I was just starting to stack my wood and in about 24 hours I went from wondering if I should do the cordwood challenge again, to planning the next one and starting to prime potential recruits! Now I'm all excited about fixing up some axes and getting back to chopping... Pretty challenging, but so rewarding! Just think about if for now :)
September Homestead Walkaround, Some Apple Tasting, Apple Seedling Fruits and a Cute Rattlesnake
Making Top Shelf Seed Starting Mix From Common Stuff
This is how I make my seedling mix. I rarely put anything purchased in it and It's great stuff. Seedlings grow well and can get quite large before they start running out of nutrients. Because of the high organic matter, it holds water, yet drains quickly and remains well aerated.
Tending the Leekage, Bulgarian Giant Leek Project, Weeding, Cultivation and Mulching
Some overdue tending of my seed leek project. From here out I just need to keep fertilizing and watering till spring when I select the best leeks and allow them to go to seed. The seed should be ready for sale in fall of 2017 Related videos linked below.
Some related videos...
Preserving Hides for Tanning, Pros and Cons of Salting, Drying and Freezing
Here is a short video about preserving skins for tanning. I demonstrate salting and talk about other options. There is so much more to say, but this is a good quick start guide anyway.
A Severed Tendon Story: Safety is an Ongoing Process
My homie David the Good recently severed two tendons in his finger with a machette when the hook caught on the brim of his hat in mid swing. The guy is not a novice to machettes or sharp tools and this illustrates perfectly the fact that sharp tools are never safe and that no user is completely accident proof. Occasionally you'll hear someone say that a dangerous tool like a gun or axe is 100% safe as long as it's used properly. That's not a very useful way to look at the problem when humans are always a wild card to some extent. It is the acceptance of danger that leads to the respect we have to embody in order to use these tools as safely as possible. Just as scientists are not vulcans, tool users are not perfect robots and being realistic about ourselves and the often ridiculous beings we are is critical to navigating the use of dangerous tools.
There are a lot of things you can do to yourself with a sharp tool, but few that are fatal or likely to cause serious handicap. Bleeding out is unlikely unless you hit a very few specific spots (Artery on the inside of the thigh being the most likely and not at all infeasible, it happens). The most terrifying injury to me is definitely severing of tendons. Tendons are what attach your bones to muscles so that you can articulate your skeleton and do stuff. They are springy tense things and when cut through, which is easy since they are under tension, they snap. They can be reattached, but there are no guarantees that you will ever function normally again. I knew I guy who cut a tendon in his finger and while stretching during physical therapy the reattached tendon snapped again and couldn't be reattached.
I have tried to take these kinds of lessons and my many injuries and close calls to heart, but it is a constant challenge to me to be aware and step aside look at myself objectively enough to use dangerous tools safely. I think is is as important as anything to simply accept that every time we pick up a sharp tool that we take very real risks. Even a half inch blade is very capable of cutting a tendon in your finger. Next time someone tells you how safe sharp tools are if you just use them right, tell them to STFU. That is exactly the wrong attitude. Best wishes to David for a full and speedy recovery. His unshakable sense of humor can be a model for us all.
How I Process Deer Legs for Sinew, Skins, Bones, Hooves and Glue Stock
There are a lot of useful parts in the lower leg of deer and similar animals. I've processed many of them over the years while skinning deer for hunters. When you're faced with a pile of 70 or 80 of the things you have to cut to the chase and giterdun. Here are a few pointers for the would be leg dismantler.
Onions Now Available
I just posted all my various seed onion bulbs on ebay. These onions are my main source of income for the last several years. Last year I offered a collection of multipliers on ebay, but it was a hassle packaging and keeping track of stuff, so I'm not doing it this year. It's really cool though, so I decided to offer blog readers a few of them because I think it's the coolest thing ever. One order per person and once they are sold out, that's it. If you want larger quantities of any of the rest, buy them on ebay HERE. Shipping is so much easier and cheaper through ebay that I won't be selling onions here on the site except for these few collections. The varieties may or may not all do well wherever you live, but at least you get to test them out without buying whole orders of each one. Here is the store link and the description below.
I'm putting out a limited number of these for my blog and youtube followers. I sold collections like this on ebay last year and it was a big hassle, but I think it is super cool, so wanted to offer at least a few to you all. This is a rare opportunity to test a collection of multiplier onions that are traditionally grown from bulbs instead of seed. 2 Green Mountain Multiplier, 3 Heirloom Yellow Potato Onion, 3 Copper Shallot, 4 I'itoi's, and 2 Pink Seeds Blum. All are planted as single bulbs only partly covered and will grow into a cluster. All except I'itoi tend to keep in storage extremely well.
The Yellow and Green Mountain Multiplier Potato onions are cold hardy. The others I'm not sure, though I suspect that the I'itoi are not very hardy.
Green Mountain Multiplier: I have had so much trouble curing these out that I'm not going to grow them anymore. I'm not sure if other people have that problem. I haven't heard of it. Once cured, they tend to keep very well. They are whitish and much larger than Yellow Potato Onions. They were selected from seeds of the Yellow Potato Onion and are probably very hardy, though we don't know for sure as they are very new. Kelly says he has not had any negative feedback about their hardiness. The size and the fact that they have fewer papery divisions within the bulbs make them an improvement on the yellow potato onion, but I have losses up to 50% during curing from mold. It has a tendency to run to seed, though Kelly Winterton, the originator, says that trait should lessen over the years as they are propagated from bulbs repeatedly.
Yellow Potato Onion: This is the old and once popular Potato onion, probably of great antiquity. Read more about them in my research piece on historic potato onion references. They are extremely hardy having been grown in Alaska and Siberia. I know a guy in Alaska that grows them. He says it's the first thing he can eat in the spring. They keep very well once cured with losses during curing about 5 to 10% for me. I've kept them all the way until the next harvest time. They are good grilled whole, cooked whole in stews, caramelized or anywhere you'd use any onion. Reproduction is about 6.5 for every one planted, similar to other multiplier onions and shallots. Large onions will produce many small onions when planted and small onions will produce fewer, but larger, onions.
