Friday, October 14, 2011

The Darkening...

Amending soil with rice hull charcoal
As you can see, the sandy soil in my garden is on the left. I put about 5cm of rice hull charcoal on the soil as you see on the top right, and mixed it in with my fingers and a small garden trowel (bottom right)
That is quite a bit darker. I am looking forward to see how it does with fava beans in it next month.

A friend of mine advises to soak the hulls in urine for a few days to let them get some nitrogen in them. What do you think?
Posted by Eric at 11:48 PM
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2 comments:

  1. AnnaOctober 15, 2011 at 8:26 AM

    Soaking in urine is what I did with my biochar, and it worked quite well. The idea is that the dose of nitrogen offsets the high carbon content of the charcoal, so you don't get stunted growth in the ground the first year. Any type of high nitrogen will work --- manure, compost, etc.

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  2. EricOctober 15, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    I plan to water them with diluted urine often in the next month before planting. I sure hope it works! The next batch (and there will be many more- my only limit on making it is time) I will give it a try.
    I might try a 50/50 mix with goat manure as well.

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