[Gasification] Biochar et al.

[Energies Naturals C.B.]

What in German is called Hügelkultur or Hügelbeet (mound culture) could be translated into raised bed. I remember having heared this .

It is basically a technique building layers of organic material from very woody, which comes below to a thin layer of good soil ontop of a mature compost.

Check Hügelbeet in your search machine.

Rolf  




On Mon, 9 Dec 2013 16:49:36 +0700
"Robert Deutsch" <robdeutsch at online.com.kh> wrote:

> Dear DJM, I have never heard of Hugelkultur either, but a Google search did
> turn up a number of hits.  Looks interesting, but I have always heard that
> uncomposted woody material put into the soil without adequate nitrogenous
> materials will actually draw nitrogen out of the surrounding soil as the
> little microbes need both C and N to thrive.  A balance of 20:1 to 30:1 is
> recommended for successful composting.
> 
>  
> 
> I just remembered the radio show I heard on rock dust recommend igneous rock
> dust (ie Basalt or Granite). 
> 
>  
> 
> From: Gasification [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On
> Behalf Of David Murphy
> Sent: Monday, December 09, 2013 2:43 PM
> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Biochar et al.
> 
>  
> 
> Robert, I haven't got any thoughts on Hugelkultur I'm sorry to say.
> Actually, never heard of it before !
> 
> Clay won't get you any mileage.   You want basalt dust.  The fines are an
> unwanted by-product fromn a quarry.    You want it as fine as possible, like
> talc actually and what buy from a quarry will have some of this, but only a
> small percentage.    The bulk will be maybe 2 - 3mm, pretty small and it
> will work, but the smaller the better.   Bacteria are surface feeders and
> the smaller the particle, the greater the surface area and therefore the
> higher the pupulation of bacteria you can support.   To get a good result
> from rock dust, you should use it with compost.
> 
> DJM.
> 
> On 09/12/2013 4:22 PM, Robert Deutsch wrote:
> 
> Rock dust is a by-product of rock crushing plants, I think granite is
> preferred dust for Ag use (could be wrong on that point).
> 
>  
>