Growing plants with charcoal

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