Biochar and natural farming

Say my name

Panch18 wrote: »

Interesting stuff

Have you photo's of your kiln? Good idea to have it on the loader

Next one I'm getting made will just be longer with same capacity to take a pallet board without cutting. And a lid just to try dry char.

Here's a study I read a while ago of a Swedish farm using a German biochar burner for drying corn and heating the house and using the char on the farm.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620349179

Say my name

Panch18 wrote: »

Also more importantly roughly how much feedstock are you talking about to make the 1100 litres?

The boards of eight fert pallets does a half kiln. So I reckon 16 would fill it. I don't use the middle boards with nails.
A quarter bale of an 8 x 4 x 3 of miscanthus filled it. When I had access to miscanthus.
Don't use timber with any preservative or chemicals on them. The fert pallet would be fine as it's clean timber.

Gillespy

A smaller skip like those tipping ones made for forklifts would be a good base to start. Right shape just need a small few tweaks. Find a nice one second hand and you have a cheap entry into it.

Say my name

Gillespy wrote: »

A smaller skip like those tipping ones made for forklifts would be a good base to start. Right shape just need a small few tweaks. Find a nice one second hand and you have a cheap entry into it.

I was thinking the same thing a few weeks ago. It just needs a flat top.

ganmo

For a smaller burner and very cheap I got a beer keg, cut the top off it. Ya fill it with timber. Put it upside down in a barrel. Drill air holes in the side of the barrel about 2 inches from the bottom and fill with scrap wood. Light at the top and itll burn down

SouthWesterly

ganmo wrote: »

For a smaller burner and very cheap I got a beer keg, cut the top off it. Ya fill it with timber. Put it upside down in a barrel. Drill air holes in the side of the barrel about 2 inches from the bottom and fill with scrap wood. Light at the top and itll burn down

Have you photos?

ganmo

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Have you photos?

The pics I have arent great. I'll take more over the weekend.
The lid and chimney help draw in air from the bottom

NcdJd

Everytime i look at this thread my head feels like it is going to explode. Ye are all like mad scientists / alchemists.

Say my name, can you recommend a good article that explains this in simple terms for the Dublin thicko here ?

I was reading an article over in the vegan forum ( don't ask ) from Gary kk on soil and the damage a new study has found on how artificial fertiliser basically destroys the soil ( i think gawddoginit posted something similar in another thread some time ago ).

The new study says that adding carbon is the best way to go, so I'm wondering would this be the magic biochar sprinkled on cow manure ? Dont have access to slurry locally.

Say my name

How soil builds carbon is from exudates.
What this means is the roots of plants exude a substance.
This substance is sucrose? or sugar.
They exude sugar because they need the help of bateria and fungi to access food.
The bacteria and fungi feed on the sugar and in return break down and make available all the elements in the soil in a way that the roots can digest them.

Think of the soil and bacteria and fungi as your stomach. The bacteria and fungi break down the food and make it available to your gut linings. The roots in the soil are the gut linings.

The bacteria and fungi are born, fed, live and die. It's their dead bodies and the crap and piss from living that is the soil carbon.

When you apply artificial fertilizer (nitrogen) it's a salt based solution. This makes plants work harder to access nutrients and these nutrients are usually only from the farm management. It switches off/or slows down the relationship with the bacteria and fungi and thus no sugars are being fed back to bacteria and fungi as the plant is getting fed by the bag. Less bacteria and fungi mean less carbon is made in the soil.

Bacteria and fungi are also damaged by tilling the soil, having sunlight on soil, no plant cover, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides. All these mean less carbon is made and stored in soil.

Biochar is carbon dioxide taken in by plants, turned into carbon in the living plant to support the plant structure, that plant then is cooked at a high temperature to leave that carbon in a very pure form that bacteria and fungi are unable to eat and digest.
Instead they take up residence inside the pores of the biochar where they form colonies in the char and themselves are not subject to the normal kill or be killed life in normal soil. The biochar increases the biodiversity of bacteria and fungi. Carbon then forms around the char in the soil from this extra bacteria and fungi living in the char from those that do venture out.

