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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] if there were a benefit to deforestation...
  • Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:29:32 -0500

Mathew Waehner wrote:
Burning creates smoke, a pollutant

Proper biochar kilns produce very little smoke, because they consume nearly
all of the combustion byproducts, similar to a rocket stove.

and materials burned should be cold composted and then returned to the
soil using appropriate tillage methods


That doesn't work well in the tropics, because soil organisms degrade the
humus and rain washes it away too quickly. Biochar lasts longer in soil.

I will have to politely disagree, Matthew. You want those hyperactive soil microorganisms and the effect they have on raw biomass destined for garden as an amendment to increase SOM. Compost that biomass in situ, i.e. on the garden beds, in rotation, i.e. stip cropping; crop one bed while the other is processing massive additions of compost as mulch
to be incorporated into the soil. Its not going to wash away, it will leach into the garden soil as it breaks down, nothing lost.

As I understand it, the main *proven* benefit of biochar is that it provides
cation exchange capacity. Some soils in temperate climates are in dire need
of increased CEC, others have different needs.

That must be the adsorption factor that biochar adds significantly to through its fine micropore structure.

From the pictures I've seen on your blog, Larry, you are working good
peidmont clay. That has good cation exchange capacity, but needs organic

Actually it is Georgeville silt loam, a red soil that is highly permeable; won't hold water good enough to build a pond in it.

matter to build soil structure. Biochar probably wouldn't help much there.

Maybe not. It would be interesting to try some on one bed.

But on the sandy soils of Eastern NC, biochar could enhancce soil fertility
significantly by holding onto nutrients.

Absolutely, in that sandy loam in the Coastal Plain.

LL




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