Australian Biochars
Jerome Matthews, June 21, 2008
Australian Biochars

Hi There,

We are commercial suppliers of biochars and just thought that you may be interested as we don't think that anyone else is yet producing to our levels. We're happy to receive queries.

You may find us at http://www.biochars.com

Best regards.

Jerome Matthews

Agrichar Video
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2007

Video on Agrichar, International Agrichar Initiative conference (April 2007), BEST Technologies, and use of agrichar in Australia.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/broadband/catalyst/asx/Agrichar_hi.asx

Terracarbona.com - A New Website for the Promotion of Biochar Research and Experimentation
Chris Braun. February 27, 2008

A new website for the promotion of biochar research and experiments was born !
http://terracarbona.com

You can there discover several biochar-related projects, most of them still in active development . If you are performing biochar soil amendmend trials yourself, your contribution to CharDB or to the Field Trial Portal would be highly appreciated!
And if you haven't done it so far but would like to start experimenting, you can also find useful resources, links and contacts to help you.

This website is still in its infancy and any constructive comment, critic, question, advice... is very important for further development ! For that you can use the devoted forum:
http://z15.invisionfree.com/CharDB/index.php?showforum=2

Thanks for your contribution!

Sincerely yours,
Chris
terracarbona@bionecho.org

Effects of mycorrhizal fungi and biochar 90 Days

Robert Flanagan, Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd. (SAFFE), February 15, 2008

Day 90

Hey Guys, Just got to 90days of my latest biochar trial and wanted some feedback on what data you think I should be taking from this trial? We can clean off the roots and photo as much as possible and do clearly marked side by side photos.

I don't have any funding for this trials so there is a limit on the depth I can go regarding data collection so I'm really looking for a base list. The medium was sterilized subsoil and we used 2Kg soil per tray with three reps of each treatment (I just took the average of each treatment for the attached photo).

Kind Regards, Rob.

Robert Flanagan
Chairman & President Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.

saffechina@gmail.com

Skype "saffechina"

Tel: 86-571-881-850-67 Cell: 86-130-189-959-57

Control
Biochar

Modified Biochar

Effects of mycorrhizal fungi and biochar 75 Days
Robert Flanagan, Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.
(SAFFE), February 5, 2008

I just got to visit my biochar trial at BIOTROP today so I took a few photos to give all you some idea of the profound difference biochar makes to subsoil
Control

Rice Husk Charcoal

Rice Husk Charcoal + VAM

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvo1w8gFSts

What we're seeing is the plants treated with VAM fungi + biochar are a lot darker green and show more plant growth at the 75day mark so I'll push on up to day90 and see what happens.

Robert Flanagan
Chairman & President
Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.

Skype "saffechina"
Tel: 86-571-881-850-67
Cell: 86-130-189-959-57

Charcoal in agriculture: Experimental research at Fourth Corner Nurseries
Richard Haard, Fourth Corner Nurseries, Bellingham, Washington, January 3, 2008

Greetings

I just finished over the last few days organizing images and data from my charcoal experimental plots. I am presenting a new set of posters showing root systems of the native shrub, Lonicera involucrata or black twinberry that I used as an experimental subject in these treatment plots this summer.

This will be the last of a series of piecemeal postings about my findings on the terrapreta reading list. In time, I will prepare a summary of what I have accomplished this year, the shortcomings, what I feel I have learned from this work about using charcoal and my plans for continuing this experiment for 2 or more growing seasons.

Quick background - my employer, Fourth Corner Nurseries is a bare root native plant nursery. We grow more than 350 kinds of plants for environmental restoration and landscaping purposes. Our farm is 60 acres in 2 fields. Shown here is our east field. Formerly, I have been trying charcoal as a soil additive for several years and this season I attempted a controlled experiment. It did not go without a hitch.