Extra carbon in soil means more nitrogen and phosphorus is captured by the carbon and not leached down and off.
But too much carbon is not the be all and end all either and plants don't do well if there's an abundance of carbon. Plants are fine in warm countries with an abundance of carbon as the respiration of soil leaves behind sodium that makes the plant work that bit harder to access nutrients. If you're in a country with a lot of soil carbon, a lot of rainfall, cold conditions with not much evaporation, your plant won't do well.

As you can see it's all a balancing act.

NcdJd

OK really appreciate the time and effort posting that man. I think I've got the idea. So the occasional short drought is not a bad thing say in the likes of grassland ? As I know with irrigation salnization can be an issue.

So my next question is if I was to reseed a field with native grass types would I get away without having to spread fertiliser on it every year ? I know the local farmer beside me has meadows going back probably hundreds of years and he never applies fertiliser to them. But he does not have big stocking rates. Was thinking of spreading manure and add the biochar to it if this little partnership comes off im working on.

Say my name

NcdJd wrote: »

OK really appreciate the time and effort posting that man. I think I've got the idea. So the occasional short drought is not a bad thing say in the likes of grassland ? As I know with irrigation salnization can be an issue.

So my next question is if I was to reseed a field with native grass types would I get away without having to spread fertiliser on it every year ? I know the local farmer beside me has meadows going back probably hundreds of years and he never applies fertiliser to them. But he does not have big stocking rates. Was thinking of spreading manure and add the biochar to it if this little partnership comes off im working on.

The occasional short drought is ok in grassland if they've good carbon amounts built up. That grassland will power away growing.
It's the grassland that hasn't got the same carbon built up as the other and is applying artificial nitrogen freely that'll have the double whammy of not having the carbon and having increased sodium content in the soil that'll shut down the plant from growing.

My plant above in the thread in 100% biochar/carbon was treated with sea minerals. That carbon won't degrade like a natural carbon in soil but it behaves in the same way as the sodium was needed to grow a plant (well) in it.

Biochar with animal manure. Yes.

But don't forget you need a eye on making money too. Not just for the sake of doing it. But it's ok if it's a hobby too.
It's the partnership is making me think you see a business when it might not be.

There's some farmers getting away with no fert applied with these new multi species swards but I've only seen them (online) for the first year and they looked to have had black good carbon soils to start off with anyway.

NcdJd

Say my name wrote: »

The occasional short drought is ok in grassland if they've good carbon amounts built up. That grassland will power away growing.
It's the grassland that hasn't got the same carbon built up as the other and is applying artificial nitrogen freely that'll have the double whammy of not having the carbon and having increased sodium content in the soil that'll shut down the plant from growing.

My plant above in the thread in 100% biochar/carbon was treated with sea minerals. That carbon won't degrade like a natural carbon in soil but it behaves in the same way as the sodium was needed to grow a plant (well) in it.

Biochar with animal manure. Yes.

But don't forget you need a eye on making money too. Not just for the sake of doing it. But it's ok if it's a hobby too.
It's the partnership is making me think you see a business when it might not be.

There's some farmers getting away with no fert applied with these new multi species swards but I've only seen them (online) for the first year and they looked to have had black good carbon soils to start off with anyway.

Thanks man that's great information. It's more of a supply type thing on my behalf. Have briefly looked at costs and price selling and seems like a good margin. Start up costs ALOT lower than veg.I'll have a market on this unlike the veg end of things. Final nail in the coffin on that came last week when a long time established spud grower told me he has 200 acres of spuds sitting in his sheds as the spud wholesalers have decided to take the cheaper UK ****e and he's in an awful way over it. So I'll try something else won't go into details yet as only in the preliminary stages at the moment.

Say my name

Actually this popped up on my feed.

It's samples of soil and one engineered soil made from biochar that were sent up to the international space station to see how they perform up there.

https://www.prweb.com/releases/history_in_the_making_bio365_soil_being_tested_on_the_international_space_station/prweb17589275.htm

Might interest ncdjd and a few others. Link to the bio365 company is in the link.

Say my name

Water John was wondering about my hot tub!!?



Lid an all for the simmering option.

Say my name

Probably should update the progress on the JMS applications.

Grass is looking good from it.

Top two pics received it first. Bottom two about three days later. It's a positive anyway.









