First experiment ended, time to think about results.

I have not posted for a while because I wanted to think about the results I have obtained. First the low temp charcoal I ground and added to my one worm bed made a big difference in that bed. When both bins were full I emptied them. It was clear that I had been adding too much nitrogen. Because the worm bin without charcoal was septic. Most of the worms were right under the cardboard layer that covered the bed mixture. As I removed the worms they were in poor health. The bin material was slimy and clumped together. It was hard to screen and when I did there was much alfalfa stems in the material. The coffee grounds were very acidic.

Now the bed with one cup of ground charcoal added to the mixture each time the bin was feed was different. First, it did not have the supper heavy septic smell. The worms were in good shape spread around the bin. When I screened the material it was loose with more of the alfalfa stems broken down. Now it is true that by adding the charcoal the mixture was diluted. But if I had added an inert material such as sand would I have had healthy worms still? It could have been the adjustment to pH. However, the charcoal was rinsed and dried before it was ground to remove the ash. I am now drying the material and saving it for use next spring. It will be interesting to compare the material from the two bins.

The takeaway from this is I now know that ground charcoal can be used with vermiculture. It would also appear that it has an impact on the final product produced. If I have this material tested it will be interesting to know if there was a difference in available nitrogen. Did the charcoal act as a buffer absorbing ammonia when levels were hign and releasing it when levels dropped?

biochar vermiculture update 08-09-2009

8-09-2009 update:

10 cups coffee grounds and 8 cups soaked alfafa cubes. One cube ground biochar added to biochar bin. I am now finding a few worms on the sides of both bins. I will do one more feeding then it is time to empty the bins and count the worms. More fungus spores in biochar bin this week. However, worms more active on biochar bin. Mites can now be seen on both bins. Both bins are developing community of organizisms. I will post some pictures of the bins and outside compost pile where waste worm feed is being dumped. Once I have emptied bins I will send some samples out for testing. I will also prepare some large containers to grow some greens using the material from each bin to see how this stuff is working. I have some cattle feed tubs that I have been growing plants in for the last couple of years. I will use different mixes in each tub to see what kind of results I will get.

I will also post lab test when I get them. I anyone wants some sample of the castings let me know. I may have some to spare. I would be interested in others trying them.

biochar vermiculture update 08-02-09

This weeks feeding 10 cups of Starbucks finest and 8 cups soaked alfafa cubes. One cup water added to both bins. Additional alfalfa added to increase protein to worms. Standard one cup biochar added to biochar bin. Fungus gnats are now in both beds. However, the number of gnats is much lower this week. This may be due to making sure food was well covered with decaying cardboard so little fungus and mildew present in both bins. Carboard cover has now decayed to the point where it can not be handled in both bins. Remaining cardboard was broken up so water can flow and left in place. It was covered with new food and new cardboard cover put in place. Addition of water last week did allow for some leachant from both bins. Goal is to keep leachant low but moisture level high enough for worms to move throughout the bin. Fewer worms on sides of both bins this week. Have both bins working well this week. New cover should be able to keep fungus and mildew down in both bins.

So far after several weeks of feeding I am seeing no impact from feeding biochar in the mix coffee grounds and alfafa. When you think of it, the coffee grounds were roasted and charred to a certain extent. I have been taking extra feed I collect each week and adding it to a special compost bin. The goal is to compost the coffee ground and alfafa. So far the compost extra worm feed is attracting a number of different insects and fungus.  It would appear that worm feed is usable to a number of organisms.