What I established this year was a series of 28 - 17 foot long treatment blocks that are a pair of treatment sets consisting of untreated soil, charcoal only, fertilizer only compost only and combinations of charcoal, compost, fertilizer. In each treatment block 3 kinds of plants were installed: a native shrub, Lonicera; a native perennial - Aster subspicatus; and a vegetable - swiss Chard.
All were selected for their heavy nitrogen consumers and all production was removed from the plots, roots and tops, then the plots replanted and cropped again without further fertilizer, compost or charcoal.

The most detailed measurements accomplished this year is 2 sets of soil chemical analysis completed at a University laboratory. Plant response measurements this year, for several reasons was only visual observation. This set of posters I am presenting today shows subtle but interesting and positive additive effects of compost and charcoal.
Further analysis will be presented at a later date.

How it went. Early April while the plants were still dormant I took 2 year old bareroot Lonicera seedlings trimmed tops and roots and planted in peat/perlite mix in 4X4 inch containers. At these same time I planted
sprigs of Aster in the same manor. After the plants had firmly rooted into the containers and our field soil had warmed, I prepared a growing bed in our normal propagation field ( Field 13, row 8). The growing bed is about 4
feet wide and 500 feet long. I divided this into 17 foot beds with separate treatments in a systematic way. Here is charcoal 1, a fine powder that was donated by JF Waste energy systems. Here is charcoal 2 a lump and powder mix that
Larry Williams and I made with a top draft earth covered mound. I am using the lump charcoal because I can observe microbe utilization over time as Larry has been studying for several years.

Here are the charcoal test beds are they appeared before rototilling. In this image furthest is compost only, then compost/charcoal1,then compost/charcoal2,then compost/charcoal 1/fertilizer and so on in a systematic pattern repeating again in a second duplicate set on the north end of the field. In discussing these tests I sometimes discuss each set separately, are are called south set and north set.

Here are the plots immediately after rototilling. Note that the charcoal does not appear to be uniformly dispersed. After harvest with the
lifter-shaker charcoal is better mixed in the soil. Each bed received about 30 gallons of charcoal. Fertilizer and Composti were applied at rates normal for our farming practices.

We planted the plots in mid May and by late June they looked like this and this and this .

By the end of August the Swiss
Chard had matured and we had our first harvest. Yields were impressive but no trends specific to treatments were noticed.

Here you can see our plot method for measuring yields of swiss chard and also how the separate treatments, Lonicera, Asteri and swiss chard have grown together making assessment of total production rather difficult.
In late October I conducted a survey of the Lonicera component of the research plots. It was the end of the growing season but before the frost defoliated the plants.

Here is how the plots looked. My first look at the data that showed a subtle but encouraging trend of improvement from the use of charcoal 1.

In this set of images notice that the treatments with compost when combined with charcoal tended to be larger.
The same trend is also noticed in the compost/fertilizer/charcoal combinations. By mid November we were ready
to lift all the plant material from the plots, examine the roots and fall replant with a single species crop for next year. Here we have our lifter shaker harvesting the plants, Lonicera with charcoal staining roots and Rena picking up the plants. Later we replanted with our 4
row seeder and reseeding with another native shrub species, Oemleria cerasiformis, chosen because it too is an agressive nitrogen consumer.

Finally the posters I have prepared to compare top growth and root growth in each of the treatment sets. I have organized the images according to groups of treatments as follows: The links are to the larger size images for better viewing. Edit note root images were created 11/15 not 10/25

First Groups 1 and 2 the control sets that received no treatment or had charcoal only
Roots
Field View

Next Groups 3 and 4 fertilizer sets Edit Roots is labeled as Groups 1 and 2
Roots
Field
View

Next Group 5 South end plots compost set
Roots
Field
View

Next Group 6 North end plots compost set
Roots
Field
View

I think these findings will be encouraging information for John Flotvik and many thanks for his donation of charcoal from his pyrolyser and thanks again to Larry Williams , his thoughtful work and helping when it is most needed.

I am looking forward to another season of data from this set of test plots. Comments, ideas, criticism, discussion whatever are appreciated as I am now preparing my season end report.

Richard Haard, Fourth Corner Nurseries, Bellingham,Washington.