15 acres in total got an application.

yosemitesam1

Say my name wrote: »

Probably should update the progress on the JMS applications.

Grass is looking good from it.

Top two pics received it first. Bottom two about three days later. It's a positive anyway.









15 acres in total got an application.

Did you leave any areas as a comparison?

Say my name

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Did you leave any areas as a comparison?

I have fields beside those for comparison.
But they'd all their own variables.
There's a field beside the bottom two pics which got seaweed + molasses in October and gran lime which is good too and grazed earlier but it looks like the jms ground has caught up with it. That gran lime ground will get straight jms.
Then there's a bit across a laneway that got fym which is not too bad but lacking colour. So it'll get jms plus seaweed.

Then I've fields beside the top two which were grazed in the last few weeks. But they're tough sods anyway.

To me the jms has made the ground a bit more free draining than before and the tracks from spraying in the unfavourable conditions for traveling but perfect for jms have largely disappeared.

If I can jig around a bit with housing for brewing and depending on weather I hope to cover the farm with it ..based on this little trial.

Say my name

A well researched presentation by Stephen McCormack of the Irish Bioenergy Association on an introduction to Biochar and Biochar in Ireland.

https://youtu.be/k_0ubDhUU2I

Say my name

Finishing up on one of the paddocks in the jms anaerobic biota trial.

It's a few days since they were out last.

What surprised me was the growth in those few flooding wet days. Jms seems to like floods..

Say my name

There's two pages in this week's Irish Country Living section of the Farmers Journal devoted to two Limerick farmers, Kevin Wallace and Thomas Stack who use Korean Natural Farming methods for anyone interested.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

There's two pages in this week's Irish Country Living section of the Farmers Journal devoted to two Limerick farmers, Kevin Wallace and Thomas Stack who use Korean Natural Farming methods for anyone interested.

Must see if i can borrow it from someone elses copy

Water John

Deleted User wrote: »

Must see if i can borrow it from someone elses copy

Miserable hoor.

SouthWesterly

Water John wrote: »

Miserable hoor.

He's a poor farmer. What else do you expect.

Must pick up a copy. I'm a so called overpaid civil servant.

Water John

Water John wrote: »

Miserable hoor.

I don't pay for propaganda

SouthWesterly

Read article today. Doesn't give a whole lot of info.
I've seen some of the American guys videos before and am going to give it a go this year.

Say my name

Interesting slide show here from Tony C Saladino of biochar use, making, preparation and mixture for cow feeding, adding pasture seeds to the mix, etc.

https://www.slideshare.net/TonyCSaladino/char-presentation11-3-soulution

Say my name

A bit of a lengthy read.

It shows the importance of Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of soil which most of us knew already against the importance of Anion Exchange Capacity (AEC) which most of us probably never even heard tell of before and it's function in a healthy soil and especially if nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer is applied and further down the release into ground and water way streams.
It brings in co - composting biochar to the article how it achieves both CEC and AEC.


https://greenstories.co.in/biochar-and-the-mechanisms-of-nutrient-biochar-and-the-mechanisms-of-nutrient-retention-and-exchange-in-the-soil/

Say my name

Pasture for Life shared this webinar on YouTube in the last few days on Bokashi making and usage, with three international speakers relating their experiences.

There's a lot in this.

https://youtu.be/q0KfmE4vBsA

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

Pasture for Life shared this webinar on YouTube in the last few days on Bokashi making and usage, with three international speakers relating their experiences.

There's a lot in this.

https://youtu.be/q0KfmE4vBsA

I must watch it when I get a chance, have to admit I'm not yet convinced by it.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I must watch it when I get a chance, have to admit I'm not yet convinced by it.

There was a talk by biochar supremo Albert Bates in this country a few years ago. That's where you should have been.
Just think of it as sponge of nutrients and accommodation for a wider variety of life and a highway for movement of ions and electricity.

To spread out your viewing.
I'm watching this atm.

Soil evolution and climate change by Dr.Charlie Clutterbuck. Very critical of soil management in the UK.

https://youtu.be/UoRtOW7Tl3s

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

There was a talk by biochar supremo Albert Bates in this country a few years ago. That's where you should have been.
Just think of it as sponge of nutrients and accommodation for a wider variety of life and a highway for movement of ions and electricity.

