Side by side organic soil mix's

[DonBrennon]

The outer chamber is a metal bin, not a brazier, with large holes drilled around the side at the bottom and smaller holes drilled at the top. A store bought brazier has holes in the bottom as well, so is no good for this purpose (I sorta cheated in the store for this, I took a brazier lid with the small chimney on, put it on a metal bin and headed for the most inexperienced checkout girl pmsl). The large holes at the bottom are for the main oxygen supply, the smaller holes are to feed a little oxygen to the initial fire when you first put the lid on, as there is no air being drawn through the system at that point.


The smaller chamber(retort chamber) is a large industrial paint can, (the paint had dried solid and chipped off very easily when the outside of the can was hit with a hammer), with a lid which can be sealed and 5 holes drilled into the bottom for gases to escape.


The retort chamber sits flush on the bottom of the bin with no way for oxygen to get in, but a way for the retort chamber gases to escape and be burnt.

 

[DonBrennon]

For the feed stock I used copiced birch tree twigs between 1/4-1/2inch, straight as a die and dry, cut to length to fit in the retort chamber (I forgot to take a snap before putting it in.)


Then the lid goes on and is sealed and placed in the larger bin


For the fire wood I used scrap site timber and pallets, which was packed around the retort chamber and then a little fire built on top with a little tinder, as you'd build any other fire.

 

[DonBrennon]

Light the fire and when it's burning well, pop the lid/chimney on


The fire will always burn dirty for 5-10mins till the chimney heats up causing the air convection to stabalize the fire


Once air is being drawn through, the smoke subsides(which shows it is being burnt before it can leave the chamber) and all you can see is a heat haze coming out of the top of the chimney



For the majority of the duration of the burn, the fire mainly takes place at the top of the outer chamber. when the feedstock in the retort chamber heats up, it releases the gases without fully burning due to lack of oxygen. The gases released are forced out of the bottom of the retort chamber where they mix with the oxygen from the large airholes and are drawn up to the fire where they ignite.



When all the gas has been drawn out of the feedstock in the retort chamber, the fire quickly begins to work it's way to the bottom of the bin as more oxygen is available to burn the wood instead of the gases.

 

[DonBrennon]

After 2 and a half hours pretty much everything has burnt and the chimney has cooled down enough to be safely removed


Not sure what the blue twig is about but here's the results



I've ended up with just over 3 liters and I'm really happy with the quality of it, it's cooked right through and has the glassy sound you're apparently looking for when dropped. I am slightly disappointing with yield if I'm honest, I've only ever use my homemade char in compost used for veggy growing, so I've never really monitored the quantity produced. That being said, I do think I've found the perfect feedstock for my purposes and think I can pack it in more tightly next time giving me a better yield................looks like 2 more runs to get my 10L..............................might be easier buyin it, but I love this shit.......who doesn't love playing with fires pmsl(secret pyromaniac)

I've got some alfalfa soaking in a solution of rainwater with some compost starting microbes and approx 100ml of my homemade growth fertilizer(FPE+Fish hydrol).............oh, and a bit of my own piss (cause I needed to go and thought.....fuck it,why not?, lol). When the rest of the char is ready I'll throw it all in to soak for a day or 2

 

[Grandpa GreenJeans]

I was pretty much stuck with the metal bin and empty paint can, all the oil drums here have pouring holes and aren't suitable, plus i could only find the 80 gallon size which was useless without a smaller 50 gal. My design is a copy of the youtube biochar workshop. The main experimenting was finding a chimney to draw enough air, I'd scaled it down with the rest of the design which didn't work and the one I'm now using looks about the same size as the bigger workshop burner

Shit, all I have is 55 or 250 gallon. If I could find an 80 gallon I'd be very happy

 

[Grandpa GreenJeans]

Damn dude, this is more than I've seen from most. Brilliant!

 

[DonBrennon]

Shit, all I have is 55 or 250 gallon. If I could find an 80 gallon I'd be very happy

55 and 80gal would be perfect if you could find one, my retort chamber's around 10-11gal and the bin 18gal, for yours, you'd scale the feedstock up accordingly and it would burn for around 4-5 hours, but it'd make a shit load of biochar and be much more efficient than mine. With those sized drums it's mainly be the feedstocks' own gases cooking itself.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

Wow @DonBrennon that is a work of art! I'm way impressed

 

[DonBrennon]

Wow @DonBrennon that is a work of art! I'm way impressed

Hahaha, Cheers bro, got the second batch going at the moment but it's just started raining, think I'll leave it and harvest the char tomorrow.

 

[DonBrennon]

Loads going on today.............done some trimming


some re-potting

some delivery receiving

some LSTing

and some worm binning

 

[Still Blazin87]

Loads going on today.............done some trimming

View attachment 3594616
some re-potting
View attachment 3594619 View attachment 3594633
some delivery receiving
View attachment 3594622 View attachment 3594623 View attachment 3594624
some LSTing
View attachment 3594630
and some worm binning
View attachment 3594634 View attachment 3594629

Hey nice biochar and buds and aloe and plants What is silkworm chrysalis? I'm deeply interested.

