Growing plants with charcoal
Richard Haard, Fourth Corner Nurseries, Bellingham, WA, June 27, 2007
[G2:709]
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This is an image of our charcoal as soil additive study at our nursery. Shown is one of our test subjects a local native shrub that we propagate and sell for riparian restoration projects. Black Twinberry, Lonicera involucratai. This plant was a 2 year old seedling, bareroot harvested and stems clipped to 6 inches before planting in the test bed 7 weeks ago.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1344/634886240_78b8dc7032_o.jpg
and our set of images on the 4CN charcoal project
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/sets/72157594444994347/
The charcoal in this test plot (charcoal 2) was prepared at our nursery from mostly alder cordwood. We had a proximate analysis on a sample of this charcoal at Hazen Labs. I sent in a sample with the fines and lumps as I applied it. Notice the ash is quite high. A considerable portion of this ' ash ' however is soil that contaminated the charcoal from our top draft earth covered pile
| Proximate % |
As Recd
|
Dry
|
Air dry
|
MAF
|
| Moisture |
34.47
|
0.00
|
1.54
|
0.00
|
| Ash |
27.70
|
42.26
|
41.61
|
0.00
|
| Volatile |
7.35
|
11.22
|
11.05
|
19.43
|
| Fixed C |
30.48
|
46.52
|
45.80
|
80.57
|
| Total |
100.00
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
MAF = Moisture and Ash Free
Lastly we had a surprise visitor to our farm this week and by coincidence when Larry and I were studying our plots. Sean Barry and his family on a vacation trip stopped by and we had a good ole time chatting about charcoal , our project and most everything under the sun
Rich Haard, Propagation Manager, Fourth Corner Nurseries
Bellingham, Washington