Biochar in the news

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"Initially, biochar application produced inconsistent effects. Several early samples produced greater nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching than the control samples.   However, during the third wetting­drying cycle, four months after biochar application, all biochars reduced nitrous oxide emissions by up to 73%, and reduced ammonium leaching by up to 94%. The researchers suggest that reductions in nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen leaching over time were due to ³ageing² of the biochars in soil."  

Reply to
Bill who putters
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thanks Bill, i'm always interested in dirty news.

when visiting my Dad the other day he handed me a book called _The Lost City of Z_, quite a fun read and i'm sure glad i wasn't an Amazon explorer. i'd not have lasted more than a few hours...

though it is good to read that the candiru is really not what the book makes it out to be, still a rather squirmy read in parts.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

like wheeling out the good old slash and burn technology under a different light?

they never mention the pollution caused in making the stuff once put into the atmosphee can't be taken back (smoke and gasses not contained), nor the transporation of it from point of making to where it is to be used and also the transporting etc.,. of trees to the burn site, also the preassure put on forests this becomes another reason to deal in deforestation.

icing does make the cake hey?

the picture on this site speaks a thousand words:

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see my page for pic's of homemade incinerators all in the name of bio-char (quiet a back yard industry burgeoning to make and supply like to other gardeners):

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down.

On Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:11:26 -0400, Bill who putters wrote: snipped

Reply to
gardenlen

Slash and burn worked and it may offer some useful alterative. You seem hyper.

Reply to
Bill who putters

Read this again

Jesus Is Just Alright 2:11 Byrds 20 Essential Tracks From the Boxed Set: 1965-90 Rock/Pop MPEG audio file 80 3 7/6/10 5:24 PM

Jesus is Just Alright with Me 4:36 Doobie Brothers MPEG audio file

Reply to
Bill who putters

But this isn't slash and burn, it's slash and char.

There is the Carbon Cycle, and CO2 that goes into the atmosphere, is eventually sequestered by chlorophyl and turned to sugar, which may be twisted again into cellulose, which can be chard and sequestered, as I said, for up to 50,000 years, long after a typical tree has grown, fallen, and rotted away to its constituent nutrients.

We do need forests back as part of the mix in sequestering CO2.

In the making of charcoal there is little smoke. Think a luau pit with a big fire (and a pig), then covered over with dirt to continue without oxygen, and you have charcoal (and a cooked pig).

Typically, here in California, the indigenous would start a big fire in a cave, and then seal the cave up, to keep the oxygen out (and, unintentionally, to keep the smoke in).

Reply to
Billy

Oh Happy Day

Reply to
Billy

Slash and burn is not necessarily destructive. It has been sustainable in the past when population density was lower and the resting time between burns in any given place was long.

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

at least more of what is chopped down is kept when using biochar and has a chance of improving the soil. with slash and burn nutrients run off the top and then whatever slight improvement is there is gone within a few seasons.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

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