 

[DonBrennon]

Hey nice biochar and buds and aloe and plants What is silkworm chrysalis? I'm deeply interested.

Thanks............and I'm not entirely sure but i think it's what the silk is wrapped around when the worm changes to a pupa. Got it from a bait shop........it's experimental, I'm hoping its full of calcium and chitin

 

[DonBrennon]

So............after reading a few academic papers I've found that the ground chrysalis I'm using is a by product of the silk manufacturing industry(obviously). After the worm has cocooned, it is boiled to kill the worm/pupa, the silk is then unwound and harvested from the chrysalis. The chrysalis is then heat dried and ground to a course powder.

I found some info on nutritional values

Mineral composition of pupae of the silkworm

Mineral Composition (mean)

Potassium (mg/g)
34.0
Sodium (mg/g)
2.81
Calcium (mg/g)
0.63
Magnesium (mg/g)
1.54
Phosphorus (mg/g)
2.72
Iron (mg/g)
40.0
Selenium (mg/g)
0.11
Copper (mg/g)
7.27
Zinc (mg/g)
35.7
Lead (mg/g)
1.13
Arsenic (mg/g)
1.30
The values are on a dry-matter basis. The moisture content is 77.0% on
a fresh-weight basis, so data may readily be converted to fresh basis if
needed, using this tabulated data.
J. Zhou, D. Han / Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 19 (2006) 850–853
852


Amino acid composition of pupae of the silkworm (mg/g crude protein)
Aspertic acid 9.91
Threonine 5.21
Serine 4.30
Glutamic acid 15.12
Glycine 4.20
Alanine 5.71
Cystine 1.60
Valine 5.01
Methionine 4.30
Isoleucine 5.51
Leucine 7.91
Tryrosine 5.11
Phenylamine 4.90
Lysine 7.31
Histidine 2.20
Arginine 6.61
Proline 3.90
ryptophan 1.20

Rao, P.U, 1994 reported that spent pupae contains 48.7 % protein and 30% fat whereas defatted spent silk worm pupae meal contained 75.2 g % protein. Bose and Majumder (1990) studied that the pupae powder contains 7.18% water, 29.57% fat, 48.98% protein 4.65% glycogen 3.37% chitin , 2.19% ash , vitamins (3.7%)


Most of these numbers mean very little to me as I've no knowledge on amino acids, but what I'm getting from the first list is that the meal is rich in potassium, iron and zinc

Any opinions would help, I am slightly disappointed in the amount of chitin and calcium content, I thought they'd be higher.

 

[Grandpa GreenJeans]

Loads going on today.............done some trimming

View attachment 3594616
some re-potting
View attachment 3594619 View attachment 3594633
some delivery receiving
View attachment 3594622 View attachment 3594623 View attachment 3594624
some LSTing
View attachment 3594630
and some worm binning
View attachment 3594634 View attachment 3594629

I'll take the top row please!!!!!
Nice bro-

 

[Still Blazin87]

Couldn't agree more. I think the sar system in cannabis involves cannabinoid and terpenoid production. Which if true would lend credit to your statement about potency. I've noticed a huge amount of leaf shine when I use aloe in my silica foliars

Nice. What kind of silica do you use? I've never used that either but I'm considering adding it to my routine. Do you just add the aloe to the Silica mixture? I just did my first time aloe foliar spray yesterday on all my plants and animals the after results were amazing. I also sprayed down the two plants that mightve had the PM with AACT again but with Aloe in it too this time. Aloe mann good stuff!

 

[Still Blazin87]

So............after reading a few academic papers I've found that the ground chrysalis I'm using is a by product of the silk manufacturing industry(obviously). After the worm has cocooned, it is boiled to kill the worm/pupa, the silk is then unwound and harvested from the chrysalis. The chrysalis is then heat dried and ground to a course powder.

I found some info on nutritional values

Mineral composition of pupae of the silkworm

Mineral Composition (mean)

Potassium (mg/g)
34.0
Sodium (mg/g)
2.81
Calcium (mg/g)
0.63
Magnesium (mg/g)
1.54
Phosphorus (mg/g)
2.72
Iron (mg/g)
40.0
Selenium (mg/g)
0.11
Copper (mg/g)
7.27
Zinc (mg/g)
35.7
Lead (mg/g)
1.13
Arsenic (mg/g)
1.30
The values are on a dry-matter basis. The moisture content is 77.0% on
a fresh-weight basis, so data may readily be converted to fresh basis if
needed, using this tabulated data.
J. Zhou, D. Han / Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 19 (2006) 850–853
852


Amino acid composition of pupae of the silkworm (mg/g crude protein)
Aspertic acid 9.91
Threonine 5.21
Serine 4.30
Glutamic acid 15.12
Glycine 4.20
Alanine 5.71
Cystine 1.60
Valine 5.01
Methionine 4.30
Isoleucine 5.51
Leucine 7.91
Tryrosine 5.11
Phenylamine 4.90
Lysine 7.31
Histidine 2.20
Arginine 6.61
Proline 3.90
ryptophan 1.20

Rao, P.U, 1994 reported that spent pupae contains 48.7 % protein and 30% fat whereas defatted spent silk worm pupae meal contained 75.2 g % protein. Bose and Majumder (1990) studied that the pupae powder contains 7.18% water, 29.57% fat, 48.98% protein 4.65% glycogen 3.37% chitin , 2.19% ash , vitamins (3.7%)


Most of these numbers mean very little to me as I've no knowledge on amino acids, but what I'm getting from the first list is that the meal is rich in potassium, iron and zinc

Any opinions would help, I am slightly disappointed in the amount of chitin and calcium content, I thought they'd be higher.