Copper Shallot: This is probably an old french type of shallot renamed here in the U.S. It is medium sized to small and very similar to the Yellow Potato onions, but with a distinct coppery skin when thoroughly cured. They keep very well.
Pink Seeds Blum: Presumably originated from the now defunct Seeds Blum seed catalogue. This one produces large, handsome, elongated bulbs with few papery divisions between the bulbs. It keeps very well and cures out very with few loses too. For all those reasons, It is the best shallot I've grown all around. I have never seen it go to seed.
I'itoi: (pronounced E-E-TOY) A very rare native heirloom from the Southwest. These are said to have originated from Europe brought by the Spanish and have been grown by the O'odam for Hundreds of years. It is drought tolerant and extremely prolific. It can be left to grow as a perennial and harvested for chives or the bulbs replanted each year to be pulled as scallions or matured into very small shallot-like bulbs. Or, best of both worlds, they can be left to grow in place and used as a reservoir of planting stock from garden growing. I have no idea how hardy they are, but probably not super cold hardy.
But wait, theres more! You also get a small packet of potato onion seeds so you can make your own potato onion selections! This is seed that may have crossed out with other bulbing onion varieties, or at least that was the idea! It will grow anything from "white" to red and shades in between. I've grown out quite a bit of this seed and it consistently produces multiplying onions. The first year they will grow only single bulbs, save those to replant and grow them out to make the best selections. Maybe you can name your own variety some years from now.
The I'itoi do not keep well out of the ground. The others all keep well once cured, but no guarantees they will all keep if held through the winter. In my mild climate I plant any of them between fall and spring, preferring to plant sometime between the winter solstice and March. All are planted only partly buried and similarly about 12 inches to 10 inches apart on an even grid spacing across wide beds, or a little closer if you want in rows further apart.
All of these type of onions are threatened as we move further and further toward commercial food supplies. Commercial growers for instance now grow shallots mostly from seed instead of bulbs, so if you get a shallot from the store and plant it, most will go to seed. The modern food market has no use for potato onions as they are much more suited to home gardeners. If you grow these, please push them on all your gardening friends and acquaintances. They multiply exponentially, so you'll have plenty to eat and share pretty soon. These are an investment. My mom bought a few bulbs of Yellow potato onions about 15 years ago and I'm still growing them and have given away and sold many thousands of bulbs!
For more on Potato Onions, read and watch all my various stuff about them
Chili Powder, the Taste of Summer All Year Long
I can’t grow enough peppers. I make pickled pepperoncini and pimentos, hot sauce, dried strands of hot chilis. Then of course there are all the ones that get cooked fresh, and some are roasted and frozen in little jars for pizzas and such. Then there is the chili powder.
I like my chili powder. It is delicious and as far as I know, unavailable in markets. Chili powder of commerce in the United States is a spice mix, not just straight chili powder. Even if straight chili powder was available, it loses it’s potency after grinding, which is why paprika in a can is often very low on flavor. By the way, chili powder and paprika are more or less the same thing, but with different peppers and different pretreatments like roasting or smoking or neither.
Since Chili powder is just ground dried red peppers, it is extremely versatile. I use it in just about any cuisine and almost every day. It goes great with tomatoes and can be used here and there in red curries, in kimchee, stirfries, chili, omelets, in guacamole or just sprinkled on as a finish. The dish that probably highlights dried chilis the most is Posole, an out of this world soup of pork with hominy and a rich chili broth.
I’ve used a few different peppers over the years, but mostly I use Anaheim now. It makes a very rich flavored chili powder and I use the fresh green and ripe peppers in cooking too. It is the chili that is used green for Chili rellenos. Anaheimgrows well here and is productive, which is pretty good recommendation alone. I don’t think you could go wrong experimenting with drying and grinding different kinds of ripe peppers though.
I dry the peppers, but in order to dry whole, they have to be dried pretty quickly or they will mold. If the weather is cool or you just don’t have a good heat source, it is best to cut the peppers open and into strips so that they don’t mold. I usually use the front of my car to dry stuff as long as the sun is out. The front of a car is an extremely effective solar dehydrator and can even get hot enough to cook stuff if you’re not careful. I usually crack the windows slightly for air flow.
I store the peppers in jars until needed and make my chili powder fresh about every two or three weeks. If stored too long it begins to loose it’s potency, so I don’t like to keep it much over four weeks. Yeah, I know I’m spoiled, but that’s one of the reasons I started growing food is to get the best quality. By hunting and gathering and growing I can eat stuff that most people can’t afford, including everyone in my economic class that doesn’t have a strong food/subsistence orientation. If I run out, I’ll sometimes buy dried whole “California” chilis and use them. Almost every market in California has them.
I usually roast or toast the peppers lightly before grinding. It changes the flavor and dries the peppers thoroughly so that they are brittle enough to grind easily. You can grind them without roasting, but they need to be pretty dry. Peppers contain a lot of sugar, which makes them hygroscopic, meaning they have an affinity for water, which they will absorb out of the air. For that reason, and to keep flavor in, chili powder should be stored in a sealed container. If not, it will turn into one big clot.
I grind the powder in an old coffee grinder. I pick the grinders up at thrift stores and yard sales and try to keep several on hand for different types of spices and coffee and such. It’s no fun to clean them out well enough to grind some coffee after grinding other spices, or cleaning out one type of spice to grind another type. One of mine is dedicated to chili powder, one to coffee, one to “sweet” spices like cloves and cinnamon, one to non-edible stuff.
The same sugars that make chili powder absorb moisture also make it prone to sticking and burning. If frying, add the chili powder right at the end or when wet ingredients are added. I’d say just make some and start trying it in dishes. Oh, and ripe peppers are also full of antioxidants. Dried chilis are a great way to preserve a healthy bit of summer with truly gourmet potential.