Copyright January 3, 2008
Permission for distribution of these materials and images is granted for entire text and images only so long as the author and initial place of publication;"http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/" is
cited. Individual images may be used by permission only from author.

Agronomic values of greenwaste biochar as a soil amendment
K. Y. Chan, L. Van Zwieten, I. Meszaros, A. Downie,and S. Joseph
Australian Journal of Soil Research 45(8) 629–634, December 2007

Abstract

A pot trial was carried out to investigate the effect of biochar produced from greenwaste by pyrolysis on the yield of radish (Raphanus sativus var. Long Scarlet) and the soil quality of an Alfisol. Three rates of biochar (10, 50 and 100 t/ha) with and without additional nitrogen application (100 kg N/ha) were investigated. The soil used in the pot trial was a hardsetting Alfisol (Chromosol) (0–0.1 m) with a long history of cropping. In the absence of N fertiliser, application of biochar to the soil did not increase radish yield even at the highest rate of 100 t/ha. However, a significant biochar × nitrogen fertiliser interaction was observed, in that higher yield increases were observed with increasing rates of biochar application in the presence of N fertiliser, highlighting the role of biochar in improving N fertiliser use efficiency of the plant. For example, additional increase in DM of radish in the presence of N fertiliser varied from 95% in the nil biochar control to 266% in the 100 t/ha biochar-amended soils. A slight but significant reduction in dry matter production of radish was observed when biochar was applied at 10 t/ha but the cause is unclear and requires further investigation.

Significant changes in soil quality including increases in pH, organic carbon, and exchangeable cations as well as reduction in tensile strength were observed at higher rates of biochar application (>50 t/ha). Particularly interesting are the improvements in soil physical properties of this hardsetting soil in terms of reduction in tensile strength and increases in field capacity.

Keywords: charcoal, char, agrichar, soil strength, soil carbon sequestration, hardsetting soil, slow pyrolysis.
Australian Journal of Soil Research 45(8) 629–634
Submitted: 27 July 2007 Accepted: 2 November 2007 Published: 7 December 2007
Full text DOI: 10.1071/SR07109

See also:Assessing agronomic values of chars to an Australian hardsetting soil presentation to the International Agrichar Initiative conference, Australia, 2007.

Potato
This is Puffergas' first test of growing potatoes in switchgrass compost. The potatoes were grown in containers and charcoal was added to the compost.
See link below:
Potato 2007 by Puffergas

Terra Preta and Ants - Rooftop Experiments
Dr. Sai Bhaskar Reddy, India, December 13, 2007

Dear All,
After the successful field trials in Alkaline soils http://e-alkalinesoilsterrapreta.blogspot.com/ , I have just started second season TP experiments on a small scale on our Roof top in small pots
http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/. The charcoal is exclusively from use of Magh-1 woodgas or smoke burner stove
http://e-smokeburnerstove.blogspot.com/ designed by me. I would like to share some of my immediate observations.

One day after establishing pots and the seed with soil and charcoal and only soil. I have sowed brinjal seeds in the 6 with charcoal + soil and 6 only soil. To my surprise I saw that in the three control pots the seeds were eaten away by small red ants. The six pots with a mix of about 30% charcoal were untouched by ants. In TP practice the chances of germination of the seed with out any loss to creatures like ants is minimized. I thought this is the first direct benefit of using charcoal. On day two I saw that all the pots without charcoal are with small red ants. There is not a single ant in the pot with charcoal addition.

Although I love ants, to avoid ants eating away the seeds sown, we could always add some charcoal along with the seeds. Second important application is that in the Vermicompost pits some ants eat away the earthworms to avoid such problem and for value addition to the compost to create a habitat for microbes, we could as well add charcoal.

From web I learnt that those you want to avoid toxic chemicals are using charcoal and diatomous earth as a repellant for ants. For photographs please see the blog below.
http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/

I would like to know from your experiences what could be the other impacts in using Charcoal to the living things existing in soil.

Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy

The fines of rice hull ash mixed in with stored seeds are very effective in controlling weevils. (Rice hulls have a very high silica content.) The sharp silica structures in the ash scratch the cutinous exoskelton of the first insects to emerge, leaving them to dessicate before they can breed and lay more eggs. (I was taught this in a weekend course by the Tropical Products Insitute, U.K.)

DE (diatomaceous earth) will do the same because of its silica edges, and is also used for pest control in storing grain. It is also recommended to add DE to compost for the same reason: it is not injurious to beneficials in the process like the digestive tract of worms, but will control certain pests that like to colonize compost
piles.

Could it be that the charcoal has similar cystalline structures which keeps the insects away...in fear of being scratched to death...?

Gerald Van Koeverden vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca

According to a old research study, the effect of charcoal fines on insects might have nothing to do with it as an abrasive or 'scratchy'medium. This article shows that certain dusts actually absorb the lipoid layer from the exoskelton of bees without any apparent abrasion, resulting in the dehydration of the insect. The results (Table 1) show that all the dusts effected an increase in the rate of water-loss of the dead bees; that the three most effective dusts were silica gel, Almicide and activated charcoal, the common physical property of these materials being their capacity to act as powerful absorbents; that Bentonite and activated charcoal, both soft materials, were more effective than carborundum, which is hard and highly abrasive. These facts again indicate that abrasion is not an important factor in the action of these dusts in disrupting the waterproofing layers, and suggest furthermore that they may act by adsorbing the lipoid material.
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/32/1/95.pdf

Gerrit

Dear Gerrit
Thanx for this interesting paper.

TECHNICAL NOTICE:
Activated charcoal (from gas mask 300 mesh about 50 micron) is very much different than TP. Activated charcoal is an aggressive - powerful absorbent with specific surface area BET 650-1200 m2/g, while TP is mild with specific surface area BET 25-100 m2/g, As far as I know CALCON Carbon tried to put in activated carbon to soil since long time, but was not successful.

Sincerely yours: Edward Someus (environmental engineer)
Terra Humana Clean Tech Ltd. (ISO 9001/ISO 14001)
3R Environmental Technologies Ltd.
ADDRESS: H-1222 Budapest, Szechenyi 59, Hungary
TEL handy: +(36-20) 201 7557
TEL / FAX: +(36-1) 424 0224
TEL SKYPE phone via computer: Edward Someus
3R TERRACARBON: http://www.terrenum.net
3R CLEANCOAL ENERGY: http://www.nvirocleantech.com

Biochar Trials at Fourth Corner Nursery
Richard Haard, Fourth Corner Nursery, Bellingham, WA, December 6, 2007
Hello All - For your interest

I submitted to Tom for posting [attached] some initial soil analysis data from my charcoal block study. In am just beginning to compile a report on this work. When it is posted you will see soil analysis results averaged for each replication(2) for 2 dates , April and October. Listed are pH, Buffer pH, OM, Nitrate, Cation Exchange Capacity (CECi) and base exchange components, % Potassium, % Magnesium, % Calcium. Other soil analysis was taken but not presented here.

Keep in mind this is a 2 to 3 year study and no additional additions or treatments will be done other than continuous cropping and harvest of all growth, tops and roots, at our bare-root native plant nursery. It is my attempt to emulate Christoph Steiner, et al research in Manaus

Long term Effects of manure, charcoal and mineral fertilization on crop production and fertility on a highly weathered Central Amazonian upland soil

http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/node/442

Our test was compost, charcoal (two sources) mineral fertilization and control and permutations as was done in experiment above. We're in the moist mild climate of the Pacific NW, USA on a sandy loam soil. It naturally carries very high levels of potassium and calcium found also in unfarmed soil.

I have never tried this kind of intensive soil testing before and am still learning about season to season changes and how to interpet the data. I am working now on photosets taken at harvest time and these will be posted as well as a concise statement on the experiment terms and what I think the results represent.

Rich Haard -
And thanks to Larry Williams for his work with me on this project and his critical comments.