Check out these great ways to make your outdoors the place to be this party season. How do you add biology to your biochar to improve the soil food web? And I confess that for many years I entertained a similar opinion, and would have willingly allowed anyone to have removed it as a nuisance glad to get rid of. I agree with Tonny N. From a sustainability perspective, you don’t want to take materials from the lithosphere (earth’s crust) and introduce them into the biosphere. My goal is to stop the pine monoculture, to have more diversity, but for economic purposes we do need to harvest and sell the trees that grow there, which means in practice that they need to be a lot straighter (and grow somewhat taller) than the current batch of black cherry. Yes, you can use a bag of charcoal that’s used for BBQ. That’s what i thought half a year ago too. Those who want to use coal dust for soil fertility need to make certain that the dust is from brown coal, which is more humic, and that the coal does not contain toxins. The same can be said about coal. Sometimes it is made of manure or animal bones. So i assume you heard of Mrs. Elaine Ingham. Photo courtesy of Carmeuse Lime and Stone Company. Its a sandy soil with 400 – 600 feet water deep water level. Now to give you a perspective… People in that area were doing organic agriculture. if you would like to know more, contact me on facebook ‘unconditional love moon’. Fill dirt consists of the layer of earth situated beneath the 6” of nutrient-rich soil that sits on the surface. When you look at total nutrients present in any soil, there’s more than adequate levels in any ag soil. So why not grow your own? Using coal as a soil amendment is totally inconsistent with permaculture principles, as well as potentially harmful to people and the environment. The results of using biochar made of coal on sandy soil? We continue to follow government advice and thank our amazing team for all their hard work helping our customers. Again, let it “rest” for at least 2-3 weeks before you apply it to the soil. A big chunk of the price are taxes (EU). Then add a layer of organic mulch. I think this may need more research. What about planting fast growing trees which can spend shade and decrease air temperature by transpiration as fast as the decomposing process works? Hello! It’s called biochar. Sweet or sour, cherries are a popular summer treat around the world. Coal is contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury which could be taken up by plants grown for food. Hi All – Wytze – you may find Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening Paperback – April 11, 2011 a VERY USEFUL guide. But learning more about the brown dust, i might use that if easily avaible (yours is) and not toxic, I dont know if yours is. I am always trying to learn more about organic gardening and farming and enrichment of the soil with use of chemicals. Testing for hydrophobic soil Determine how repellent your soil is by checking how long it takes for water to soak into a scoop from the garden or a pot. Johnson warns against anything less than a 500:1 ratio of water to Permazyme. Whether you have sandy or clay soil, the simplest method for improving soil texture is to dig in organic matter every year in the form of compost or manure. Good you mentioned forests. Coppice some trees such as Leucaeana and chip the small twigs, Char the bigger branches and use the thick trunks for borders. You don’t get soils high in organic matter even in rainforest that wasn’t burn for 500 years. The principal mechanism for mineral phosphate solubilization is the production of organic acids, and acid phosphatases play a major role in the mineralization of organic phosphorous in soil. This could be both a way to improve fertilaty and deal with the polution caused buy biuld up of exess litter in these regions. Jacek was mixing culm with horse manure during late winter, so it was quite rainy and dust was always moist. Biochar used locally from local deadfall and mixed with local composts and such, is the only way the process is beneficial and sustainable. Yep, that black stuff that’s being mined from the ground. Because this element is not present in sandy soil made of granite in large enough amounts. That’s basil! Planting & Growing Now, I am not hating on soil biology, it’s very important, as it’s making nutrients more “digestible” for plants. In your conditions (soil with poor nutrient holding capacity) rock dust might be good if you find some cheap, local source. Many of the coroners in that region use “heart attack” as cause of death when someone dies while battling cancer. And that’s not good for growing high quality plants and healthy animals and humans. What did organic agriculture in these days (1930s) mean? The only question is not: Where is my next fertilizer shop, but how can i bring the necessary helpers (the microorgansims) into my soil: Phosphate solubilizing bacteria and their role in plant growth promotion It has also created “edges” To extract all the minerals from soil you have to use a very strong acid. Among the first colonizers of cold lava are bacteria. So why not grow your own? The same will apply if Jacek import fertility in concentrated form (and he would have to, because his soil has naturally low fertility). @Stephan It’s content is mainly supplied from African dust (“microscopic rock”) that is blown in every year from that area across the Atlantic. How do you make biochar to create terra preta? Learn how easy it is to make an outdoor table with a built-in drinks cooler that can become the focal point for all your get-togethers. I love that you talked about how adding certain types of fertilizer and topsoil can improve your soil and add nutrients to it. No matter if you dig it in or not, you will have more than 10% organic matter content in the top 6-8″. Hi Wojciech, Preparing the soil for new sod is essential before sodding. not we, but you or “we would”, 2 “that one could use trellis and other “clockwork” machines instead” During our first fire we started seeing smoke seeping out of the ground all around us and in some cases 20 ft from another spot. The amounts of heavymetals/harmfull substances present in horse manure and other, is very dependent on what medication the horses are getting, and what theyve been fed, everything is radioactive and contains some toxins, but that doesnt mean everything is as bad as coal ;) but brown coal dust is not as bad as i feared either, heres to hoping yours are low in the “bad” elements.