Devv-2017-Having a good time in the dirt

stickman · Nov 30, 2017

Hi Scott, I came across this web page on making biochar yesterday and thought you might be interested. It seems a lot less complicated than I thought. http://www.ithaka-institut.org/ithaka/media/doc/1462795288103.pdf

The website I got this from is where i get my soil amendment recommendations from, based on the results of my soil test. Hopefully it'll be as useful for you. Cheers!
https://growabundant.com/category/biochar/

PaulG · Nov 30, 2017

Glad to see your Aji LD is still pumping out the pods.

Of all the powders I've made, this one is the favorite of
my friends and neighbors. Great taste, not so much heat.

Keep up the good work, Scott!

Devv · Dec 1, 2017

stickman said:
Hi Scott, I came across this web page on making biochar yesterday and thought you might be interested. It seems a lot less complicated than I thought. http://www.ithaka-institut.org/ithaka/media/doc/1462795288103.pdf

The website I got this from is where i get my soil amendment recommendations from, based on the results of my soil test. Hopefully it'll be as useful for you. Cheers!
https://growabundant.com/category/biochar/

Hi Rick!

Thanks for the links, some good reading

A refresher on my biochar status. The 40x40 fenced in area of the garden received close to 3"s of biochar 4 or 6 years ago. The larger pieces after crushing all the char were 5/16". I tilled it in deeply back then. To the right of the Hugel bed in an area that I guess is 18.5'x 5', that I added about 5"s of char, covered with about 6"s of my soil, then 3-4"s of RCW on top. It's currently marinating. It's my wannabe Terra Preta experiment. Just because I want to play

So this line from reading your links:

"If you don’t add minerals at this step it may rob your soil of needed nutrients and thereby also rob your plants. We are doing 3 different trials to see which method of mineralization works the best."

This is very interesting!

I never noticed any issues with the initial application of the char years ago. In fact I saw immediate results.

I'm really interested to see how the experiment goes next spring on the new mini plot. I hit the area once with some tomato fertilizer (5lb for the plot) to charge it. I have one fall tomato plant in it, and it's doing well

Devv · Dec 1, 2017

PaulG said:
Glad to see your Aji LD is still pumping out the pods.

Of all the powders I've made, this one is the favorite of
my friends and neighbors. Great taste, not so much heat.

Keep up the good work, Scott!

Thanks Paul!

We too have been making the powder. And it's one of our favorites too. If we need more heat we can add another type

You know, grinding the powder is certainly a consideration for contracting out...LOL

Here, grind all that, and you can have half on me for your troubles

PaulG · Dec 1, 2017

Devv said:
You know, grinding the powder is certainly a consideration for contracting out...LOL

Here, grind all that, and you can have half on me for your troubles

You know, Scott, the thought has
crossed my mind. Same for purees
and ferments.

I can't use it all, anyway! :lol:

Devv · Dec 2, 2017

PaulG said:
You know, Scott, the thought has
crossed my mind. Same for purees
and ferments.

I can't use it all, anyway!

Hah! I may well have a ~~victim~~ buddy who's interested. He's too busy to grow, bhut loves the heat :shh:

So here's my soil test:

Looks like too much of a good thing!

I expected the high Ph results. But not the rest. They added a page on the high Phosphorus condition. It's basically from all the manure. It seems the N gets used, but the P not so much. That sucks because I have close to 10 yards of cow manure/composted leaves/cow manure-shredded RCW.

This is what really hurts being I put all this work into the above mentioned manure.

Not shown in the image:

Phosphorus: Phosphorus is highly elevated, avoid phosphorus containing fertilizers and organics for the next 5 years. Retest annually.

Nitrogen: Apply an additional 1 lb N/1000 sqft every 4-6 weeks as need to maintain vegetative growth.

Micro-nutrients: Add a foliar iron solution every 4-6 weeks or more frequently if yellowing of new growth continues.

So....................

Here's what I'm doing. Almost Nothing!....gotta love that.

I will continue the chelated iron foliar applications; and they really helped this year. And I'll look into lowering the pH one half point.

Film at 11 :shh:

PaulG · Dec 2, 2017

Very interesting, Scott...

stickman · Dec 2, 2017

Devv said:
Hah! I may well have a ~~victim~~ buddy who's interested. He's too busy to grow, bhut loves the heat

So here's my soil test:

Looks like too much of a good thing!

