John Suavecito

Mustela Nivalis-
Have you looked into getting wood chips delivered to your property? Alternatively, you might have a neighbor (or your property?) That has a sick, dead tree that can be chopped up or used as hugelkulture?

I would think that even a restaurant or grocery store might throw out their produce and you could use it as compost.

John S
PDX OR

Yes, I think rabbit urine would work well, but you may have a source even more reliable and convenient than that.

The compost sounds great, although I will warn you.  Red wriggler worms and earthworms are said to hate citrus.  So you may compost the citrus in a separate way.  We throw our alliums (onions, etc) and citrus off the deck so it just lands on the surface of the garden.  Worms avoid them, so I don't want that in the worm bin or the compost pile.  Once they decompose, I'm sure worms won't hate them as much.

Bigger chunks of biochar are better for very arid conditions. They conserve water in them.

John S
PDX OR

What a great film! I love how it explains so many details about making biochar.  I am sure that there will be many people who watch this film and decide afterwards that they can do this model.  I could see some people who live on acreage going in on one of those kilns together.  Hey buddy-watch this video. Do you think we should do that? Pretty easy to move it to the location with a pickup truck and a friend. Then the next person can use it.  

JohN S
PDX OR

Keep in mind that the ph of biochar can vary. I have seen reports from neutral to very alkaline, like 11.  I think it mostly depends on how much ash is in it.  I try to be careful not to leave too much ash. Mostly I do that by trying to stop my TLUD by drenching it with water at the right time, before too much ash is generated.  NOrmally, I have a very small bit of wood that is not completely burned and I have to save it and burn it the next time, which is not a problem.  

I have read before that urine is neutral as it leaves the body, so I would definitely also use that. It's free and convenient.  

As Eino referred to, almost anything fermented will become quite acidic.  If you have old vegetables that you cut out, or banana peels, orange rinds, coffee grounds, compostable stuff etc., fermenting them would make them quite acidic.  That seems like the easiest and cheapest thing to do. Put them under water with a rock on the lid, or whatever your favorite method is.

John S
PDX OR

This is a great question. I advocate inoculating with nutritious items that are inexpensive to you. I have an orchard, so I use rotten fruit, which should be acidic.

I think that even when our produce is occasionally off or damaged, that means that we are connected to the cycles of the Earth. We see our role in adjusting to what we humans have done (pollution? disrupted the balance of nature? Climate change? Disturbing normal soil regeneration?).  That means that we can see how we can try our best to get the planet back to a normal, healthy situation in which we are fulfilling our ecological roles and making room for all of the other beings to do their jobs.

John S
PDX OR

I also think that as more of us grow our own high quality food and improve the soil, we are going to notice the difference between highly nutritious, tree-ripened,  great tasting food and the grocery store model.  I believe that we are going to set up a lot more exchanges locally, and people will connect with others near themselves to find the good stuff and heal the Earth. As we look into and invest in the experiment, we change the experiment, and it changes us.    That only happens if we invest in the soil, in the knowledge and in connecting with others, such as here on permies.

JohN S
PDX OR

So I burned biochar again today.  Again I only added wood by slightly lifting the chimney and shoving wood in for a 5 or less second addition.  Again, it barely smoked and didn't shut down.  It stayed burning strong.  The TLUD stayed top lit.   I realized today that it works so well that I'm adding too much wood, possibly making too much for my system.  I think the timing is rather key-only add the wood when the new stuff has really started burning.  This is my new regular and I'm never going back to taking the whole thing off, adding a whole bunch of wood, almost shutting down the fire and creating a lot of smoke for a long time.  I'm just confirming that it really does work. It wasn't just a one-time fluke anecdote.

John S
PDX OR

I think that we are missing something here in our discussion.  We don't live in a vacuum.  Modern physics tells us that our perception of the experiment changes the experiment.  We are showing others the way.  I do have other work, but my food forest isn't mostly about saving money, even though it saves me tons of money.  As I start to grow fruit, I get better at growing fruit. The flavor of my produce is spectacular. I eat more produce and less junk.   I share my experiences with others.  They learn from me. I learn from them. I share some of my extras with the poor and others.  We are changing the future.  When I hear doctors talk about centenarians, I have heard several say that they have never met a centenarian that wasn't a gardener.  People in our communities around us start to want to grow high quality food.  I went to a restaurant a couple of years ago and he wanted me to grow fruit for him.  These are opportunities.  As Abraham said, a high quality restaurant doesn't just want produce that is the cheapest. THey want to know that it's high quality so their customers are satisfied.  

It's not just the money that is saved. The quality of my personal food is much better because I'm growing it.  It has more nutrition and more minerals in it, because I'm not extracting profits to sell to make the most money. I'm taking care of the soil and the plants in the long run.  Ask any naturopathic or osteopathic doctor and they'll tell you that the best way to remain healthy is to eat really high quality food.  I don't make a lot of money, but I care about the food I'm growing.  Yes, we get more exercise, but we're also connected to nature and we can share that with others.  We are also helping others change the culture in a better direction. I am planting an orchard at one of the schools that I work at. My hope is that the kids can see that and want to try this for themselves. The kids see me playing full court basketball in my 60's and stealing bases in baseball and maybe they start to figure out how to be healthy.  Maybe they will see how we are connected and we don't want to pollute.  Pollinators are important.  Our actions affect the whole community.  Who knows what impacts we will have, but if we don't start, we'll never know what we could have done.

John S
PDX OR

Thank you Jeff,
I can tell you what method I use, but the more you read in this forum, I think you will find that there are many effective systems, and it is likely that you will want to find one that matches your property and lifestyle.  

I had wanted to start with biochar for years, but I couldn't find a method that I thought I could really use.  This you tube video was the first one that I saw and realized that I could make biochar, so I patterned my system after it.  All of the other people on this forum have helped me immensely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIbGkmt1VdE&t=127s

I live in a suburb, so I need to make biochar in my driveway in a closed container.  Your land may be different.  Some people on this forum use open topped troughs, some use the trench system, many use retorts, and many others have invented their own systems.  I think if you read the posts here, you will likely find one that works really well for you.  I think almost all of us here continue to learn and adapt our systems as we experiment and hear from others.

John S
PDX OR