My biochar production tally thread.

14,580

Second pile was much better!

5/14/25

14,730

Felt like the last burn was too green, so wanted to give this one plenty of time to dry.  Got the piles built in late May, which was followed by a very wet summer.  We finally got a dry week followed by a bit of rain for burning.  The piles seemed to burn well and I spread some tonight.  While it was raining every day we managed to get all the storm felled trees bucked and split.  Still need to reduce them to kindling and let them dry out, but things are moving along.  Took this pic before we were finished, probably added another 30% to the pile.  

wow, a lot of work there!  Kudos.

15,090

Got the larger of the two piles spread.  One more to go….

Found a better pic of the woodpile.

9/6/25

15,480

Got both piles spread and started building new ones.  Would love to burn as soon as we get them built, but going to give them a while to dry.

15,900

Got a quick turn around and favorable weather, a long dry spell to assist in drying the wood, followed by good rain for burning.  The first pile we built burned really well, the second didn’t have quite as long to dry and didn’t completely char the core, but still produced over 400 gallons of char.  Still need to spread the better of the two piles.

9/27/25

15,980

Squeezed a little spreading in between other obligations…

16,415


All spread, back to piling!

16,990

Big white pine burn, most of the remaining windfall from Helene.  Topped off one of the two piles with a bunch of bamboo that died after flowering.  Neither pile charred the center very well, the huge piles just exacerbated the wet wood problem.  Still made a ton of char, maybe a new record.  Got the smaller of the two piles spread.  One more to go…

11/4/25

17,710

New burn record and new single pile (720) record!

18,130

Back in January, we charred a bunch of bamboo we used for feed, then got snow/ice that hung around for a while and impeded spreading,  Finally got it spread today.  In the meantime, the bamboo pile has grown to enormous proportions.  Hope to burn again soon.

18,550

After a very long dry spell, and burning ban, we finally got enough rain to burn.  Everyone else was at work, so I did it solo.  Chose the smaller of the two piles, hoping it would be manageable. The burn was quite an undertaking as there was a bunch of bamboo and brush that needed to be added to the fire as it burned. I got around 95% on, but towards the end, had trouble keeping the pile covered and was losing coals, so I decided to quench it with just a bit of brush left.  Spread it today, solo as well.  Very doable with a break around halfway through the pile.  Still have the big pile to go when we get some more rain and I have some help available.

5/11/26

Still the champ.
John S
PDX OR