Floating Biochar

Floating char
Max Henderson, Australia, July 27, 2008

Floating Char

8 Weeks Floating Char

Couple of photos 6 weeks apart. Bucket is 20 litres. Added
to the water has been some pee, cow poo and a tablespoon of molasses.
First photo was 2 weeks after adding the char, second is 6
weeks later.

Approx 80% of the char has now sunk. The rest looks like sinking in another fortnight.
The sunken char is much easier to break (in one hand) than the material still in dry storage.

This char was produced at high temp – probably in excess of 800C.

Also of interest is the harvest today of some potatoes 11 weeks after planting in a bed mixture of cocopeat, worm castings, cow poo and char lumps (up to 50mm pieces). There has been significant breakup of the char,
with no mechanical processes involved.

I’m coming to the conclusion that if there is a reasonable mix of moisture, temp, critter activity, humus and nutrients, it matters little in the medium term what size the char particles are.

Max H