kata wrote:
You can't use ordinary charcoal, this is specialised stuff.
That is sort of right. Any ‘natural’ charcoal ‘fines’ [small bits] will work. You do need to avoid any that has added binders or accelerators. If it is in ‘briquette’ form it will be rich in waxes and oils; that is not only no good for the soil, it taints food cooked over it too.
Charcoal in the soil is what made the Amazon jungle soils so productive as ‘Terra preta’ before Europeans arrived. Farming in the area was highly intensive and supported large populations on soils that are naturally of quite low fertility [nutrients washed out easily with all that rain]. We think of the area as being of low population density, but before the Europeans brought small pox and some other ‘plagues’ much of the area was intensively farmed and populated.
I bought some made up compost with ‘biochar’ this year from
Carbon Gold but it is too soon to report on how it is going. The compost is just ordinary peat free compost with ‘natural’ charcoal fines and if it works for me I will buy natural charcoal fines next year to add to my usual compost.
The
Carbon Gold web site is full of information, but is a bit evangelical.
Further information and local suppliers of UK natural charcoal can be found
here and our closest source for Cornwall seems to be in
Dorset.
Chad.