Potato Onion Series Part 3: Harvesting and Curing
Here is my second to last video in the series on potato onions. Once these bulbs are cured, they go on ebay August 15th under the Paleotechnics account. The next video will be on cooking with them.
The Evils of Soil Crusting, Causes, Prevention and Rectification
Soil crusting is an insidious problem that is nearly universal. The only soils I've seen that seem really immune are basically sand. Below are my written and video takes on the subject with some possible innovative solutions using biochar and manure mats.
One of the first subjects I would try to explain to any beginning gardener is the evils of soil crusting. Ideal soil for growing most things has a structure or openness to it. There is space incorporated into the soil which allows the infusion of air. Since the pore spaces make the soil more friable, roots and organisms can make their way through it more easily. The structure of soil is created over time as creatures move through it, roots penetrate it and then eventually die, and worms wend their way about leaving their neatly formed earth filled droppings behind. When disturbed very much by digging and pulverizing (especially if too dry or too wet), and left exposed to the open environment without the covering of living or dead vegetation found in most natural environments, most soils form more or less of a crust. The crust is made of tightly packed small mineral particles which are no longer formed into the structures that make up good aerated soil. An extreme example would be to take some soil mix it in a blender with water, and then pour it out and form a sort of slurry that would dry to a packed smooth surface. That may be extreme, but many of our garden practices, some avoidable and some less so, can do nearly the same thing.
So, what’s the problem? it’s still soil right. Sort of, but is it functional soil? We have goals in gardening. We want plants to grow well for the amount of work we put in. Soil crusting can inhibit our gardening goals.
Slow entry but a ready exit. A soil crust resists the penetration of water. This effect will certainly vary with the soil, but it is more or less true across the board. Watering badly crusted soil by hand is frustrating. The water pools instead of sinking in and you just have to wait for it to soak down, add a little more and wait again, etc. In extreme cases the lower penetration leads to waste of water because it runs off instead of soaking in. The water that does soak in may not make it as deep as it could under better circumstances. If the water does not penetrate easily, then it does not penetrate evenly either and you may be getting less water down to the root zone, or none at all depending on how long you water for. Often only the top of the soil will be wetted, even with what seems like should be a reasonable amount of watering and water. Soil crusts increase the chances of ending up with a layer of wet soil on top and dry soil beneath it, which is a common beginner gardening mistake. Once that happens, it’s difficult to water enough to resaturate the bed without putting a sprinkler on if for a long period of time.
Crusty soil will shed water unless watered very slowly. Here you can see water flowing off the bed in large quantities. There is no covering at all on this bed. Even a thin sprinkling of compost or the like would help some.
So, the water doesn’t penetrate, but to make it worse, it leaves the soil faster as well! Water travels easily through compacted soil. If the soil is broken up, the water can’t travel from particle to particle as easily and evaporation from the soil surface is minimized. The closely packed soil particles however are like a wick that speeds water to the surface by something like capillary action and back out into the atmosphere. Long standing farming wisdom says that if left uncovered, soil should be broken up to form a pulverized mulch to prevent this effect and keep the water in the soil. I have seen the practice of cultivation as a form of water conservation called into question before, but long tradition and my own observation seem to support the idea that compacted soil, and particularly surface crusting, speed the loss of water from the soil.
But wait, there’s more bad stuff! There is often more talk about getting air out of the soil when planting plants than getting air into the soil, but it should probably be the other way around. Plants may not appreciate large air pockets that their roots encounter, but very few plants are well adapted to survive or thrive in completely air free soil. In fact, ideal soil for most of the stuff we grow has a good bit of pore space and a ready exchange of air and gasses. Ever stepped on a garden bed? Your foot should sink a good divet into the bed as it crushes the soil structure and closes up the air spaces in the soil. Though I have never formally tested the proposition, it seems to me that plants grow much better if the soil surface is kept very open. Soil “breathes”, or at least it should, in order to keep the gajillions of living things in healthy soil thriving. Soil should be like a sponge containing a portion of air rather than like a uniform adobe brick. In fact if we are making adobe bricks or pottery, it is essential to thoroughly destroy any structure forming a homogenous mix where the clay particles are smeared over every grain of sand locking them together like glue. Digging and cultivation can ruin the structure of soil causing the air spaces to collapse. Generally the worst times to dig soil are when it is very wet, or very dry and powdery. One makes mud, the other makes powder that can turn into mud when the soil is eventually watered or rained on. Either one can lead to soil crusting. The spectrum in between when the soil is moist, but not too wet or dry is when you should do your digging and cultivating if possible.
Okay, so there it is. Soil crusting makes it harder to get water into the soil but the water evaporates more readily. Soil crusting also inhibits penetration of the air essential to keep the life of the soil buzzing along. So, what do we do about it? Here are the options.
Cover the soil
Any covering can help a little bit, no matter how small, like even a thin layer of coffee grounds. It could also be a heavy mulch, or a covering of live plants. Mulches and coverings basically prevent crusting by breaking the fall of water droplets so that they don’t hammer and pulverize the soil structure. They also slow the flow of water across the bed giving it time to sink in and encourage insect activity that can loosen the soil surface. If cultivation is not practiced, or at least minimized as much as possible, mulches will add organic matter to the top couple of inches of the soil where it does the most good at preventing soil crusting. I use coarsely sifted compost, but also coffee grounds, ashes, nut husks, pea pods, onion skins and various small stuff like that. Unless buying it in, it is difficult to find enough compost, so I don’t usually have as much as I’d like. I don’t like thick mulches of leaves and straw and such in my garden though because I just end up with too many bugs and rodents. Thick mulches work better for protecting the soil and preventing moisture loss though and they seem to work for some people.
Manure mats work extremely well to prevent soil crusting and conserve moisture. More on those soon, but my article from a few years back covers that subject pretty well.
onions tucked in with a nice layer of manure slurry. It will protect the soil from crusting all season while providing other benefits as well. Water and air penetration seem excellent as far as I've seen.
