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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Burning Issue of Biochar

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: pete <pete.rout@virgin.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Burning Issue of Biochar
  • Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:09:52 +0000

Well said Paul
Why do people want to complicate things.
Pete

Not to sound argumentive, but in my view Ken is 100% correct. On average, our agricultural land is sorely depleted of organic matter. Now Ken and I both concur on no-till and for the reason you name, among others. You mention the expense to process those huge mounds of "waste." A little reflection would bring us back down to earth on it. Biochar cannot be cost effective on any significant scale. But we do have enormous amounts of organic waste in this society, and composting it or working it into the agricultural soil doesn't require serious expense or burn fossil fuel directly or send up smoke pollution. The whole biochar thing reminds me of a book, "The $64 Tomato". I've never seen anything about biochar that improves on the cost effective composting and organic techniques of pioneers from Sir Albert to the Rodales.

>The question was "Which would be better for the soil, biochar or
>chippings?" If done properly, the BioChar is much better and longer
>lasting. How else can we deal with the sticks and brush that even the
>goats won't eat?

False choice. Wood chips don't belong in the soil anyway; unlike cellulose, lignin takes too long to break down and robs nitrogen from growing plants. Wood chips make great mulch, and mulch pays for itself in weed control, yield, soil improvement, and irrigation costs. We have to take in the Big Picture.

We're always trying to improve our techniques and materials but the soil basics remain the same. Sir Albert didn't have our UV greenhouse plastic in his time, when he was developing the Indore method of composting in weeks instead of months. But I'm glad to have it today. I still search the secondhand stores for books I don't have yet from Rodale Press, tho I have dozens of them already. No sense in reinventing the wheel.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net





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