BIOCHAR EXPERIMENTS
I’ve made a lot of charcoal on the old homestead for amending the soil, but only a fraction has been used for comparative studies and specific experimentation. That fact is more due to not having enough time and energy than anything, because there are actually a lot of experiments I want to do. Some of them are very large scale and some are small scale.
The aims of these various experiments are roughly as follows: to find out ideal quantities to use and depths to use it to, long term effects of char on soil fertility in wild uncultivated meadows, systems for the conversion of large areas to char amended soils (especially without importing biomass, but rather growing it on the ground being amended.), effects and penetration of surface broadcast biochar v.s. dug in char, & crushing and sifting methods.
Most of these experiments require long term observation of at least a few years, up to as long as possible. As usual, the number one thing I need to do these experiments is long term access to land that includes plenty of biomass to char. I’ve already installed thousands of gallons of biochar here on the old homestead that I will now either have to leave behind or dig up the soil and take it with me, which I might! It’s a lot of work to make that much char, but it’s also a lot of work and bulk to move it along with the 90% soil it is now mixed with! Regardless of that, I’m not burying in any significant amount of char anywhere I’m not pretty sure I’ll be able to observe test results for a couple decades or as long as I’m alive. For now, I continue to make and stockpile char and use it in potting mixes. The rest will have to wait.
There is also a social aspect. I’m don’t do this stuff just for my own sake. It is yields interesting information that is best shared with as many people as possible. I’m not as interested in what some might refer to as hard proof, as I am with discovering compelling preliminary results that people might find compelling enough to cause them to engage in their own pursuits exploring the making and use of char. With any gardening and farming, soil, climate, resource, crop, char quality and style differences are major confounders. The relevance of data from mypoic, highly controlled studies may not be as relevant as it seems when actually applied in a complex of these many variables. It may be very interesting and compelling, but so may any persons compelling results and anecdotes. Both have more value in encouraging personal experimentation. I’d like to further test and promote very simple experiments that can yield useful data to any individual, site and growing scenario. Currently, the approach I see the great majority of people using is very haphazard and centers around a fear of using raw, uncharged char in soils. Typically, char is charged up with nutrients and then used in random amounts. This approach yields very little compelling information if it’s examined closely. Even one simple controlled experiment can yield very useful information to proceed on about effectiveness and quantities to use.
Like most of what I do and poke around at, this is a model of personal involvement, engagement and reservation of judgement, v.s. a belief paradigm. In other words, instead of buying into an idea and then trying it, we can take what is compelling as a reason to explore the possibilities. There is for instance a widespread religious adherence and belief in precharging biochar. I’m not against it in any way and do it myself in some instances. But charging of biochar is a huge confounding factor in making relevant observations. There is also a similar religious adherence to the idea of making char in a certain way. In my experience, any sacred cow like that which many people are adamant about, but few of those people have actually flouted to see what happens, is probably many parts bullshit and is worthy of violating to find out what is really up with it. Biochar is a perfect scenario in which to encourage spectral, contextual thinking, and highlight how little we usually approach things in that way, v.s. in a dogmatic way. I have one particular experiment I’d like to do more of, give a name, and then encourage the use of it as a first step for anyone exploring the use of char in soils. I’d like to come up with one or two more as well.