On another note, I am working on plans for next vermiculture test. I have been working with clay and nut shells. I am looking at open fired methods to put carbon finish on pottery. I plan to mix ground nut shells, oyster shell, bone meal, and clay to create a porous compound that I can break up and screen to add to vermiculture bin. The only problem I see is pH of material may be high and I may have to pretreat in coffee ground to adjust pH. If I can get the mixture right I should have a new porous material that will have calcuim, phosporous, charbon, and porous structure. This can be crushed like the charcoal and screened. The course grained material can then be added to vermiculture bins. I have found one reference to a synthetic terra preta that creates something like this.

http://www.biochar-international.org/images/Joseph_IBI_poster_PM.pdf

vermiculture biochar update 02-22-09

07-26-09 vermiculture update. Feeding this week 10 cups Starbucks coffee grounds and 7 cups soaked alfalfa cubes. With one cup ground biochar in biochar bin. More issues with the non-biochar bin, it now has fungus gnats growing in it. Biochar bin seems to be gnat free. I cann’t explain the difference because the both get the same exact food and amount of food. All conditions are the same. However, I continue to have issues with mildew and now gnats in my non-biochar bin. Another difference is the cardboard I lay on the top of the bins needs to be replaced. It has pretty much fallen apart in the non-biochar bin. It can still be removed mostly intact from the biochar bin. It would seem that biochar is impacting the rate of decay of the cardboard. Biochar is also having an impact on the formation of mildew. Worms are working their way up the side of the non-biochar bin. No worms have escaped yet.  I may only have a few more feedings before I will need to transfer the earthworms to new bins. When I do, I will screen soil and transfer worms by hand. I need to see if the biochar impacted the health of the earthworms. So an exact count is needed. I started with 750 worms per bin. If issue with gnats continues I will see about purchasing nematodes for flies/knats.

biochar vermiculture experiment – additional area to study

As I conduct my vermiculture biochar experiment I have continued to research available data. One area of interest is the importance of denitrifying bacteria in nitrous oxide production in worm gut. Nitrous oxide is an important greenhouse gas. Several studies talk about the role denitrifying bacteria in a worm’s gut plays in its production. Other studies talk about the ability of biochar to reduce the rate of denitrifying in soil that has had nitrogen fertilizer applied. It is known that activated charcoal can absorb ammonia. See (http://www.csiro.au/files/files/poei.pdf) page 26. The hypothesis I have is that charcoal can biochar absorb nitrogen compounds in the worms gut making them unavailable to the denitrifying bacteria. If this is the case then adding the right type and amount of biochar to vermiculture bins could reduce the rate of denitrifying by making nitrogen compounds unavailable to denitrifying bacteria. If the charcoal acts as a buffer by absorbing at high concentrations and releasing at low concentrations it should also perform this function in the guts of insects and worms. It has been noted in tests that termites do not respond as well to soils with charcoal. Charcoal and ash has been used to discourage termites throughout history in several locations. See (http://e-terrapretatermites.blogspot.com/) is it possible that it is not the Potassium Hydroxide in the ash, but the impact the carbon is having on available nutrients to the bacteria in the termites gut? If termites and worms play an important part in the production of green house gases it is possible that charging biochar in the guts of worms and insects can not only provide carbon sink but reduce nitrous oxide production. Unfortunately, I do not have the tools to measure nitrous oxide production in my worm bins. If such tools were available worm bins would provide an idea environment in which to test for the impact of biochar on the production of nitrous oxide by denitrifying bacteria.

biochar and rabbits experiment outline

I have enough biochar left over from my first plant bed to conduct another simple experiment.

I plan to put biochar in three rabbit litter bins to charge the biochar. I have some course ground biochar I will need to rinse in a screen to remove any dust and Potasium Hydroxide. I do not need my rabbits coming down with black lung. I have found studies where sheep were feed activated carbon and carbon showed up in their lungs. I wish to aviod this so my biocar is quarter inch down to window screen size. I will add 2 to 4 cups into each litter bin and let it soak up urine and mix with pellets. Later when I need to clean rabbit litter bin I will mix the carbon with potting soil and test it in soil with just rabbit litter. I believe that if you can remove the dust factor and Potasium Hydroxide by washing and drying you can safely use course ground biochar  in animal litter.

I you are reading this and have any experience with this please comment and let me know what results you received.