To spread out your viewing.
I'm watching this atm.

Soil evolution and climate change by Dr.Charlie Clutterbuck. Very critical of soil management in the UK.

https://youtu.be/UoRtOW7Tl3s

I don't know enough to throw an awkward comment so I won't

Obviously I'm not travelling in the right circles to know about these events :pac:

Studying aerobic compost at the moment.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I must watch it when I get a chance, have to admit I'm not yet convinced by it.

You're used to looking at black peaty soil over in that part of the country.

Over here we've gley grey soil in rushy or former rushy ground.
Brown soil that'd be mineral soil under pasture.
Yellow soil that'd be mineral soil under continuous tillage.
But we don't have black soil. Bar you go to the carlow side of the blackstairs where there's some relationship with the granite there.

Anyway, I've always known I've had two black soil patches on farm. So went out with the spade a few days ago to look properly at one of them.



These would be patches that the grass would just grow that bit better than the rest of the field.
So looked better and there's little bits of charcoal in the soil.



Now both these patches are beside water sources. Boggy ground. Surmising just surmising and what irish history says about charcoal patches in damp boggy ground has me going to them being fulacht fias.
(There used to be a rath close to each one of these patches too).
So if that's the case they possibly could be 1500 years there.

Anyway I'll go on a bit. They say biochar carbon primes the soil. In that it increases carbon around it in the soil. It increases the life which increases the carbon, which darkens the soil. And going by my spade dig looks to borne out. The same as biochar in the Amazon in their weathered mineral soil. The same as the Dutch anthrosols.

Dinzee Conlee

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I don't know enough to throw an awkward comment so I won't

Obviously I'm not travelling in the right circles to know about these events :pac:

Studying aerobic compost at the moment.

What’s the plan for the aerobic compost Herd?

Dinzee Conlee

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

What’s the plan for the aerobic compost Herd?

Biological farming. I should be able to naturally create the conditions to grow the plants/pastures I wish. While ensuring the correct biology is in my soil and covering all plants to neutralise any pests or disease. I can add in bio-control agents against the likes of ticks and possibly blowflies. The process should be self sustaining after a certain point providing no major disturbances fire/flood/tillage etc & so forth, and of course management that doesn't include chemical fertilisers, herb- or any of the other -icides.

I'm currently working on a theory relating to carbon emissions, which if I can verify my theory is correct and test it could be *important*.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

You're used to looking at black peaty soil over in that part of the country.

Over here we've gley grey soil in rushy or former rushy ground.
Brown soil that'd be mineral soil under pasture.
Yellow soil that'd be mineral soil under continuous tillage.
But we don't have black soil. Bar you go to the carlow side of the blackstairs where there's some relationship with the granite there.

Anyway, I've always known I've had two black soil patches on farm. So went out with the spade a few days ago to look properly at one of them.



These would be patches that the grass would just grow that bit better than the rest of the field.
So looked better and there's little bits of charcoal in the soil.



Now both these patches are beside water sources. Boggy ground. Surmising just surmising and what irish history says about charcoal patches in damp boggy ground has me going to them being fulacht fias.
(There used to be a rath close to each one of these patches too).
So if that's the case they possibly could be 1500 years there.

Anyway I'll go on a bit. They say biochar carbon primes the soil. In that it increases carbon around it in the soil. It increases the life which increases the carbon, which darkens the soil. And going by my spade dig looks to borne out. The same as biochar in the Amazon in their weathered mineral soil. The same as the Dutch anthrosols.

I've actually been to 9 stones on the Carlow side. Do you know any local archaeologists? Never know what interesting things might be found.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I've actually been to 9 stones on the Carlow side. Do you know any local archaeologists? Never know what interesting things might be found.

I know a few on Twitter alright.
And have a cousin a former one.

The nine stones. It could be really past history or croppy boy as some say.
There's a time there only the locals really know about it. In the mid summer around the longest day. The Sun goes behind that hill there to the southwest around 10pm and it goes very dark at the nine stones carpark area. Then it goes past that hill after, coming on later and you think it was back morning again. It'd stay bright there then for another hour or so being midsummer and the height it's up to catch the Sun.
Very weird sensation.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

Pasture for Life shared this webinar on YouTube in the last few days on Bokashi making and usage, with three international speakers relating their experiences.