Dude.. effin wow there's no way there's that much nutrition in those!?! That's crazy. Srry to hear that there's not as much cal as you hoped for lol and chitin.. what is chitin by the way?

 

[DonBrennon]

Dude.. effin wow there's no way there's that much nutrition in those!?! That's crazy. Srry to hear that there's not as much cal as you hoped for lol and chitin.. what is chitin by the way?

hahaha, bugs are the food of the future, for us and plants...............thanks for your sympathy, lol, chitin is a polymer found in the shells of various sea creatures, the exoskeletons of most bugs(I think) and I believe it's found in fungal structural material. Chitin in itself isn't beneficial to plants, but when it breaks down into chitosan and comes into contact with the plant, it triggers an immunity defence response within the plant which helps protect it from fungal infections and pests.

All the folk in the usa use crabshell meal or crustacean meal to supply their chitin(along with other beneficial nutes/minerals), but that ain't available where I am, so I'm looking for alternative sources. Insect frass has plenty of chitin and that's what I'm using at the moment, but I have to go to the hydro store to buy that and I've spent thousands in them places and want to break away from them. My mate is into fishing and told me the bait shop usually stock shrimp meal for ground bait. When I went to get some they didn't have any.....so......I improvised lol.

 

[Still Blazin87]

hahaha, bugs are the food of the future, for us and plants...............thanks for your sympathy, lol, chitin is a polymer found in the shells of various sea creatures, the exoskeletons of most bugs(I think) and I believe it's found in fungal structural material. Chitin in itself isn't beneficial to plants, but when it breaks down into chitosan and comes into contact with the plant, it triggers an immunity defence response within the plant which helps protect it from fungal infections and pests.

All the folk in the usa use crabshell meal or crustacean meal to supply their chitin(along with other beneficial nutes/minerals), but that ain't available where I am, so I'm looking for alternative sources. Insect frass has plenty of chitin and that's what I'm using at the moment, but I have to go to the hydro store to buy that and I've spent thousands in them places and want to break away from them. My mate is into fishing and told me the bait shop usually stock shrimp meal for ground bait. When I went to get some they didn't have any.....so......I improvised lol.

Cool I didnt that about chitin a and why people used crab crustacean shells much but it all makes sense now

 

[DonBrennon]

Been doing a bit of research and number crunching of the NPK values of my nutrient mixes. I've had to make assumptions about the hempseed meal being like cottonseed meal and krill meal being more akin to fishmeal than the crustacean meal(not got the calcium/chitin content of crustacean meal).

these are the 'rough!!!' calculations

Soil 1

1 cup kelp meal 0.5 - 0.08 - 0.2
1 cup neem meal 4 - 1.5 - 1.5
1 cup Insect Frass 3 - 2 - 3
1 cup Comfrey meal 0.7 - 0.2 - 1.2

Mean NPK = 2 - 1 - 1.5

Soil 2

1 cup kelp meal 0.5 - 0.08 - 0.2
1 cup neem meal 4 - 1.5 - 1.5
1/2 cup krill meal 8 - 7 - 2
1/2 cup fish meal* 9 - 6 - 2
1/2 cup hempseed meal* 6.5 - 1.5 - 1.7
1/2 cup silkworm chrysalis meal* 10 - 1.8 - 1.1

Mean NPK = 4.3 - 1.9 - 1.1

As you can see, the 2nd soil mix has double the N & P of the 1st mix, but less potassium, which I am a little worried about. It may be a bit hot N wise, but It'll be sitting for quite a while so the nutrients should be well broken down by the time I get to use it. I think both soils have got the rest of the macros and micros covered, but I just hope the balance isn't too far out of whack.

It should be really interesting to see how both soils perform, I've got all of the amendments now, just need a day off work to do my last biochar run + charge, then I'm good to go on the mixing........I'm looking forward to this

 

[DonBrennon]

Just finished the last batch of biochar, got it soaking in a real concoction of both nutrient and microbes so it's fully charged before mixing with the soil



List of things that went into charge, nothing measured, just a little bit of everything lol:

lacto bacillus serum
great white (microbial inoculate)
seaweed meal
neem meal
alfalfa pellets
comfrey pellets
fermented cannabis leaf extract
fermented clover SST
organic compost starter
fish hydrolysate
prawn hydrolysate
Immunity boost (various fermented herbal extracts)
fulvic acid
humic acid
bat guano
worm casts
molasses

Gonna let all that soak for 4-5 hours, stirring it up every half hour, then I might mix my soil up tonight if I've got the energy. I think I'll dilute the remaining solution and use it to water the soil after mixing.