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

18,700

Did two burns since the last post, the smaller of the two (pictured) consisted of some starter brush and around 1.5 cords of bone dry yellow pine out of my wood shed.  I decided to char the clear splittable wood in my shed and replace it with knotty wood that won’t char well.  I also placed an eight foot section of old six inch stove pipe on the ground from the edge to the center of the pile.  I used the pipe to light the pile right at the core, where I typically have trouble getting a complete char.  I figured lighting the pile and ducting air to the center would help.  I did indeed get a more complete burn, But, hard to say if it was the pipe or the bone dry pine.  Almost certainly one of our hottest burns ever.  

The second pile contained a large amount of kindling sized cherry and maple, also a first.  On top of that we added a massive amount of bamboo from winter feeding.  Maybe one of our longest burns ever.  Got a really nice complete char and an enormous yield.  Looking forward to the numbers on this one!

5/24/26

18,935

Got the rest of the “little” pile spread.  Based on the total, I have close to 800 gallons worth left in my woodshed.  Supposed to rain a good bit tomorrow, so I am not sure how much I will be able to get done, but hoping to finish sooner vs later.

Gray Henon wrote:18,700

Did two burns since the last post, the smaller of the two (pictured) consisted of some starter brush and around 1.5 cords of bone dry yellow pine out of my wood shed.  I decided to char the clear splittable wood in my shed and replace it with knotty wood that won’t char well.  I also placed an eight foot section of old six inch stove pipe on the ground from the edge to the center of the pile.  I used the pipe to light the pile right at the core, where I typically have trouble getting a complete char.  I figured lighting the pile and ducting air to the center would help.  I did indeed get a more complete burn, But, hard to say if it was the pipe or the bone dry pine.  Almost certainly one of our hottest burns ever.  

The second pile contained a large amount of kindling sized cherry and maple, also a first.  On top of that we added a massive amount of bamboo from winter feeding.  Maybe one of our longest burns ever.  Got a really nice complete char and an enormous yield.  Looking forward to the numbers on this one!

5/24/26

I can feel the heat coming off the photo, I swear...

When I build a pile, I've found that having a hollow core really helps with the quality of the burn. What I like to do is use some of the bigger lengths to make a sort of jenga tower/log cabin framework about 1 m square and as tall as about 1/3 of the intended pile height. When the "walls" are complete I lay long pieces to make a "roof" and then build the pile around and over this. What happens is as the pile burns down from the top and eventually collapses into the middle, there isn't a mass of unburnt pieces at the bottom. This makes for a more complete process.

19,385

My son’s any my schedules lined up enough for him to help me for an hour.  We were able to get 15 loads spread out of the large pile, and still lots to go!

19,685

Other son was able to help me for a while and we got 10 loads spread.  Still more to go!

19,985

All spread! New single pile record!  1050 gallons.  This was absolutely NOT my intent.  The bamboo piled up as I was busy with other things.  Then we were in a drought so I just kept piling material.  The burn and spreading were both exhausting.  I much prefer piles that yield around 300-500 gallons.  They seem to match our time and energy levels pretty well.