There's a lot in this.

https://youtu.be/q0KfmE4vBsA

Working my way through this - I can sleep after I die

Mambud puts up a chart, I'd question some of the information on it. The first thing I would question is the definition of "compost". Regulations in a lot of countries allow putrified reduced waste to be sold as compost, also the process used to make compost and the starting recipe can massively affect outcomes. Also that compost has "few microorganisms", again that depends on what one defines as compost. If it's the putrified reduced waste that is a byproduct of landfill then sure that's possible. If it's compost made by someone who know's what they;re doing then that's an entirely different beast.

Also, the timeline for making compost (and I do realise it's "as made in Japan" ???) is way out. Great compost can be made in 21-24 days for finished product - which increases in diversity as it gets from finished to 6 months whether it's spread or stored correctly.

Comparisons and methodologies are minefields. Maybe the above points will be addressed later in the video.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Working my way through this - I can sleep after I die

Mambud puts up a chart, I'd question some of the information on it. The first thing I would question is the definition of "compost". Regulations in a lot of countries allow putrified reduced waste to be sold as compost, also the process used to make compost and the starting recipe can massively affect outcomes. Also that compost has "few microorganisms", again that depends on what one defines as compost. If it's the putrified reduced waste that is a byproduct of landfill then sure that's possible. If it's compost made by someone who know's what they;re doing then that's an entirely different beast.

Comparisons and methodologies are minefields. Maybe the above points will be addressed later in the video.

Keep going..

Ah he's not really doing anaerobic bokashi. More aerobic compost.

Jeez, it's only an hour long.
It's not Kate Winslet and Leonardo in a movie.

There can be too much complications put on all this. Time cures all. Time was when fym would only be used if it was over a year old. That "putrified" run off makes an excellent soil solution when sprayed on. But like all good things is detrimental at high rates.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

Keep going..

Ah he's not really doing anaerobic bokashi. More aerobic compost.

Jeez, it's only an hour long.
It's not Kate Winslet and Leonardo in a movie.

I'm a busy guy :cool:

Trust me this isn't aerobic compost :pac: If he used the starter ingredients at that ratio trying to make aerobic compost he'd end up with a self combusting alcohol fire. If he tried to control the temp by turning, he'd have to turn too fast and too often resulting in sub optimal something as the end result.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm a busy guy :cool:

Trust me this isn't aerobic compost :pac: If he used the starter ingredients at that ratio trying to make aerobic compost he'd end up with a self combusting alcohol fire

He's running a farm and getting results.
Alcohol is also used in Korean natural farming.
Keep watching. Keep your mind open.

There's no dead ends on that road you're travelling there's turn arounds and junctions and roundabouts.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

He's running a farm and getting results.
Alcohol is also used in Korean natural farming.
Keep watching. Keep your mind open.

There's no dead ends on that road you're travelling there's turn arounds and junctions and roundabouts.

I don't have a closed mind at all, I was commenting on aerobic compost which I know a lot about.

On bokashi, I don't know a lot about it, which is why I'm watching the video in the first place :pac:

What I do want to know is, it's well & good collecting IMO's, but organisms can be bad also, and organisms created due to anaerobic conditions can be significantly nasty.

Which, is precisely why I'm watching the video!

I'm making observations.

On results, they can be got in many ways. John Kempf talks about pumping CO2 into glasshouses as it's often the limiting factor to growth. Might not be the best idea to do the same outdoors, so how results are achieved is as important as how damage is done.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I don't have a closed mind at all, I was commenting on aerobic compost which I know a lot about.

On bokashi, I don't know a lot about it, which is why I'm watching the video in the first place :pac:

What I do want to know is, it's well & good collecting IMO's, but organisms can be bad also, and organisms created due to anaerobic conditions can be significantly nasty.

Which, is precisely why I'm watching the video!

I'm making observations.

On results, they can be got in many ways. John Kempf talks about pumping CO2 into glasshouses as it's often the limiting factor to growth. Might not be the best idea to do the same outdoors, so how results are achieved is as important as how damage is done.