Live plants can be used to cover the soil too and it really does help to have a full canopy of leaves to break the fall of the water. The BioIntensive method of gardening seems to rely primarily on plant cover to cover the soil and go out of their way to produce large healthy seedlings that will cover the bed quickly. They use close spacings for the same reason. I find it very hard to organize well enough to grow stuff just right to not have open soil for very long. Also, I don't like planting everything that close. Some stuff does better with open spacings and air circulation. It is good though when it all works out.
Cultivate
Breaking up the soil surface by cultivation has to be carried out regularly to keep the soil developing a thick crust. If best results are to be had, it is preferably done soon after every significant rain or watering, though it certainly doesn't have to be under many circumstances. Breaking the soil up into small chunks or even dust slows evaporation and allows water to penetrate during the next watering. Of course pulverizing the soil can make it crust easier the next time, so you have to keep it up. It sort of causes or exacerbates the problem it attempts to solve. A compromise I use a lot is to drag a hula hoe (aka strap hoe, or stirrup hoe) under the soil surface to crack it up but not pulverize it. That leaves any surface covering I do have somewhat intact. You can only do this maneuver so many times before it all gets mixed up though.
Increase organic matter
With high enough organic matter you soil becomes like potting soil and will either not crust up, or do so more slowly or less drastically. However, although any amount may help, we are talking about a crap ton of organic matter to actually prevent the problem. It’s a lot of work to gather, compost, sift and dig it all in and it rots away so you have to keep adding more. I’ve rarely seen this effect really work and it pretty much requires that you buy in, or somehow gather material to make, huge amounts of compost. Some raised bed gardeners will buy compost to fill the raised beds, but on any serious scale it's out of the question.
Improve soil structure by digging
Good luck. It doesn’t just happen in my experience. Digging and gardening have more often destroyed soil structure than built it for me. Minimal or no digging seems to let the soil slowly form it’s own structure down there, while digging very much can wreck it. There may be a sweet spot, between digging in organic matter and aerating the soil and over-digging and destroying the structure, but my experience is that it’s easier to mess it up than create it. If you cultivate regularly, then you are forming an artificial pore space, until it collapses and you have to cultivate again. Even if you manage to the lower soil structure, you still have the same crusting problems up top.
Improve soil structure by changing the make up of the soil
Adding sand or porous materials may help a heavy soil, but every light soil I’ve gardened in crusts as well, sometimes more quickly or worse than heavy soils. If you add too much sand, then you are basically gardening in sand that can’t crust up because it contains so few fine components, then you will have all manner of new problems like poor water and nutrient retention. I think using charcoal holds a lot of potential. It seems to make the clay less effective at sticking stuff together. A bed in which I’ve put 50% charcoal in the top layer seems to have little or no problem with crusting so far. 50% is a ton of charcoal to be sure. Since charcoal doesn't rot though, it is a one time application and may be feasible in some scenarios. Think of all the prunings and pallets and scrap wood that are ground up and composted every year, or simply burned to ash to get rid of them. If much of that was diverted into charcoal production, it would be a lot of stuff. Now imagine we had been doing that since the 1950s. Eventually if it becomes more available and cheaper, buying a dump truck load of charcoal may be a reasonable investment for a small permanent garden. Now people buy in many yards at a time of compost to build back yard beds but it just rots away steadily. The value of a very fertile, water efficient, low maintenance bed that always has loose soil is very high and might easily pay for itself over time with increased production and labor savings. There are other consideration like whether charcoal plays well with your soil or crops and what amount is beneficial or even detrimental, but it's worth experimenting with, especially for people with a few high intensity raised beds, which are often filled with compost anyway. For now, I'm just interested in whether it works and feasibility under various circumstances can be assessed later.
This photo shows a bed with 50% of charcoal in the top 6 inches of soil. Results are preliminary (only a year and a half) but so far so good. Water penetrates this bed readily without cultivation. Larger pieces of charcoal have migrated or floated to the top of the bed and provide quite a lot of cover (unexpected bonus) and the soil is more friable, even when somewhat compacted. The plants in it seem very happy. If I were setting up a backyard charcoal bed experiment now, I'd probably use a mix of 50% soil and 50% charcoal in a raised bed, with at least another 12 inches below the raised area dug and 10% of the soil replaced with charcoal. So the top would be 50% and the lower portion would be 10%. Of course you'd need fertilizers and organic matter, but char and mineral soil would be the base material. For the sake of argument, amending a 15 x 4 foot bed 12 inches tall to 50% would require a little over 1/2 yard of charcoal or 30 cubic feet (225 gallons) To amend the soil below that to 12 inches at 10% charcoal would require another 6 cubic feet (42 gallons). It may also be possible to amend with more or less of sand, pearlite, burned clay, vermiculite, etc, but I'd be inclined to start the experiment with the 50/50 char/soil mix. In my climate, such a bed could be cropped continually year round which could potentially produce a whole lot of food. Since the soil would be permanently aerated by the char, there would be no need for cultivation and no need to get a crop all the way out before putting the next one in. Weeds and root vegetables should pull out easily. Again, I'm more interested right now in whether it would function rather than whether it is feasible economically or practically or whatever, but my guess is that it will work and that it could be more than practical in some situations even if the charcoal had to be bought in. It just has to be viewed over time as an investment. I'm tempted to set up an experiment just to find out, but it would use all the charcoal I have stockpiled and had other plans for. hmmm... so tempted!
Soil crusting should get more play. I see it as a major gardening problem to solve, which either requires the use of energy and materials to constantly correct, or wastes water and results in suboptimal plant growth. In many cases, it will always be a problem and just has to be dealt with as it happens. A farm can't cover the entire soil surface with anything, or use enormous amounts of charcoal. Those things are just not practical on that scale. Gardeners have more options though and backyard gardeners with a couple of raised beds have even more. As always, context is king. Manure Mats (aka shit mulching) works very well, and charcoal may have some special properties useful for solving this problem, aside from the fact that it acts very similarly to coarse organic matter to create a sort of artificial pore space all the way to the soil surface if enough is used.
