Collect the fine charcoal / biochar |
Weighing the biochar
Fresh green leaves from the bushes - Custurd apple plant
Adding Soil micorbes |
Application of soil microbes |
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| Adding Farm yard manure |
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Covering the manure with dry palm leaves
Sprinkling with water |
Traditionally people had been dumping the charcoal from their stoves in the Farm Yard Manure pits. A method has been evolved for creating Biochar Compost, using biochar + Farm yard Manure + soil microbes. 40 to 50% Biochar + 10 to 20% green leaves + 30 to 40% Farm Yard Manure (vermi-compost can also be used) + Soil Microbes (Tricoderma Viridea / Aztobactor / Azospirillium / Pseudomonas Fluorescence / etc.) half KG each. The soil microbes application is optional, if we believe your soil has life (rich of soil microbes) no need to apply. Keep it in a shaded place, by covering with palm leaves / dry paddy straw, sprinkle water every alternative day for retaining the moisture and also turn it upside down every two days. The temperature was around 30 deg centigrade within the compost. This Biochar compost is applied to the fields after 12 to 15 days. The field should be wet (that is after rains or irrigation) before application. Can be retained as a reserve repeating the water sprinking and turning it, till it can be used. Biochar should be applied to the field prior to the application of Biochar Compost. There is need to do more research in this regard scientifically. Presently with the above method 12 farmers were selected, such compost was prepared and applied to trial plots of 10 meter x 10 meter fields for long term observations.
Good Stoves and Biochar Communities project is being implemented by GEO
http://e-geo.org in Andhra Pradesh, India, with the support of Good Planet, France http://goodplanet.org This is a three years project.
Also see: http://e-alkalinesoilsterrapreta.blogspot.com/ for my past experiment in Biochar Compost preparation.