They go into silage production later and why aren't silage innoculants used for bokashi making.

I'd say that should answer your question.

If another soil organism can eat it. It's good.


Bokashi if it takes off here. Is a lot simpler than aerobic turning, machinery wise, time wise, carbon wise, nitrogen wise.

Think of the two approaches, compost and bokashi.
One is hay making. The other is silage making.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

They go into silage production later and why aren't silage innoculants used for bokashi making.

I'd say that should answer your question.

If another soil organism can eat it. It's good.


Bokashi if it takes off here. Is a lot simpler than aerobic turning, machinery wise, time wise, carbon wise, nitrogen wise.

Think of the two approaches, compost and bokashi.
One is hay making. The other is silage making.

There are a lot of quite interesting parts in the video, there are still some confusing and contradictory statements made for me as well before I get to convinced-land. As I say (mostly so I won't get hopped on ), this is part of my learning about bokashi.

I'd like to see it sampled under a microscope, some parts of the puzzle missing for me are how they deal with human & plant pathogens, the whole anaerobic conditions thing which at least in soil will breed bad stuff.

I guess parts of the puzzle are what do you want to achieve and how can you achieve it, which looks different from any point in the world.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

There are a lot of quite interesting parts in the video, there are still some confusing and contradictory statements made for me as well before I get to convinced-land. As I say (mostly so I won't get hopped on ), this is part of my learning about bokashi.

I'd like to see it sampled under a microscope, some parts of the puzzle missing for me are how they deal with human & plant pathogens, the whole anaerobic conditions thing which at least in soil will breed bad stuff.

I guess parts of the puzzle are what do you want to achieve and how can you achieve it, which looks different from any point in the world.

If you were into knf you'd say there's no such thing as bad stuff bad life. All you need is abundance of everything.
Biochar addition brings in additional life diversity.

Added biochar to the dairy washing slatted tank here. With no additional microbes. Added seaweed water alright.
Tank bubbles now through crust. Just the addition of char increases the life diversity.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

If you were into knf you'd say there's no such thing as bad stuff bad life. All you need is abundance of everything.
Biochar addition brings in additional life diversity.

Added biochar to the dairy washing slatted tank here. With no additional microbes. Added seaweed water alright.
Tank bubbles now through crust. Just the addition of char increases the life diversity.

I would say that anaerobic organisms producing alcohols which can liquidise plant roots or make fuel for landfill fires, or which change nutrients into GHG's to be lost into the atmosphere and plant and human pathogens aren't positive - This shouldn't be taken as ****ting on bokashi, it is what I have learned about anaerobic organisms.

But, I'm just learning with a critical eye as I want to know what's happening. Like, we could look at a green field of grass and say that's a good result, but it could be sprayed and chem fertilised. Where we start from, what happens during, and exactly what is the end result is what I'm looking to learn.

The biochar acted as the organic material the washing were lacking?

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The biochar acted as the organic material the washing were lacking?

I'm still learning and relearning.

Organic material might be too crude. But the small pores down to microscopic level in the char give habitat to anaerobic nitrogen producing bacteria just like your anaerobic life that live inside your plants.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

I'm still learning and relearning.

Organic material might be too crude. But the small pores down to microscopic level in the char give habitat to anaerobic nitrogen producing bacteria just like your anaerobic life that live inside your plants.

Surface area was what was in my head, organic material was what my fingers said!

Gonna give the other video a whirl now.

Soilscope, buy a microscope Charlie :pac:

Nope, nope, nope, it's not in me tonight to keep going with that one :pac:

Say my name

Anyone fluent in Norwegian?

Adam O Toole is having a few words here.
(Hope it shares).

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5680572148651567&id=138976406144530

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118110981#Comment_118110981

All char production is low oxygen. A fire won't burn without oxygen. It's just ensuring there's not enough oxygen that it turns to ash. Then your carbon that you wanted to save as char for hundreds of years is gone.

Do I want research carried out?

There's research carried out everyday of the week. On farm here? I dunno.

Say my name

Sticking this in the thread as it's a good article with carbon to nitrogen ratios.

Probably way down the line of natural farming.🤣

https://www.agrowingculture.org/humanure-and-the-carbon-nitrogen-ratio-joe-jenkins/