When you walk around, think of the ground as a sponge infused with air and exhaling gasses rather than as a line where the air ends and something solid begins. If the soil were viewed as an organism, a thick soil crust is like making it breathe through cotton batting or something like that. I don't assume that more air is better. I'm not really sure. Soils and plants are very adaptable and soils contain a lot of anaerobic organisms as well as aerobic ones. And granted, the exchange of air and gasses between the soil and atmosphere is minimal compared to the open air or the respiration of organisms such as ourselves. I think it is important though and farming wisdom and my personal experience seem to indicate that keeping the soil surface open and encouraging a soil structure with pore space are beneficial to soil health and crop growth.
Vintage Swedish Hatchet Restoration Part 1: Making the Handle Blank
This is the start of restoring a vintage hatchet. Actually I'm going to modify the head quite a bit, so what I'm really doing is trying to improve it and make it functional. In this video I make the handle blank which is now seasoned and ready to make into a handle. Other steps will be to modify and refine the head, shape the handle, put the handle on, oil it and make a sheath. I'm not sure when I'll get all that done, but this was the first step....
Training Fruit Trees to Avoid Narrow Crotch Angles & Bark Inclusions
A very common mistake in training trees is to allow narrow crotch angles to form. If the fork of a tree is too sharp or narrow, bark will be trapped between the two limbs causing a very weak connection. Along comes snow, wind or a heavy fruit load and the crotch will tear apart resulting in the loss of an entire limb. In this video I show a bark inclusion on a broken Madrone tree and then demonstrate several ways to train against or fix narrow branch angles. This is a serious problem that should be understood by anyone training fruit trees. A little attention early on will insure the tree grows well for the rest of it's life.
Much Improved Growth of Leeks in Biochar Test Bed
About three years back I set up my first biochar test bed. I divided the bed into three sections of 10% charcoal, 5% charcoal and 0% charcoal. The sections were all treated the same, except the 0% section was amended with a small amount of wood ash in an attempt to approximate the amount that would have been added incidentally with the charcoal. I even dug the 0% section exactly the same as the 5 and 10% sections.
The first year the char sections of the bed performed poorly. Lettuce failed to thrive in the char sections, but did fine in the 0% section because the charcoal sapped the soil of nitrogen and who knows what else. several growing seasons later though, it's a different story. I forgot to mention in my leek planting video that the bed I used was this test bed. now that the leeks are established and growing, there is an obvious difference in the three sections with the 10% doing the best and 0% by far the worst. While there could be some other factors involved, it's pretty clear that the charcoal is having a very positive effect. I would say that the 10% section could be doing as much as 600% better than the 0% section. The weeds look a lot happier too.
What the exact effect is, I don't know, and while I'd like to know, I don't necessarily need to. It is just working and that is the important thing. It seems that the charcoal amended sections are making better use of whatever resources are put on them. We'll see how the leeks progress through the season.
What I learned from this experiment so far is that 10% is better than 5% and 10 inches deep makes a difference. I'd like to put in a similar experiment with 10%, 15% and 20%. I'd also like to do sections of a bed at a constant percentage, but one dug to 2 feet and one dug to only 12 inches. And there are many more experiments I could do. Each bed I install will be a different test of some kind. It is easy enough to set them up and I could potentially learn from them for years. I hope some of you out there will start collecting or making charcoal and setting up your own experiments. If you already are, leave a comment and tell us about it.
A Few Juicy Accounts of Biochar Use in 19th Century N. America and Europe
Some of you that have been around a while will remember a research piece I did on the use of charcoal as a soil amendment in 19th century America and Europe. I'm always trying to push this information out there, so In this video I read a few of the more interesting passages, which I'll also paste in as text below if you would rather read them.. This is the information that really compelled me to jump into biochar experimentation with both feet. I have quite a few experiments installed now and quite a few more I'd like to do as soon as possible. I have accumulated a pretty good pile of charcoal, so now it's mostly a matter of some planning and digging. Also down the page is a video that I published last Wednesday of peeling a tan oak stump with a few comments about the historic tan bark industry here in California.
Every observing farmer who has been accustomed to raise wheat cannot have failed to notice the luxuriant growth of cereal grain round about the places where charcoal has been burned, even more than thirty or forty years ago. The growing stems of wheat that are produced on such old charcoal-beds are seldom affected with rust; and besides this, the straw is always much stiffer than that which grows where there is not a dressing of charcoal.
& from the same publication
The field was sown with barley in the spring previous ; yield small (eighteen bushels per acre). I turned in the stubble the last week in August, harrowed it over, then took about eighteen bushels charcoal crushed fine, and top-dressed a strip through the middle of the acre over about one-third of its length; I then sowed on my wheat broadcast and harrowed it over twice. The result was, the heads when ripe were at least twice as long as where no coal was put on. I harvested all together; the yield was forty-three bushels. I think by applying about fifty bushels of coal to the acre as a top-dressing, made fine by grinding in a common bark mill, it would increase the yield at least four hundred per cent., if the soil is poor.
The American wheat culturist: 1868
By keeping the surface of the earth well stirred, no crops appear to suffer by drought that are manured by charrings, but continue in the most vigorous health throughout the season, never suffering materially by either drought or moisture”.
“A Dictionary Of Modern Gardening” 1847
In the midst of the disastrous drouth of last summer, while crossing a field in Moriah, occupied by Mr. Richmond, in pursuit of some Durham cattle I wished to examine, I observed a lot with its surface deeply and singularly blackened. -Upon inspection I found it thickly strewn with pulverized charcoal. The field presented a rich verdure, strongly contrasting with the parched and blighted aspect of the adjacent country.
