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If you want to know more about biochar this a good book, I got it around the hood, then bought the meat world one because I thought it was quite good. Lots of

If you want to know more about biochar this a good book, I got it around the hood, then bought the meat world one because I thought it was quite good. Lots of pictures and easy read - https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Biochar-Supercharge-Bioactivated-Nutrient-rich/dp/1612129552/ https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Biochar-Supercharge-Bioacti... Or jump straight to the science with a meta-analysis - "A global dataset of biochar application effects on crop yield, soil properties, and greenhouse gas emissions" - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02867-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02867-9 Or the million Youtube vids etc. Blah blah sequestering CO2, what I like is it's a permanent soil amender, your work in the garden lasts 100 years, plus it's a solution to all carbon rubbish. Not quite got grass clippings sorted yet, but trying to hack a solution. I'd love to know if a solar oven would work.

wolverine876 3y ago
What is biochar exactly? I see some relationship with the Amazon Dark Earth in the OP - is it the same thing? Related? EDIT: From the OP: ADEs have up to 7.5 times more carbon within compared to the surrounding soils. As ADEs accumulate, the carbon becomes trapped underground, where it remains stable for hundreds of years – locking it away and delaying its entry into the atmosphere. It's not clear why the carbon within ADEs behaves this way, but scientists suspect that it has something to do with "black carbon", also known as "biochar". This key ingredient is made from organic material that has been turned to almost pure carbon at high temperatures, in the presence of little oxygen. The process doesn't emit as much carbon dioxide as charcoal production, but leads to a fine, crumbly black product that has been found in ADEs across the Amazon. So how much carbon does biochar release? What is the climate impact of it? > Not quite got grass clippings sorted yet, but trying to hack a solution. I'd love to know if a solar oven would work. This is awesome work! I hope you write up the results, and even Show HN.
- incompatible 3y ago
  Presumably, if a form of carbon in the soil is inert, then it doesn't do much to help agriculture, although it would be sequestering carbon. Organic matter in the soil will be normally be decomposed fairly quickly by soil bacteria and fungi, and these nutrients will be available to plants; dead plant matter then goes back onto the soil. Edit: the Nature article linked above said "Biochar incorporation can increase crop yield by ameliorating soil physical structure, improving nutrient availability, and enhancing microbial activities"; whether it does this without decomposing, I'm unclear.
  - 0xDEADFED5 3y ago
    wild guess here, but it's probably helping with drainage? much like you'd use perlite, moss, coir, etc. improving nutrient availability not by decomposition, but by facilitating movement of the nutrients
  - waldothedog 3y ago
    I believe there is also a nutrient capture/retention/release benefit from using biochar… it can keep beneficial compounds from washing away too quickly for a plant to make the most of it. The biochar can be inert, while still providing a benefit.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  Here is some information from one of the articles linked by the OP The main technique to create biochar, called pyrolysis, involves charring waste vegetation at low temperatures in an environment with little to no oxygen. “If you starve it of oxygen, then you cannot oxidize a piece of wood to CO2 and water—and you leave a lot of carbon behind,” said Lehmann. The same piece of wood left to rot or burned in normal (oxygen-rich) conditions would release its carbon into the atmosphere within minutes to months. When vegetation is charred, the carbon remains trapped for decades or even centuries. ... Recent research has found that biochar improves the soil in some contexts and has the most climate mitigation potential of any land-based effort, including agroforestry and afforestation—though Lehmann pointed out that nothing is more effective than keeping forests standing in the first place. https://eos.org/features/the-nutrient-rich-legacy-in-the-amazons-dark-earths https://eos.org/features/the-nutrient-rich-legacy-in-the-ama...
- tastyfreeze 3y ago
  Biochar is charcoal that has been loaded with nutrients. The immense surface area of charcoal provides a concentration of nutrients and refuge for bacteria. I use it to reduce nutrient leaching over winter when we get several feet of rain.
- aaron695 3y ago
  > So how much carbon does biochar release? What is the climate impact of it? Biochar is carbon negative, it sequesters carbon. Approximately ~ tree falls down, rots and it all gets turned back to methane -> CO2. Instead you pyrolysis (burn in low oxygen) the tree, I use the cone dug in ground method. This releases part of the CO2 and also stores a lot of the carbon, as you partly can see when they study 10,000 year old campfires. Then in theory you save on fertilizer and water as it averages it out and microbes process it better, which also reduces CO2. It also lowers compaction which makes for better plant root systems. Our local government sewerage (which we are not on) gets turned to biochar and put in fields. Biochar is a culture, it's beginnings are from the Amazon Dark Earth, I'm more into the science. People always have to talk about peeing on their biochar, sigh.... and they send their biochar off to be tested on how many football fields surface area per cubic inch ie one gram of biochar can have over 12,00 square feet of surface area. I'm not so sure on this, I think it's over maximization. Testing in the garden is good though, so I shouldn't complain.
tastyfreeze 3y ago
Use your nitrogen rich grass clippings to compost some of your carbon and load charcoal to make biochar.
- tudorw 3y ago
  If you don't have grass clippings, you can buy alfalfa fairly cheaply and it's packed with nitrogen.
waldothedog 3y ago
Do you have room for a small compost pile? Or even a rotating compost bin? Grass clippings are a great add to a bin and they generate a good amount of heat to help the process get going.