I expected the high Ph results. But not the rest. They added a page on the high Phosphorus condition. It's basically from all the manure. It seems the N gets used, but the P not so much. That sucks because I have close to 10 yards of cow manure/composted leaves/cow manure-shredded RCW.

This is what really hurts being I put all this work into the above mentioned manure.

Not shown in the image:

Phosphorus: Phosphorus is highly elevated, avoid phosphorus containing fertilizers and organics for the next 5 years. Retest annually.

Nitrogen: Apply an additional 1 lb N/1000 sqft every 4-6 weeks as need to maintain vegetative growth.

Micro-nutrients: Add a foliar iron solution every 4-6 weeks or more frequently if yellowing of new growth continues.

So....................

Here's what I'm doing. Almost Nothing!....gotta love that.

I will continue the chelated iron foliar applications; and they really helped this year. And I'll look into lowering the pH one half point.

Film at 11

Holy Cow Scott! That's the highest soil calcium reading I've ever seen! It's no wonder you have such a high pH. You ought to speak to your extension service agent about lowering it, because I'm looking at nute lockout in a big way... especially trace elements like Iron, Manganese, Copper and Zinc. Your soil test shows them as being at normal levels, but only for your pH. The usual way to lower pH is the addition of agricultural sulfur or in your case possibly ferrous sulfate, which would also add Iron.
My own soil test shows me as having a high pH for my area, and a slow upward creep over time, so I'll be adding ag sulfur to my plots come spring to bring them back into line. Here's what my soil test results look like. The column outlined in yellow is my pepper bed.

Devv · Dec 3, 2017

Yes the Ph and the Calcium are just crazy. So with the Ph and the Phosphorus numbers I know why I had a rough 2 years.

They said to use blood meal as a N source. It will lower the Ph and the rest is all there in the soil, except for low Iron. I do intend on lowering the Ph for sure. Now you know why I use the rain water when I have it...the well water is really high in calcium and the Ph is even higher than the soil test.

So one thing not going in the garden any more is the fireplace ashes. Now if I go too low Ph wise, the boron levels will hurt me; as the boron becomes more available as the Ph goes down. In reading this morning the boron is from the well water too. I do believe the container grow will prevail this season unless I get things down where they belong.

So today was D-Day for almost all the plants. I have just a few (10-12) left. Cold is on the way...after all it is December!

So today's pull:

ScotchBrains

JA Habs, and a few Aji Oro. I pulled up the Hab plants.

Aji Lemmon, still going

The last of the Pob's, pulled those plants too. Those reds are a cross. Those came from MoA seeds. I'm pretty sure the JA Hab had a hand in some sneaky pepper love last season :shh:

I'm going to save the seeds and see what they do next year...who knows.

PaulG · Dec 8, 2017

It sure does look like the JA Red Habanero was busy!

It will be interesting to see what comes from that!

Devv · Dec 9, 2017

PaulG said:
It sure does look like the JA Red Habanero was busy!

It will be interesting to see what comes from that!

I'm really curious to see what flavor prevails

We had snow Thursday night. LB and I moved to this place 3/17/1989; first time we've had snow.

I got out there early because I knew it would melt right quick.

Most that was on the ground melted overnight; we did have a freeze. Funny thing is the plants I didn't cover were not damaged. There was 1/2" ice in the bee water?

Sinn · Dec 9, 2017

LOL that ain't no snow

moruga welder · Dec 9, 2017

Looks like you had a great year my friend ! Hey you got more snow than us , none here for me , :party:

Devv · Dec 11, 2017

Sinn said:
LOL that ain't no snow

Too true Sinn!

I was born just East of you on LI; and left there in 1978. Saw my share while there. But here, in deep South Tejas, this is a rarity. Just under 29 years at this house, and it's the first time. In fact it's the first time I've seen snow stick here.
I remember 1977, the last winter before I left, 18"s and 3 days later 36"s.

Devv · Dec 11, 2017

moruga welder said:
Looks like you had a great year my friend ! Hey you got more snow than us , none here for me ,

Thanks Frank!

It did better as it cooled down. I have those seeds you sent planted, thanks again

. They should pop real soon!

stickman · Dec 12, 2017

Devv said:
Yes the Ph and the Calcium are just crazy. So with the Ph and the Phosphorus numbers I know why I had a rough 2 years.

They said to use blood meal as a N source. It will lower the Ph and the rest is all there in the soil, except for low Iron. I do intend on lowering the Ph for sure. Now you know why I use the rain water when I have it...the well water is really high in calcium and the Ph is even higher than the soil test.

