How do you charge biochar?

Marc Siegel asked,
"2)  Now im also told you need to charge biochar,  so how do you do that.  Is that taking compost and adding it into the biochar, or do you need to make liquid compost
and add that into the biochar.  "

Adding compost to the char is one way to charge it. Another way is by using a liquid mixture that may contain compost.  

There are many ways to charge biochar.   A good general idea is to add nutritious things to the biochar so it will be filled with nutrition when you put it into the soil. You don't want it to suck all of the nutrition out until it eventually achieves a homeostatic balance. This may set your soil back 1-2 years.  I like to add nutritious materials that are easy for me to get and free or cheap.  I use urine, seaweed, worm castings, rotten fruit, regular compost, rotten wood mycelium, ag lime, and whole wheat flour.  The actual materials you use will probably be different, because you may be able to get things more easily or more cheaply.  Some add compost tea and some add livestock manure, for example.



John S
PDX OR

If you have livestock. you can further stack functions by adding your char to the bedding. I find that a bit of biochar in my chicken coop cuts smells significantly. Meanwhile, the biochar is being charged absorbing excess nutrients. Once finally spent (they last longer thanks to the biochar), the shaving go into the compost, where the char further sucks up nutrients. Once the compost is complete, it gets applied, with the biochar, to wherever it's needed (garden beds, around plants, etc.)

Of course, this process takes a while, It's zero extra work, but it's not fast. If you're looking to charge your quickly, the compost or compost tea methods are great...but IF you have livestock, and IF you're not in an hurry, just integrate the biochar into the existing process, don't both with a separate process.

I think the fastest inoculation method is by drenching in a liquid, but it's more work.  I drench it in, then drench it out to keep the biochar oxygenated, so the right microbes will be living there.

John S
PDX OR

I've seen it as simple as soaking the biochar in urine for a week prior to application.

I do not know it for a fact, but when I read about biochar there is a lot of focus on the pores of the structure that is biochar. Liquid probably gets into pores better than solids which is why I tend to utilize comfrey tea for my biochar inoculation.

I have charged charcoal while making terraces by layering greenery, forest soil (for the microbes), flour (to feed fungal activity), and uncharged charcoal in layers between layers of soil. This resulted in the most fertile soil I have ever seen, and because I had included some comfrey stalks they exploded into greenery beneath the corn.

In winter I have soaked charcoal in whey, and when it comes in contact with soil in pots, it grows all over with fungus. Once the fungus recedes, it seems to begin aiding plant growth.

I have been adding bio char to my chicken waste compost.Each time i clear the coop i add char to the mix,no particular amount,i just add what i have on hand and mix it in the layers as i make the pile.

Heres a pretty good video that really gets into this topic...if you've got 42 minutes.

My typical method is to bucket manure slurry over biochar in large sacks (wool fadges) that hold about half a cubic meter each. The liquid trickles through the material, soaking in as it goes (only partially, since the biochar is already damp from quenching and being out in the weather). This has the advantage of being a completely aerobic process, and the disadvantage that the excess liquid just seeps out the bottom of the sacks and into the ground. This is a bit of a waste of high-value nutrients and also problematic in the form of potential nitrogen pollution of the groundwater.

If I get sufficiently motivated, I might set up a pad with coarse gravel atop a liner or some sheets of corrugated iron with a little slope, and a way to catch the effluent at the bottom. Or I might switch to a system that dunks baskets or similar containers with perforated bottom and sides into a vat of inoculant. Both sound like a lot of work to me, and I have more than enough on my plate at the moment. So, in an effort to keep my production sustainable for myself and for the land it sits on, I don't overdo it: I dilute the slurry and only use two or three 10-litre buckets on a load.

Phil thats a good filtration system for the inoculant.You could use some greenhouse plastic or maybe an old pool liner or other reusable plastic to catch and  funnel the liquid down slope into buckets or some other catchment system.The liquid could be stored or just send it back into the bag again for a more potent dose of bacteria.I understand it will make more work and another chore to do but its not something that has to be done just one that gets done if there is time.

Im not sure if you can overload the char but i know it doesnt take water very well,in fact i believe it repels water for a long time because it floats.Someone correct me if i wrong on this because im just going on what i see.

Recently I want to make some compost out of a pile of oak leaves so I started by putting high nitrogen stuff in a 32 Gallon trash can filled with water, mostly fresh chicken poop and food scraps. I dumped char in there and stirred around. In a couple days I scooped it out to drain and returned the liquid to the can. I chopped the leaves down with an electric mower and wetted the chopped leaves down with the high N liquid. I built a pile with those moist leaves and charged biochar of roughly 7:1 v/v. It's only been 32 hours and the pile is already heating up ( 8 inches down from the top measured 118 F or 48 C, center should be hotter). I am not sure to what extend the biochar helps with aeration and microbe inoculation, but hot composting is sure to fire this way.

Shookeli Riggs wrote:
Im not sure if you can overload the char but i know it doesnt take water very well,in fact i believe it repels water for a long time because it floats.Someone correct me if i wrong on this because im just going on what i see.

My experience is that I take the crushed char and pour liquid inoculant into it.  It floats up a bit, but only partially.  I put a lid on it and let it sit for a few hours the first time.  Then I pour it back out. After that, it has sucked in so much inoculant that it doesn't really float very much.  I keep doing that, without the hour soak, once a day for a week.

John S
PDX OR