The following detail of this experiment, supplied at my request, attests the value of this material as a fertilizing principle. “The soil is loamy. The charcoal was applied on four acres of dry land, and one acre of moist soil, by top-dressing. The amount used was about one thousand bushels to the acre, spread on so as to make the surface look black, but not to incumber or obstruct vegetation. It was applied in September and October, 1850, at an expense by contract, of forty dollars. It was procured at a furnace, from a mass of pulverised charcoal left as useless, and was drawn one mile and a half. The effect was immediate. The grass freshened, and continued green and luxuriant after the surrounding fields were blackened by the early frosts. Although the last season had been so unfavorable for vegetation, Mr. Richmond realized one-third more than the ordinary yield of hay, and sufficient to repay the whole outlay. He thinks that he cut nearly double the quantity of grass upon this lot, that he did upon any similar meadow on his farm, and that the quantity of the hay is improved.”
“I began the use of it in the year 1846, and first employed it as a top-dressing on a strong clay soil, which was plowed in the fall of 1845. I spread on about fifteen wagon loads of the dust to the acre, after the wheat had been sowed and harrowed one way. I was surprised to find my crop a heavy one, compared with my neighbor’s, raised on the same kind of land. The wheat was of better quality and yielded four or five bushels extra to the acre. I have since used it on similar land, sometimes mixed with barn-yard manure, and sometimes alone, but always as a top-dressing, usually on land seeded for meadow. ‘ The results were always the most favorable. I find my land, thus seeded, produces more than an average crop of hay and always of the finest quality.
“I have also used the dust on loamy and interval land, with the potato crop. During the series of years in which the rot almost ruined the potato crop, I scarcely lost any potatoes from that cause, and supposed it was owing to the coal dust I used. My manner has been to drop the seed and cover it with a small shovel-full of the dust, and then cover with earth. In this way I have used all the coal dust I have been able to save from the coal consumed in a forge of five fires, and which amounts to about 250 loads per year.”
In the colder regions of the Adirondacks, charcoal dust has been used with great advantage. The note of Mr. Ralph presents the experiment in tho following language: “As a top-dressing for meadows, charcoal dust and the accumulation of ashes and burnt earth left on old charcoal pit bottoms have been used here with remarkable results, and I judge from the trials which have been made, that this application has added at least one-third to the hay crop, where it has been used. It was remarked during the past very dry season, when vegetation was almost burnt up by the long continued drouth, that those fields which had been dressed with this substance were easily distinguished by the rich green color of their herbage.”
The cultivator, 1853
“NEW” FERTILIZER FOR GRAPES. Our impression is that the benefit to be derived from the use of chopped up cuttings has been greatly over-rated. We tried the plan once, selecting out the smaller shoots and cutting them up with a straw cutter, while the larger we cut with a small hatchet. We applied the prunings of ten vines to the roots of five, and then we invested the amount which we thought we ought to have for our labor, in charcoal which we applied to the remaining five. We thought the charcoal produced the best results.
Since that time we have disposed of our prunings of all kinds by converting them into charcoal and at the same time burning with them a quantity of heavy clay. The greatest difficulty is to make the heap sufficiently compact to allow it to be covered conveniently. This we accomplish by means of a few stout hooked stakes. After all the rubbish from the fall, winter and spring prunings, has been collected together, we lay a few stout branches or poles on the top. These poles are then pegged down by means of two or three hooked sticks applied to each pole, and in this way the mass is rendered so compact that it is easily covered with sods and similar matter. The heap after being kindled is allowed to smoulder away, more earth being thrown on as the fire progresses. Several days generally elapse before the work is finished,
but at the end of that time we find ourselves in possession of several tons of material of the very best kind for fertilizing vines or any kind of fruit trees. It consists of a mixture of ashes, charcoal and burned clay, and our present opinion Is that there are no better fertilizers for fruit trees, and especially grape vines and peach trees, than just these three articles.
Country gentleman, Volume 33
1869
his trial on a field of four acres with potatoes in 1847, was very remarkable. They were planted in ridges, or, as termed here, ‘lazy beds;’ one-half the field manured with farm-yard manure, the other with peat charcoal only, about a handful thrown on each seed. The result was more than a double crop from the charcoal; and he informed me that he was himself so astonished at the fact, that he requested Lord Donegal to see and vouch it. At my suggestion he planted oats the next year On the whole field without any further manure, and he assured me the increase on that portion manured with charcoal was nearly in the same, ratio as the potatoes. In February last he planted a large field in drills, manured as usual, not then having charcoal; but in. April he got some, and, before the potatoes being earthed, he top-dressed a few yards at the foot of all the drills as far as he had charcoal. He authorizes me to state that the result was not only very nearly a double crop, but that there was not a taint in one of them, while all the rest of the field was more or less diseased.
I must tell you his reply to my inquiry as to his experience of its value for grass land. He said,1 Nothing can exceed it; and there is little or no labour in using it.’ My friend Fenwick swears by it, and he declares he will write his name on the best grass in the country with black charcoal, and it will be the greenest part of the field in ten days.”
The Plough, the loom, and the anvil, Volume 2
1849
Comparative Merits of Charcoal and Barn-yard Manure as Fertilizers.
In the year 1788, my father purchased and removed upon the tract of land in Hanover township, Morris county, N. J. The land, owing to the bad system of cultivation then prevailing, was completely exhausted, and the buildings and fences in a state of dilapidation. The foundation of the barn was buried several feet beneath a pile of manure, the accumulation of years: little or none ever having been removed upon the lands. Even the cellar, beneath the farm-house, was half filled with the dung of sheep and other animals, which had been sheltered in it. The former occupant of the farm had abandoned it on account of its supposed sterility
The barn, before referred to, was removed to another situation soon after its foundation was uncovered, by the removal of the manure to the exhausted fields; and its site,
owing to the new arrangements of the farm, became the centre of one of its enclosures. During the seventeen years which I afterwards remained upon the farm, the spot could easily be found by the luxuriousness of the grass, or other crops growing thereon; though the abatement in its fertility was evident and rapid. On revisiting the neighbourhood in the autumn of 1817, I carefully examined the corn crops then standing upon the spot, and was unable to discover the slightest difference in the growth or product, upon that and other parts of the field. This was about twenty-eight years after the removal of the barn.
