins?I dont think I want super dry stock, do I?

 

I have read more since I started, i have an old stainless steel sink (2.5 feet deep) with a convenient drain hole in the bottom, maybe I should rig something up with this?

Any thoughts?

[Turtle]

... It is a pretty ghetto setup so far, we will see what kind of char i get out of it. I think allowing the weeds (or whatever green matter) to dry a bit would have been more useful, easier to burn, but fewer plants resins? I dont think I want super dry stock, do I?

 

well, what you call ghetto, i call git-n-er-done. :hihi: why acquire material and build something you don't really need? less is more. :hihi:

 

as to dryness of material, the dryer the better it seems to me as any moisture is taking away heat energy that otherwise would go to driving off the other compounds. might be only of matter though of taking longer with wetter material than dry to arrive at charcoal. :shrug:

 

thanks for keeping us posted. :) ;)

[benjitsu]

I have filled in the holes that have developed in the top of the mound as they appear.The smoke is still white, as near as I can tell. The pile is probably only 2-3 feet in diameter, so I have cut the air holes I dug in the base down to one.I saw one piece of charcoal at least by peering inside, I have a feeling that the wood I used has gone to ash, but I had written it off as fuel, and didn't use very much. I see some bio oil residue anywhere the smoke escapes out of the pile. I think I wuld like to find some simple method of capturing some of this next time...maybe news paper or cheap cloth (old tshirts) covering the holes where the smoke escapes?

[mavrickjohn]

To see some ways of making bio-char check out youtube.com and search bio-char and terra-preta there is one where the oils are collected with an extremely long tube used as a condenser. One of the easiest retorts you can make i found at this site.

MAGH CM-II NATURAL DRAFT T-LUD WOODGAS STOVE

I plan to make one out of an old hot water heater and use it as a barbecue as well. I don't know if it will work but I'm going to make a second top half that will have a chimney and I'm going to put a trap in it where charcoal can be loaded and then charged with the smoke vinegar as the smoke travels through the chimney.

[Michaelangelica]

Check the pH of your char before applying. some can be vaey alkaline, depending on feedstock and methods of prduction.

It MAY need to be countered with some dolomite when applying to your soil?

[benjitsu]

Thanks, M...I had read about PH issues but never really thought about them

I do in fact have a (liquid) PH testing pen...would mixing some char up into water and measuring PH of the solution work?

What PH am I aiming for, just something close to my current soil PH?

 

I have pics of my dirt pile furnace, as well as my resultant tote bin full of charcoal bits, and wheelbarrow full of dirt/small bits of charcoal. I just have to find somewhere to host them so I can put them up here.

 

I haven't even smashed up my charcoal yet, but if I can get a day without rain, the rest of my yard waste should be a lil drier for round two.