wolverine876 3y ago

What is biochar exactly? I see some relationship with the Amazon Dark Earth in the OP - is it the same thing? Related? EDIT: From the OP: ADEs have up to 7.5 times more carbon within compared to the surrounding soils. As ADEs accumulate, the carbon becomes trapped underground, where it remains stable for hundreds of years – locking it away and delaying its entry into the atmosphere. It's not clear why the carbon within ADEs behaves this way, but scientists suspect that it has something to do with "black carbon", also known as "biochar". This key ingredient is made from organic material that has been turned to almost pure carbon at high temperatures, in the presence of little oxygen. The process doesn't emit as much carbon dioxide as charcoal production, but leads to a fine, crumbly black product that has been found in ADEs across the Amazon. So how much carbon does biochar release? What is the climate impact of it? > Not quite got grass clippings sorted yet, but trying to hack a solution. I'd love to know if a solar oven would work. This is awesome work! I hope you write up the results, and even Show HN.

incompatible 3y ago
Presumably, if a form of carbon in the soil is inert, then it doesn't do much to help agriculture, although it would be sequestering carbon. Organic matter in the soil will be normally be decomposed fairly quickly by soil bacteria and fungi, and these nutrients will be available to plants; dead plant matter then goes back onto the soil. Edit: the Nature article linked above said "Biochar incorporation can increase crop yield by ameliorating soil physical structure, improving nutrient availability, and enhancing microbial activities"; whether it does this without decomposing, I'm unclear.
- 0xDEADFED5 3y ago
  wild guess here, but it's probably helping with drainage? much like you'd use perlite, moss, coir, etc. improving nutrient availability not by decomposition, but by facilitating movement of the nutrients
- waldothedog 3y ago
  I believe there is also a nutrient capture/retention/release benefit from using biochar… it can keep beneficial compounds from washing away too quickly for a plant to make the most of it. The biochar can be inert, while still providing a benefit.
wolverine876 3y ago
Here is some information from one of the articles linked by the OP The main technique to create biochar, called pyrolysis, involves charring waste vegetation at low temperatures in an environment with little to no oxygen. “If you starve it of oxygen, then you cannot oxidize a piece of wood to CO2 and water—and you leave a lot of carbon behind,” said Lehmann. The same piece of wood left to rot or burned in normal (oxygen-rich) conditions would release its carbon into the atmosphere within minutes to months. When vegetation is charred, the carbon remains trapped for decades or even centuries. ... Recent research has found that biochar improves the soil in some contexts and has the most climate mitigation potential of any land-based effort, including agroforestry and afforestation—though Lehmann pointed out that nothing is more effective than keeping forests standing in the first place. https://eos.org/features/the-nutrient-rich-legacy-in-the-amazons-dark-earths https://eos.org/features/the-nutrient-rich-legacy-in-the-ama...
tastyfreeze 3y ago
Biochar is charcoal that has been loaded with nutrients. The immense surface area of charcoal provides a concentration of nutrients and refuge for bacteria. I use it to reduce nutrient leaching over winter when we get several feet of rain.
aaron695 3y ago
> So how much carbon does biochar release? What is the climate impact of it? Biochar is carbon negative, it sequesters carbon. Approximately ~ tree falls down, rots and it all gets turned back to methane -> CO2. Instead you pyrolysis (burn in low oxygen) the tree, I use the cone dug in ground method. This releases part of the CO2 and also stores a lot of the carbon, as you partly can see when they study 10,000 year old campfires. Then in theory you save on fertilizer and water as it averages it out and microbes process it better, which also reduces CO2. It also lowers compaction which makes for better plant root systems. Our local government sewerage (which we are not on) gets turned to biochar and put in fields. Biochar is a culture, it's beginnings are from the Amazon Dark Earth, I'm more into the science. People always have to talk about peeing on their biochar, sigh.... and they send their biochar off to be tested on how many football fields surface area per cubic inch ie one gram of biochar can have over 12,00 square feet of surface area. I'm not so sure on this, I think it's over maximization. Testing in the garden is good though, so I shouldn't complain.

tastyfreeze 3y ago

Use your nitrogen rich grass clippings to compost some of your carbon and load charcoal to make biochar.

tudorw 3y ago
If you don't have grass clippings, you can buy alfalfa fairly cheaply and it's packed with nitrogen.

waldothedog 3y ago

Do you have room for a small compost pile? Or even a rotating compost bin? Grass clippings are a great add to a bin and they generate a good amount of heat to help the process get going.