ping
Dirty Dirt is good dirt.
Alternate layers of char and non-barbeque charcoal with dirt.
The deeper the better.
Deep filling of the land adds oxygen to the soil to aid proper decomposition of organic matter.
I’ve read quite a bit about it. Works good in sandy tropical soils, not so much in temperate heavy soils.
I did use a little biochar for my homemade potting soil this year. It holds water like perlite and in my case, was mixed with leaf mold and very aged goat & chicken manure.
I wouldn’t try to load my heavy soil with it though.
I get biochar aka charcoal(not chemical laden briquettes) from my wood stove. When I dump the ashes outside, sometimes there’s charcoal left from me shutting down the stove when a warm front comes in.
The technique used in Florida to turn sand into fertile soil is to spread bone meal and blood meal then cover it with mulch. Repeat over several years if necessary, but eventually creates rich dark earth without the need to till.
I’m pretty sure my county allows for the slash, not so sure about the burn, though.
I’ll give it a try!
My grandparents lived near the power plant and the coal dust from the trucks was everywhere.
The dirt was literally black and you could plant anything and it would grow like mad.
Best tomatoes you ever tasted.
https://skillcult.com/ has a lot of information on biochar. Including research published back in the 1800’s, which took place in temperate climates. I found it fascinating.
Two of the articles, “The Farmers’ cabinet, and American herd-book, Volume 11 1847” and “The farmer’s magazine 1850”, convinced me it was worth the effort. My property doesn’t produce much firewood, so I’ve been experimenting with char made from crop waste. Mostly bean pods, because dry beans are one of my main crops.
I haven’t made enough to tell if it’s having any effect on the soil. But it has had a HUGE effect on odor control! By mixing it in with the bedding in my chicken coop, I was able to pretty much eliminate odors from their manure.
It worked so well that I’ve also started adding food-grade charcoal to my cats’ food. My family has 2 cats, and they tend to do what I refer to as “competitive pooping”. It doesn’t matter how often the litter gets changed. The moment the competition starts, the whole house fills with an eye-watering stench, forcing us to open windows in order to breathe. But, a tiny pinch of charcoal, mixed into their squishy food once a day, took care of the problem completely! They still hold pooping contests, but they no longer fumigate the house when doing so.
I hope all the research I’ve seen about the benefits of biochar hold true for my farm. But even if it doesn’t, the odor-control properties are worth the effort of making it, in my opinion.
Otherwise known as “slash and burn” agriculture. The American Indians did it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash-and-burn
It depends on the ability to move on and burn more area when the land you already burned gets depleted.
The charcoal has to be charged with moisture, nutrients and good bacteria (like composted manure) to be effective (and to truly be BIOchar). Otherwise, the charcoal will absorb moisture and nutrients for a year or two until it begins making the soil more productive. MANY videos on this subject on YouTube.
I have been throwing the soot from my fireplace into my backyard for years given the knowledge that it has some carbon content and thus good for the soil. The slash and char is a slight change to that view and now makes me realize the unburnt chunks I also throw back there are even better.
Thanks for posting.
Oh a 700yr old “weird trick” huh?
Bkmk
I am no farmer, but I recall learning this when I was a kid. At least seeing it in documentaries.
I guess we keep discovering the same thing over the years.
Up here, the shitwagons are a rollin....
We have lots of dairy farms, a company pays the farmer to come in and pump out the liquified shit, then another farmer pays him to spread it on the crops...
Thanks for the ping! Good information here.
We are BLESSED to live in ‘The Driftless’ corner of SW Wisconsin - the glaciers missed us, so while we have hills and a good number of rocks, we also have great soil.
My secrets to great soil? Composted Mule Manure, compost from our household veggie and lawn scraps, and lots and lots of straw piled on top of garden beds for weed control, moisture retention and aesthetics. It breaks down beautifully, and I just pile more on top each spring season after planting.
I don’t do any tilling in my raised beds - too many earthworms in there and lots of good microbes and such. They know what to do on their own.
That said, Beau does till our big garden where we plant sweet corn, rows of flowers for pollinators, potatoes and winter keeping squashes. That area, too, is covered in straw for the reasons stated above. He only adds manure where I direct each year as those crops are rotated, so the potatoes don’t get too much nitrogen.
When I was a kid they would burn off the sugar cane fields at the end of the season. It was a quite a sight to see when driving past miles of burning fields at night.