Upon the same farm and upon soil every way inferior, were the remains of several pit-bottoms, where charcoal had been burned before the recollection of any person now in the vicinity, and most probably, judging from appearances, between the years 1760-70. These pit-bottoms were always clothed, when in pasture, with a luxuriant covering of grass, and when brought under tillage, with heavy crops of grain. Eleven years ago I pointed out these facts to the present occupant, and his observations since, coincide with my own, previously made; that they retain their fertility, very little impaired, a period probably of about seventy or eighty, certainly not less than sixty-five or seventy years.
Here then is an excellent opportunity of observing the comparative value of charcoal and barn-yard manures, as a fertilizer of lands. The former has not, after at least sixty or seventy years exposure, exhausted its powers of production, while the latter lost its influence entirely in twenty-eight years, and most probably in much less time.
I have since had many opportunities of’ observing the effects of charcoal left in pitbottoms, upon vegetation, one of which only,. I will relate. The last season, in the northern part of Ohio, was one of uncommon frost and drought . In May, the wheat fields, when promising a luxuriant crop, were cut off by frost;—especially in the valleys, and very much injured in the high lands—which was succeeded by the most severe drought ever experienced in the West. The moiety which escaped both these scourges, was afterwards very much injured by rust. Near the village of Canton, upon a farm on high ground, which had been mostly cleared of its timber by its conversion into charcoal, it was observed that upon the old pit-bottoms, the wheat grew very luxuriantly—was clear of rust—and had ripened plump in the berry; while in the adjacent parts of the field it was short in growth, the stem blackened with rust, and the berry light and shriveled..
The Farmers’ cabinet, and American herd-book, Volume 11 1847
CHARCOAL AS A FERTILIZER.
For two years past I have used some fifty loads each season of refuse charcoal, and being fully convinced that it pays, I wish to recommend it to my brother farmers. I have tried it on grass, corn and potatoes—hare tried it alone and in the compost heap, and in all situations it has proved faithful to its trust. As a top dressing for grass, it gives a green color and luxuriant growth.. Applied to half an acre of early potatoes the last summer, the yield was 75 bushels of as fine healthy potatoes as could be desired, that sold readily for one dollar per bushel, and yielded the best profit of anything raised on the farm.
..It absorbs from the air those gasses offensive to the nostrils, but the main food of plants. And this it will do, not once only, or for one season, but very possibly for a century. Where an old coal-pit has been burnt, the land never seems to wear out, and the first settlers point to the coal bottoms that are fifty years old, still by their exuberant vegetation marking well the spot where the wood was converted into coal.
The New Jersey Farmer Vol. II, No. 1, September 1856
CHARCOAL AS A FERTILIZER.
It will be recollected by our readers, that in our last two volumes we have published several able papers upon the virtues of charcoal as a fertilizer of the soil, and of its supposed efficacy in the preservation of wheat from rust. One of these papers, by Judge Hepburn, particularly points out cases in which lands which had been dressed by charcoal had grown wheat free from rust, when wheat grown on other lands, contiguous, which had not been so treated, had suffered greatly from that cause. We allude to these circumstances now, with a view of introducing the subjoined paragraph to the notice of our readers ; by which it will be seen, that in France the same virtues have been ascribed to charcoal as in our own country.
We have been astonished at the enormous increase of the wheat crop in France within the last eight or ten years, and have devoted some attention to the investigation of the subject. It appears that charcoal—an article that can be obtained here for a tithe of its cost in France—has been extensively used, and with marked effect, in fertilizing the wheat lands in that kingdom. A correspondent of the New Farmers’ Journal, an English print, states that during a sojourn in one of the central departments of France he learned that some of the most productive farms were originally very sterile; but that for a number of years their proprietors had given them a light dressing of charcoal, which had resulted in a large yield of wheat of excellent quality. Since his return to England he has tried the experiment upon his own lands with the same happy effect. The charcoal should be well pulverized, and sown like lime, after a rain or in a still, damp day. Even in England, the writer says, “the expense is a mere trifle, in comparison with the permanent improvement effected, which on grass is truly wonderful.”— He states one other very important result from its liberal use. “I am quite satisfied that by using charcoal in the way described rust in wheat will be entirely prevented; for I have found in two adjoining fields, one of which was coaled and the other manured with farm-yard dung, the latter was greatly injured by rust, while that growing in the other was perfectly free from it.”—Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.
Southern planter, Volume 3 1843
ln striking cuttinps or potting plants, fine charcoal is a valuable substitute for sand, plants rooting in it with great certainty. Plants will flourish in powdered charcoal alone with considerable vigor, and, added to the other materials used in potting, it is found greatly to promote healthy growth in most plants.)
Fruit recorder and cottage gardener 1875
there are two features connected with its use which have always commended it to my favor. One is its mechanical effects upon the soil, rendering it more open and friable, and consequently more easily worked, and more open to the action of the atmosphere. The other is the warming effect produced where it is applied in any considerable quantity. A dark soil, we all know, has the power to a greater extent of absorbing heat than a light-colored one. This, in many locations, is a great desideratum. Many plants which it is desirable to grow, but which, for the want of a sufficiently warm soil, is next to impossible, may be cultivated by the use of charcoal.... In gardens, therefore, I esteem it highly, and have found it, for the purposes briefly named above, most excellent
The American farmer: 1861
Charcoal is undoubtedly a powerful fertilizer, and one of great duration, as is shown by the continued fertility of places where the aboriginal inhabitants of New England built their camp-fires more than two hundred years ago, while nothing peculiar to those spots can be discovered beyond the admixture of large quantities of charcoal and clam-shells with the soil.
