Mr. Permaculture on Adventure #4 - Peeing and Making Biochar
First of all, I would like to say it was not an easy task taking this photo!
The Preparation
It is cold outside. It is windy. I am just waking up. Worst of all, I need to go pee really badly while running around looking for my camera.It is cold outside. It is windy.
Finally, I get everything ready in the right place for a very important mission - taking a picture for this blog.
I have never done this before. So it is awkward, to say the least.
The Action
I dig the actor out from layers of clothes into the cold air. Oh boy, it is cold! I hear him.
While my left hand is busy holding my precious to aim the stream toward the box in the photo, I only have my right hand free to hold the camera steady in the wind.
I am also very careful to zoom in on the stream but not the actor. This is by no means intended to be NSFW. Sorry my buddy, no matter how much you complain, I just can't show you to the whole world.
Without a free finger to click on the camera to take a picture, I can only say cheese, again and again, until the camera finally hears me in the wind and clicks.
Before the stream eventually runs dry I get a clear picture. YEAH ... I am so relieved and happy :)
Life is Good :)
So what is it in the box?
Answer:
This is charcoal from sawdust. I am charging it with urine to become biochar. By the way, there is no offensive ammonia odor at all thanks to the carbon in the charcoal. There are other things that can be used to charge it, too.
What is Biochar?
Biochar is charcoal used as a soil amendment. Biochar is a stable solid, rich in carbon, and can endure in soil for thousands of years. Like most charcoal, biochar is made from biomass via pyrolysis. Biochar is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration. Biochar thus has the potential to help mitigate climate change via carbon sequestration. Independently, biochar can increase soil fertility of acidic soils (low pH soils), increase agricultural productivity, and provide protection against some foliar and soil-borne diseases. Wikipedia
A Precious Gift from My Friend
The city does not allow burning a big fire in my suburban backyard. Therefore, this sawdust charcoal was a precious gift from my dear friend Matt, who lives in a rural area.
He used a closed heavy duty metal barrel to hold the sawdust and cooked it slowly inside a concrete block oven as shown in the photo below to charcoal dust.
I am so looking forward to spreading the biochar in my garden after a month or so of diligently peeing and making it. :)
I'll keep you posted on the result!
Thank you for reading my post. If you enjoyed it, please Upvote, Comment, Resteem and follow me @cheneats.
Other posts on my adventures:
Wow. who would have thought.? Really? Food for thought. Since when we have a storm and the power goes out you are not able to flush that white throne. Don't think I could describe the act quite as eloquently as you, although I have had to use the bush on occasion.
Haha ... it's much easier for a man than for a woman. I always save urine for plants. It's the best free fertilizer. Plants absolutely love it.
Fascinating! I'd never heard of biochar before.
"can increase soil fertility of acidic soils", does that mean it has a low pH itself or is this a reference to a more complex interaction?
Thank you! I only learned about it last year. But I am very excited that we can even make it ourselves and for its long-lasting benefits.
Many biochars have a neutral to alkaline pH value and can provide some benefit in neutralizing acidic soils. (search for 'acidic soils' in this reference)
Sorry of course, I should have said high pH of course for basic!
Cool, that is what I understood!
Oh ... no problem at all. We are all here to learn together. :)
By the way, I love your profile picture. <3 Are they dandelion leaves in your mouth?
No, it'#s not dandelion, it is capiçoba (Erechtites valerianifolius) and pincel-de-estudante (Emilia sonchifolia)... very tasty! I'm doing a PhD about wild foods in Brazil.
Thanks for the correction. Nice of meeting you on the platform, Kate, the Ethnobotanist! :)
+1 for urine in the garden! I haven't used bio char, but I always spread a sprinkling of wood ash and the charcoal left over from my wood stove. That with urine pretty much supply all the nutrients a garden needs. It's not as difficult fertilizing a garden as people sometimes make it out to be.
Thank you for your comment! The best advantage of biochar is that it can hold nutrients for hundreds to thousands of years! And I agree with you - fertilizing a garden is not difficult. There is no need for artificial fertilizers that kill soil life.
Yep indeed. I'm going to try and make some biochar this winter. I just need a canister that can handle the heat of my wood stove. I can drop sawdust and small bits of wood in the can and just leave it in the wood stove till it's ready.
Absolutely! Why wasting the heat on the wood stove when you can reuse it to make biochar. Same with fireplace.
Glad I'm not the only one who does that!
+1 on having the guts to take such pix!
Haha ... Welcome to the Tribe! It was a fun experience taking this picture!
I learned about biochar last year and got to learn how to make some from a biochar professional who I was wwoofing for. I am hooked! It is so amazing for the soil fertility and so many more uses like livestock health, deep litter, cleaning teeth, etc!
Thank you for your comment. This is the first time I ever heard about cleaning teeth! I guess I can even save money on toothpaste, then :)
I use baking soda for my toothpaste now. But I used to make my own toothpaste with coconut oil, baking soda, biochar and a few others.
Thank you for the information. Do you know what was used to charge the biochar for toothpaste? Urine may not be a good choice even some people drink it (Urophagia).
No I don't sorry! It was a product of very fine activated biochar my friend had some sample of. It wasn't home made.
No problem ... thanks anyway! :)
Love to see this, a fellow human whos stoked to pee on charred wood. I was just peeing on char and ash just now... Are you adding it directly to soil or as a compost ammendment? Have you noticed as positive results? I'll be following you.
Haha ... I love doing it. It can either be added to the soil or as a compost amendment. This is the first time I am doing this. Will post the result later. Thank you for your comment and following!
@originalworks
The @OriginalWorks BETA V2 bot has upvoted(0.5%) and checked this post!
Some similarity seems to be present here:
https://www.slideshare.net/GautamParghi/biochar-80994038
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