Both. Think of it as a "savings account" for organic matter. It provides a home for organic compounds/molecules via the free carbon. The microbes can benefit from it as well. Lu
Researching Biochar and found this http://biochar.pbworks.com/w/page/9748043/FrontPage http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-BioChar-and-Terra-Preta/
think of it like an apartment complex with a a large amount of storage; where all the tenants are hoarders.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michigan-Biochar/147960471987808 I am going to get a hold of these guys. see whats up. https://www.sunlightsupply.com/shop/bybrand/mother-earth/mother-earth-premium-biochar Also, if your hydro store loves you, and you like giving them money, you can get them to carry this. you can source biochar online for a dollar a pound.
Incorrect. Biochar is just once-living material, burned low (400-600), with very low oxygen. It could be a canna plant, a basil plant, a peanut, anything really. Lump charcoal is hardwood that's been scorched fast at low temps to remove most of the mass, and THEN burned low and slow, with little oxygen. Either way, Wet, you have a point. It doesn't really matter. The end result is always a carbon skeleton, that's it. What else was there makes no difference. Lu
Hmmm Ok, just figured there wasn't enough mass there for anything to be left after burning. Not for charcoal anyway. Or, are you saying that Biochar is not charcoal based, or doesn't need to be, or just what? Not trying to troll or anything, I just always figured Biochar was tricked out lump charcoal with really good press and little more. But, I could be mistaken. :-}) Wet
I was always under the impression biochar was strictly manufactured from hardwoods too..can't recall why or if there was even a reason..haven't used the stuff in years.. Perhaps it was just a solution to an industry problem that adapted to fill a role in agriculture...like most things we experiement with...hmmm....
lmao just a question even though it may have been a dumb one Ahahaha So is there some other method I can use to recycle what my previous plants had put so much energy into creating? I mean trees aren't the first to grow back after a devastating forest fire so it must benefit many plants in several ways.
Not yet. Which is why I want something that that would expedite making use of the stocks. I'll probably cook my soil for a month after re amending it, but I'm debating on whether or not that is long enough to break down the root balls and/or especially the stock. All my grow related stuff is taking over the space in my garage so as soon as I find a good place and have an extra Rubbermaid container I'll be making a worm bin.
you can make char out of pretty much any biomass.you just need the proper conditions to get the highest quality product. It is said that char made at the proper temperature can have up to a tennis courts worth of surface area in a tablespoon.
That article is mildly dramatic on the fact that our depleting oxygen levels is because of rain forests being cut down. About 70% of the worlds oxygen comes from the ocean, our biggest concern should be holes in the Ozone because soft bodied phytoplankton and a good majority of marine plants can only handle so much as far as concentration of UV rays go. On top of that CO2 and water are not a good mix for marine life, because as the more acidic our oceans become the more fatally detrimental factors we have affecting this ecosystem and it's large supply of the worlds oxygen. However I do believe chopping down the forests will eventually have some fatal affect on us. The world we live in constantly relies on maintaining homeostasis, humans are over populated as is, and the more that we throw off the ecosystems that we are a part of the more that "mother nature" will react(I.e. Severe weather, depletion of resources, exc.). There's some sort of population control for every type of creature whether it be self inflicted or just plain bad luck, I believe were just working towards our own end by throwing off this balance that the world works so hard to create... Then again I might just be an educated yet undereducated hippy.. Edit: My bad for being off topic, not meaning to turn this into a "What's going to kill us all" discussion thread lol
Just read your history. Trust me, ol Ma Nature WILL self correct at some point and take out a very large chunk of the world population. Usually in the form of pandemics, but a decent asteroid strike, or a couple/few big volcano's blowing up would do the trick also. But a Captain Trips scenario is the most likely. I'm betting on the bird flu with a couple more mutations in (ease of), transmission. Not if, but when. Wet
I was thinking more along the lines of great oxidation/snowball/slushball events. These events happened under a way shorter duration of time than we had originally suspected. And they are 3 of several mass extinctions the planet has delved out...yet, for some strange reason, she never sterilized herself. I love theoretical scenario talk like this about our mother. She's WAY more sadistic than most understand. Unfortunately, the weak anthropic principal doesn't allow us to realize where we have been so blessed, and/or what the earth would have been like w/out us. Lu
full sterilization is excessively difficult, the larger the area, the more energy that needs to be utilized for sterilization. it would take a massive solar event, or cosmic event (gamma ray burst within 10 light years) to even come close to being able to sterilize the planet. or if aliens wanted to bombard the surface with plasma, that could work too.
I'm thinking more along the lines of either a new era Black Plague or just the planet turning into a massive desert or frozen over. It's not that the world would be better without us it's just we have yet to discover something that keeps our population under control other than a flimsy piece of rubber . But really every other part of the food chain has some other part controlling it or they just don't reproduce often or as much at once. Humans are over populating off the fucking chain. What happens when one spider mite goes unnoticed in an indoor grow for a month? Two answers there's more mites/mites-to-be than you can count and the ecosystem you tried so hard to maintain is now destroyed. Moral of the story, Fuck spider mites. Oh yeah, and have your woman on the pill unless you actually want a kid.
The last three comments May or may not have been troll comments, but I'm too internet socially ignorant to tell and I'm being dead ass