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Living organic soil from start through recycling
- Thread starter Gascanastan
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B
BlueJayWay
Great info, already have the links pulled up, thanks!
I live in an area that gets large forest fires every 10 years or more lol but not in the same spots of course because they haven't really recovered enough to burn much, damn pyros go crazy when its hot dry and windy. Yea I live within the national forest (high elevation) which I can enter just walking out my back door. There's many things that are starting to "click" in my head as far as using local resources instead of heading in to the city to buy something that was shipped from somewhere else etc etc.
With the discussion of char I realized how much fallen burnt logs, burnt stumps etc i have seen when hiking, I could pull pure charcoal out by the truckloads! And yes as you mentioned I've seen partially buried charred logs and whatnot.... I've got a weekend project, thanks guys
I live in an area that gets large forest fires every 10 years or more lol but not in the same spots of course because they haven't really recovered enough to burn much, damn pyros go crazy when its hot dry and windy. Yea I live within the national forest (high elevation) which I can enter just walking out my back door. There's many things that are starting to "click" in my head as far as using local resources instead of heading in to the city to buy something that was shipped from somewhere else etc etc.
With the discussion of char I realized how much fallen burnt logs, burnt stumps etc i have seen when hiking, I could pull pure charcoal out by the truckloads! And yes as you mentioned I've seen partially buried charred logs and whatnot.... I've got a weekend project, thanks guys
If you live in areas that get a good bush fire every 100 years or so then i bet there is char buried nearby. I am lucky enough to dig in my clay soil and come across perfect little nuggets of char in various places. Some is where people have been emptying their ash buckets or have had bonfires. But i have found char buried in much bushier areas.
I would look for stuff that has naturally pyrolised. If its buried under a good blanket of ash then wood starved of oxygen is exactly what we is after. Obviously by now the ash will all have washed away and the char maybe many years old... so long as its evenly black and shiny.
If you check the terra preta thread in my sig there is lots of info.
Including an ancient method for charring lots of brushwood at once: Simply dig a long, deepish trench and keep the soil handy. Fill the trench with your branches etc. Start a fire and get it burning hot and even.
Then evenly spread the soil back onto the fire. You should completely smother the fire but leave a breather hole for oxygen to enter by heaping soil around a straight branch and then removing. It may help to use more muddy soil for this bit.
Allow the fire to burn and watch the smoke coming out of the hole. Once it changes from thick white smoke to wispy and thin, almost no smoke fill in the air hole and allow to cook out for a few hours. Its best to leave it overnight and allow to cool right down. EDIT: Be sure to have a garden hose or water on hand if things go pear shaped or if you are in a hurry and want to cool it down quick.
You should be left with a nice big pile of perfect char.
I did this once in a big hole left by an uprooted tree. Worked well and i got a good few wheelbarrows of char.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx
Yesterday i was repotting some seedlings. In the bottom of each pot i put a 50/50 mix of dried pig poo and crushed char. I reckon this will give the plants a nice boost once the roots get down the inch or so of soil to the bottom.
Because the char absorbs bad stuff i reckon i wont have any root rot issues either if i get lots of rain before the plants fill out their new home.
IncredibowlBoss
Member
Any wiser old school heads able offer offer advice/anecdotes/etc about making Malawi cobs? A buddy is on probation getting UAs for the next 6 months (oh the irony of legal weed), so he decided to do this with some of the harvest he took down to prepare for his 'return'.
If no Malawi cob tales, I certainly expect you guys to wax reminiscent on Thai sticks again lol
If no Malawi cob tales, I certainly expect you guys to wax reminiscent on Thai sticks again lol
Interesting....looks like a viable way to maintain moisture levels for a while...considering the buds are at the right point going in.
I knew a guy who fitted valves on mason jar lids and would use a vacume of some home made fashion to charge the jars with nitrogen gas. Survivalist fellow...dude showed and smoked some w/me and it seemed normal...nitrogen is an inert gas..
I knew a guy who fitted valves on mason jar lids and would use a vacume of some home made fashion to charge the jars with nitrogen gas. Survivalist fellow...dude showed and smoked some w/me and it seemed normal...nitrogen is an inert gas..
is that an Echinopsis of some sort? i cant wait to get mine out in the full sunlight again, a few of the Mammillaria i have just get covered in blossoms...trying to track down a few of the local cacti from a licensed dealer for the yard,like a claret cup hedgehog,they get huge deep red blossoms,just beautiful..
I really don't know what you mean by carbon. It takes many forms. Cardboard is carbon, for example.
Mescalito can want you to vomit for the associated rush but I have taken freshly picked buttons and with tweezers pulled out all of the fluff (wherein dwells the barf alkaloid) and had a pleasent walk on the other side.
IncredibowlBoss
Member
Those 'cobs' get buried about 3' under soil (in this case, a 30 gallon trash can) and left under HIDs (or in hot sun, obviously) for 3-6 months, watered lightly once a month. Supposedly turns makes the buds insanely strong - seems to me like a long process of turning the trichs to hash thru heat & pressure.
The Danezaa of Northern BC are Dene or Dine as the Navajo and Apache. Their language is almost identical...interesting.
I lived with Haida in Haida Gwaii for a time...the land of the psilocybin. I became a dishonerary Haida for counting coup on a Cree
they are devilishly hard to find since they have a tendency to look like rocks until you get right on top of them...they one time i tried them they were dried,supplied by a navajo friend i met in alaska...maybe the whole barfing thing wouldnt have been so bad if it wasnt right in front of chuck-e-cheese....cause shit got real strange after that......
i became an honorary Salish for gifting them about 70 bald eagle feathers,and the guy i learned to woodcarve from was Salish
It is a Echinopsis, but I do not know which species. There are so many hybrids that I haven't been able to track down the specifics. I was surprised that the flower bloomed for over 5 days before dying off. Usually they last a day or two.... Might of been the tea's. LOL.
you bet,my geranium blossoms last much longer after a good tea,same thing with the succulents and cactus,any plant benefits from a healthy root zone
IncredibowlBoss
Member
They sell it but it is FANTASTICALLY overpriced at specialty garden supply stores. You sure you can't make it? I did it in my electric oven bro. Could almost certainly pull it off in a high-end toaster oven in smallish batches, even.
Why not use that cowboy charcoal stuff?
......Unfortunately not..
But this is perfect for my beds. I plan on amending and going back to no till. (This section of Icmag made me realize my "own" soil mix in the beds are shit.) The addition of char now would set me on course to be utilized by next summer.
But this is perfect for my beds. I plan on amending and going back to no till. (This section of Icmag made me realize my "own" soil mix in the beds are shit.) The addition of char now would set me on course to be utilized by next summer.
IncredibowlBoss
Member
in that case, i'd go with MHG's rec - get a bag of cowboy charcoal from whole foods, smash it with a brick - ammend
B
BlueJayWay
Oh so that's cowboy charcoal, I was thinkin it was what was leftover after a cowpie fire! But I bet that would be good char too!
when you guys are saying char is that just shortened charcoal? like the overpriced horticultural grade stuff i use as a drainage layer for my cactus?
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