permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 1:12 AM, Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
wrote:

> It’s important to generate it as a by product, and not cut down trees or
> other biomass simply to turn it into biochar. Used in a forest fuel
> reduction program it makes a lot of sense; you’re already cutting the wood,
> and it goes into the soil as long-lasting carbon.


Thanks for making it clear that biochar can be made efficiently and without
generating pollution with the right equipment.
Creating it as a byproduct is easily done when using woodstove heat in
winter. The older heavy duty stoves are ideal for this, Fisher, Virginian
and Timberline are in that category. If you pack the firebox with wood for
a long (but not smouldering) overnight burn charcoal will be generated as
lumps of partially burned firewood settle into the ashes and get covered
protecting them from high heat. When you clean the stove sift the ashes
through some kind of screen and put the charcoal into a metal garbage can
to store until it is used in the garden. Put the ashes around trees.
Pulverizing the charcoal might be a good idea before application on soil.
Take a small log as pestle and a 5 gallon metal can as mortar and turn the
biochar lumps into a powder and granule aggregate. I would be interested in
knowing if pulverizing the biochar reduces its effectiveness.

LL.
-- 
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
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