Key to experiment is biochar litter bin and good control group.

update on biochar vermiculture test 7-20-09

7-19-09 added 10 cups of Starbucks coffee grounds to 6 cups soaked alfalfa cubes. Needed to add 12 onces of water to both beds. Biochar bin got another cup of ground biochar. Extra water was required due to center of bin drying out more. It is likely that I will need to add more water to both bins later in the week. Cardboard cover will need replaced next Sunday. It is decomposing in both bins and both bins show mildew on the cardboard. Interesting note: My son noticied that the worms seem more active in biochar bin. We were able to observe more worms under carboard in biochar bin. It is possible that worms in non-biochar bin are below surface. In both bins worms are consumming feed in one week. May have to increase amount of feed to each bin by one or two cups of alfalfa. This weeks feeding had one more cup of alfalfa than last weeks. As a side note, to test alfalfa, I mixed a big batch of alfalfa last week and only used part of it. The reset I left uncovered outside. The soaked alfalfa had a large amount of magots in it. It would seem that the alfalfa is good quality. I have added the left over coffee ground and alfalfa to a new compost bed I have created. I hope to use this later in another experiment when I can create more biochar. Maggots bring up an issue I will have to address in outdoor larger scale vermiculture, that being flies and unwanted insects. I want to produce worms not biting flies and fruit flies. I will have to work on this before outdoor tests in Spring 2010.

biochar – animal fodder Osage-orange

I am collecting plant material for testing of biofuel that can also be used as animal fodder.

This week I received 10 thorness Osage-orange trees from the Brenton Arboretum.

Chisholm, Wichita, Derby, Solomon, Park, Graham, Whiteshield, Fan D’ Arc and Denmark are selections frowing at the John C. Pair Horticultural Center in Haysville KS.

Cannonball is the intellectual property of Guy Sternberg, Petersburg, IL

I have found documentation where Osage-orange was used in the late 1800’s to raise silkworms in Kansas. It is also closely related to mulberry which has be successfully used as animal fodder. I believe the tests to make silage from mulberry could be applied to Osage-orange.

If I can get these trees to grow I should be able to test some leave on my rabbits nex year. My rabbits are my taste testers. I have two hay bins on their cages. I add plant material to both bins and give them their normal rabbit feed in their feed bin. If they like the plant material they munch it down. If they do not like it they only eat their rabbit food. It does not take much plant material to see which of two choices a rabbit likes most. Also if a rabbit would not eat it then it is likely that a goat or a sheep would not touch it. I only use plant material that I find has been used for animal fodder so I do not harm the rabbits. And I do not have much material at this time so the plant material is a very small part of the rabbits diet. However, it does provide a means to start identifying the best fodder plants that grow in my area.

If I can get enough leave next year I may even try to raise a batch of silk worms.

As for now, I have 10 one foot trees with maybe a dozen or so leave on them. I will baby these through the winter and hopefully I will have something to work with next year.

I am also identifying sources of willow, honey locust, and other fodder trees to plant next year.

pottery biochar

I am beginning a new experiment. There has been many Terra Preta soils that had alot of broken pottery in them. My tests with biochar in soil are directed at subsoil in heavy clays. So my test bed will always include porous material along with the biochar. I have found research that suggests that pore space may be important to the formation of microbial and fungal growth. So I am going to work with creating porous clay with biochar in it. I was able to obtain some local clay from Wade at Funke Fired Arts in Cincinnati Ohio. I plan to try different methods to produce pottery/char. Once a have a workable product then I will try charging it in compost system then using it in potting soil tests. If I am right I could create matrix for microbial and fungal ecosystem. This could then be transfered to potting soil or plant bed.

Biochar vermiculture update 07-14-09

So far only problems have been with control bed. Mildew and dry spots have been an issue with the control bed. Had to add half a cup of water to control bed 07/11/09. Feed 10 cup Starbucks coffee grounds and 5 cups soaked alfalfa. One cup biochar added to biochar been food. I am not sure is biochar is retaining moisture and preventing mildew. Will monitor this week. Also plan to add ground oyster shell and some kept to both bed this week in increase nutrients and supply some grit so worms can digest food better.