So one thing not going in the garden any more is the fireplace ashes. Now if I go too low Ph wise, the boron levels will hurt me; as the boron becomes more available as the Ph goes down. In reading this morning the boron is from the well water too. I do believe the container grow will prevail this season unless I get things down where they belong.

So today was D-Day for almost all the plants. I have just a few (10-12) left. Cold is on the way...after all it is December!

So today's pull:

ScotchBrains

JA Habs, and a few Aji Oro. I pulled up the Hab plants.

Aji Lemmon, still going

The last of the Pob's, pulled those plants too. Those reds are a cross. Those came from MoA seeds. I'm pretty sure the JA Hab had a hand in some sneaky pepper love last season I'm going to save the seeds and see what they do next year...who knows.

Nice pull Scott! I talked my Mom into getting a soil test this spring, and she had the same problem with pH caused by years of dumping wood ashes from her stove into her garden. I also sold her on a "no till" strategy since she has rotator cuff issues and a touch of osteo-porosis.

Feeling homesick for the snow now that you got some? :twisted:

Heh, it's snowing here right now and there's 4 inches on the ground. No school today... I'll bet there's an exodus to the ski slopes. ☺

Sent from my LGL44VL using Tapatalk

Devv · Dec 12, 2017

Thanks Rick!

That's pretty much all she wrote for the peppers this season. I have the Aji Lemon, the Large Orange, and the Pubes. I also have a few I want to cut back and over winter.

Over the years I've added ashes, but not that much. My region is dry and from what I've read the dry areas are alkaline and the rainier area are more acidic. I now know I can't add any more. I also guess I'll stop collecting cow manure and adding that until the soil test says I need to. My ag people around here say the Blood meal is the trick with my situation. I have a few more ideas but need to run.

Before I go. Snow is OK once in a great while...not missing the frozen North at all!

stickman · Dec 17, 2017

Hi Scott,
Thinking back on your experiment with adding "heavy soil" to your gardens, here's something I thought you might be interested in... I'd wondered if some forms of clay would be as good as biochar in increasing water and nutrient retention in sandy soils, and came across this paper posted last year. http://www.international-agrophysics.org/en/artykul/917

It looks like the sodium bentonite would hold onto water and nutes too hard for plants to extract from it, and Kaolin clay doesn't work as well as biochar... so compost and biochar worked into the soil seems like the best alternative to increase holding capacity.

Devv · Dec 17, 2017

stickman said:
Hi Scott,
Thinking back on your experiment with adding "heavy soil" to your gardens, here's something I thought you might be interested in... I'd wondered if some forms of clay would be as good as biochar in increasing water and nutrient retention in sandy soils, and came across this paper posted last year. http://www.international-agrophysics.org/en/artykul/917

It looks like the sodium bentonite would hold onto water and nutes too hard for plants to extract from it, and Kaolin clay doesn't work as well as biochar... so compost and biochar worked into the soil seems like the best alternative to increase holding capacity.

Thanks a very interesting read

My addition of the clay, which I can only assume is the kaolinite type was done without any scientific basis. I just knew it would help the sandy soil retain moisture, and it did. I added the 3"s of biochar first, and that really helped. But it wasn't enough here with the high evaporation rate I experience with our temps. With the RCW on top, I finally have really good moisture retention. This last season I watered at least half as much as previous seasons. I wish I had a local source for biochar, as I don't think I'll have the time to make any before spring.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how things run this spring with the hopefully lowered soil Ph.

stickman · Dec 17, 2017

Devv said:
Thanks a very interesting read

My addition of the clay, which I can only assume is the kaolinite type was done without any scientific basis. I just knew it would help the sandy soil retain moisture, and it did. I added the 3"s of biochar first, and that really helped. But it wasn't enough here with the high evaporation rate I experience with our temps. With the RCW on top, I finally have really good moisture retention. This last season I watered at least half as much as previous seasons. I wish I had a local source for biochar, as I don't think I'll have the time to make any before spring.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how things run this spring with the hopefully lowered soil Ph.

We're pullin' for ya on this end too Scott. For the first time I'll also be adding Elemental Sulfur to my garden beds to lower the pH in my garden. From what I read, it looks like the soil-dwelling microbes need warm, moist conditions to convert the sulfur to weak sulfuric acid and the process takes at least a couple of months. I'm really looking forward to the results of my soil test this time next year to see if I'm on the right track. I'll be interested to see how using the blood meal works out for lowering your pH as well. Cheers!