Bone biochar

Hey Tim and other fellow permies! I’m not sure if I’m using the search feature wrong but I don’t get many results for bone biochar. I smoke a lot of ribs both baby backs and big beef ribs and always thought just the natural makeup of bone would be great hotel for beneficial bacteria and maybe even add a little calcium for the BER problems?

I have seen some research on this topic and I include bones accordingly.  To summarize, they said that some bone helps a lot, and it wasn't just with minerals. There was something structural in it.  They didn't advocate for making bone only biochar.  There was a limit to how much % bone would help, and it wasn't a large %.  Good topic to research further and get more clarification.

John S
PDX OR

We burn our bones because I don't like the idea of the phosphorous they represent going to the landfill! However, I put them loose in our wood-stove rather than in my biochar bins (which also go in the wood-stove) because I've read that bones need a higher temperature to burn than wood does, so I was afraid that my biochar wouldn't get hot enough. Then I sift them out when we shovel the ashes out of the stove.

Yes, more research would be awesome, if you have the time!

One of the reasons that I biochar my bone is because I don't want it to smell like meat.  I'm worried that animals will want to dig it up and damage my garden.   Out of the biochar oven, they are crumbled up.  They don't smell like meat.  I have had no problems with animals digging up biocharred bones.

John S
PDX OR

I pyrolyse all bones, eggshells, and mussel shells in pans in the wood fire. The process makes them odorless, as John mentions, and they're easy to crush afterwards -- even big knuckle bones can be crumbled by hand.

I burn most of our bones (after making soup stock!) in the woodstove just because it is running most winter days, vs the once a month or two biochar burns (see link below).  Although, I wouldn’t worry about throwing them in a biochar pile.