Annual report of the Commissioner of Patents, Part 2 1855
Charcoal as a Fertilizer.
Mr. Bateham:—Sometime since there was an enquiry in your paper, respecting the use of charcoal as a fertilizer. I have one word to offer on the subject, which is this: some 15 or 20 years since, while owned by another individual, there was much coal burned on my farm while in the act of clearing the land. The land since that time has undergone much tilling, with little or no manure and not much rest until lately; and notwithstanding the time that has elapsed, the places where the coal pits were burned, produce the best of crops of every kind whenever the fields in which they are found are tilled. I am so much pleased with it that I wish my farm was covered I 3 or 4 inches thick with pulverized charcoal. I think the benefits of it could never be exhausted.
Ohio Cultivator vol. 3 No. 1 1847
CHARCOAL AS A FERTILIZER.
We have all noticed that where a charcoal pit has been burned the soil remains good for a long time. On the mountains of Berkshire we have seen white clover growing luxuriantly on the bed of an old charcoal pit, making an oasis in the desert of ferns and briars that surrounded it, and on inquiry we found that the coal pit must have been burned half a century ago. On digging into this soil we discovered the charcoal with little if any appearance of decay, and promising to do good service for half a century more.
Agriculture: twelve lectures on agricultural topics:1871
The first day of our trip, we saw the farmers engaged in burning stocks of millet, &c., in heaps of earth, as it is done in the manufacture of charcoal, in order, we supposed, to bring out their fertilizing properties. It a very likely then, that, in China, they have known the value of charcoal as a fertilizer long before us, It’s use for that purpose being among us of a recent date.
Commercial relations of the United States with foreign countries 1872
Refuse Charcoal. The refuse charcoal, obtained from the rectifiers of spirits, from the Railroads where wood is burned in locomotives, from old charcoal beds, &c., is a very useful material in the garden. As a mulching about fruit trees I consider it very valuable. It keeps out frost in winter: it keeps the soil loose and moist in summer, and it does not afford a harbor for mice or insects. In the soil, it assists to promote moisture in a dry season;........ It is an excellent mulching for Strawberries, in winter or summer.
The Gardener’s monthly and horticultural advertiser, Volume 9 1867
Pet Lime Kiln Update, 10 Burns, 30 Gallons and Where to Go From Here
Here is my 100th video on youtube, an update on the last lime kiln I built. It looks as though the main thing to address in this design is erosion of the edge. I am thinking that a rim of cob-like material (probably just clay and sand) might do the trick. That begs the question of why not just build the entire thing out of cob or similar material in the first place? Well, that is certainly a possibility. I don't think it would have the same insulative value, but that may not matter in the end. It is impossible to know without testing the idea. There are some advantages to the pet kiln under various circumstances though. It is fast to build and can be built up all at once. A similar cob structure would need either support or drying time between layers. Less clay is required, which could be important sometimes. My intuition is that the insulation value of thousands of tiny holes and grass stems is significant, but again, I can't know without testing that proposition. Of course a similar list could probably be generated for the benefits of cob. not need to make it one or the other. The more tools we have in our box, the more we can adapt to varying needs and circumstances.
I may pursue some ideas I have with the pet kiln concept, but I have quite a few other lime burning projects I'd like to try as well, including scaling up to a bigger more sophisiticated set up. I may even test the feasibility of burning lime for sale, but honestly, my interest is more in testing the proposition to assess the feasibility of lime burning as a cottage industry for other people to pursue, or the feasibility of producing moderately large quantities on site for projects, rather than for the actual money I'd make. Curiosity is a curse and a blessing.
Also posted below, a recent video of my just walking around the homestead talking about stuff. I could do that for days.
Splitting Out Black Locust Billets, and Some Talking Points About Splitting Logs
I usually finish videos late at night and then try to throw a blog post together to go with them so it will come out on the same morning. I'm often struggling to stay awake by then though and have made some pretty lame typos recently. This time I figured I'd just be behind a day and do this while I'm not falling asleep. I scored this Black Locust from a tree that was cut down on a construction site and managed to score some logs for wood working projects, mostly tool handles. Black Locust is one of my favorite woods and makes great handles. I could do a blog post just on the virtues of Black Locust. I took the opportunity to film the job and talk about typical approaches and problems related to splitting billets out. I would have liked to do the more in depth lecture style version of this video, but I'm pretty busy with time sensitive spring chores right now to take that on. I'll get to it some time, and I'm pretty damn excited about it actually, but for now, most of what anyone needs to know about the subject can be gleaned out of this version. Also, this is in a practical setting, so it's real life which is useful. There are some bullet points below:
A few Bullet Points
*Before Splitting, assess the log looking for knots and observe the bark pattern to determine how straight the grain is.
*Splitability of wood varies by species and specimen. Some split easy, some don't. Some tend to stay on track and some tend to run askew.
*Wood generally splits easiest along radial lines from the center out to the edges, but there are exceptions.
*Wood can also split pretty easily by splitting along the growth rings.
*Runout is when the split travels off to one side rather than following the grain lines. Runout is more common when a small piece is split off of a larger piece, so it is the safer bet to split things into halves.
*Runout can also be prevented by chasing the split along as it progresses rather than just splitting if from one end with a fat wedge.
*Knots are a major hinderance when splitting with the growth rings, but can be split in half when splitting along the radial lines.
*Wooden wedges are fine if you don't have steel, but make them flat in both dimensions, from side to side and tip to butt. Also, chamfer the butt ends and they will last a lot longer.
Finished! What I Learned Cutting a Cord of Wood With Axes over Three Months
This is the video version of what I learned chopping a cord of wood over 3 months. It was really fun and I learned a lot, much more than I could articulate or fit into this video. I plan to do a long blog post covering the project and my thoughts in more detail. Hopefully soon, though there are crazy amounts of time sensitive seasonal work to do on the homestead...
