Further thoughts on my branch logger (Remet CNC R120)

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

Not saying it might not be useful but seems over hyped.

Yes I think some claims for its soil benefits are a bit strong and the companies selling it are inventing properties for their proprietary production methods and properties, just like any other marketing  promotion. It has become big business and I wouldn't hesitate to promote it to greenies locally if i had an otherwise stranded supply of woody arisings.

 

I do think in the long term it will prove to be one of the few viable means or sequestering carbon.

[GarethM]

50 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Yes I think some claims for its soil benefits are a bit strong and the companies selling it are inventing properties for their proprietary production methods and properties, just like any other marketing  promotion. It has become big business and I wouldn't hesitate to promote it to greenies locally if i had an otherwise stranded supply of woody arisings.

 

I do think in the long term it will prove to be one of the few viable means or sequestering carbon.

Or just grow your tree, chop it down and fill a mine shaft.

 

Exactly same reason why garbage dumps emit methane is it's not actually rotting down and creating much Co2.

 

Enriching the soil can only go so far, as everything rots down eventually.

Edited November 3 by GarethM

[spandit]

2 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Or just grow your tree, chop it down and fill a mine shaft.

I think the attraction of biochar is that it doesn't break down as quickly as wood so keeps the carbon captured

[skc101fc]

I realise this is all drifting away from the original branch logger topic, but my two pennies wort, I  use char from rinsing out the whisky casks at work as biochar on my own smallholding. It act not as a fertiliser but more a soil improver, very much like lime does. As quite rightly said earlier, it has no nutritional value on its own. The carbon remains locked into it for exceptionally long periods, as seen on archaeological digs. Instead the fertilising components, naturally and applied,  are able to chemically bond onto the char, and slowly leach out rather than be washed either away or down through the soil profile and so remain close to the surface,  available for root uptake.

Another benefit to me personally, is the grains dont break down in size and so assist drainage on a peaty loam mountain soil, which otherwise waterlogs at the merest sniff of rain.

[spandit]

3 hours ago, GarethM said:

Or just grow your tree, chop it down and fill a mine shaft.

 

Exactly same reason why garbage dumps emit methane is it's not actually rotting down and creating much Co2.

 

Enriching the soil can only go so far, as everything rots down eventually.

Methane is an even worse greenhouse gas! Biochar has been found in archaeological records - it doesn't break down that fast

[GarethM]

2 minutes ago, spandit said:

Methane is an even worse greenhouse gas! Biochar has been found in archaeological records - it doesn't break down that fast

What is it, do you mean bio charcoal?.

 

And why doesn't it break down in your archeological finds, because it's bone dry and chemically & biologically sterile!.

 

Go have a look at any bonfire after a good downpour, it's sterile & dead.

 

I've got a garden with 60 years worth of aga coal ash and wood ash, its certainly not your panacea solution to improve soil even with a good rotavator.

 

By the same logic, just fill a mineshaft with wood and cap it, leave it a few million years and tadah you've got coal, it's the same carbon sequestration without the arsing around.

[spandit]

Just now, GarethM said:

What is it, do you mean bio charcoal?.

 

And why doesn't it break down in your archeological finds, because it's bone dry and chemically & biologically sterile!.

 

Go have a look at any bonfire after a good downpour, it's sterile & dead.

 

I've got a garden with 60 years worth of aga coal ash and wood ash, its certainly not your panacea solution to improve soil even with a good rotavator.

 

By the same logic, just fill a mineshaft with wood and cap it, leave it a few million years and tadah you've got coal, it's the same carbon sequestration without the arsing around.

My bonfire site is covered in thick vegetation. I get the impression your opinion will not be swayed and I suspect we're veering away from my branch logger review a touch

[slack ma girdle]

Proper biochar is fractured internally during its production, giving it a huge internal surface area. This means it holds moisture in the soil structure,  and it means  that I have to do alot less watering in the drier months .

There are also other claims about nutrients and fungal myceilum, but i have no evidence of these.

[peds]

7 minutes ago, slack ma girdle said:

Proper biochar is fractured internally during its production, giving it a huge internal surface area.

 

This huge surface area, and all of the cracks and nooks and crannies available in even badly-made biochar (or in fact, just bits of charred woodchip), provide a safe haven and a semi-permanent home from which to propagate for the countless billions of organisms, both micro- and macroscopic, in the soil biota; and biochar that has been inoculated with a healthy biota from a healthy soil can be used to replenish those found in dead or depleted soils, which is just bonkers clever.

 

Similar to fecal matter transplants being used to cure all sorts of problems that one simply wouldn't expect to be able to in humans... it's pretty much magic, to be honest.