Getting Char Into the Soil

[erich]

The Rotocult Horizontal Cultivator ....WOW!!......18 inches with one Pass!

 

 

The Rotocult Horizontal Cultivator is being hailed in all sectors of the agricultural industry as a revolution that has now provided farmers with an 'alternative' to using the "traditional" methods of cultivation. It's a Horizontal orbital action which slices the earth, incorporates trash without cultivating the inner space resulting in less soil disturbance, greater moisture retention, significant fuel and time savings and less maintenance. Now with one double row cultivator it is possible for one man and a single machine to cultivate up to 1 hectare per hour with a single pass and follow up with a planter almost immediately.

 

 

Rotocult

 

 

 

Here is a reply I just received from the inventor;

 

 

 

"Thank you for your email Erich. It was very interesting reading.

 

Rotocult can cultivate to a depth of 18” while incorporating organic matter in one pass.

 

Should you require detailed information or a movie CD please contact us.

 

Regards,

 

John Wilkinson

 

C.E.O.

 

Natascha Wilkinson

 

WILKINSON’S BLACKSMITH’S

 

1 Gill Street

 

Atherton Qld 4883

 

Ph: 07 4091 1833

 

Fax: 07 4091 1653

 

Email: [email protected]

 

Web: Rotocult

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

From: Wilkinsons Blacksmiths [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: Tuesday, 28 August 2007 9:02 AM

To: [email protected]

Subject: FW: Terra Preta Soil Technology

 

 

 

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: Saturday, 25 August 2007 2:54 PM

To: [email protected]

Subject: Terra Preta Soil Technology

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Wilkinson,

 

I have a soil engineering challenge, in short it involves incorporation of Bio-Char, at the least cost to a depth of 3 feet.

 

I've talked to design engineers at Deer, Catapillar and New Holland about sub-soilers, rippers and large scale roto-tillers. We also kicked around ideas about injectors and modified vibratory plows feeding charcoal instead of cable.

 

Your RotoCult looks interesting for initial surface mixing before sub-soiling or ripping.

 

I thought the current news and links on Terra Preta soils and closed-loop pyrolysis would interest you.

 

Thanks, Erich

[Michaelangelica]

Please post one to. . .

[palmtreepathos]

It would be great if there was a video of that contraption online, hard to imagine it not doing damage to soil stucture... Does it mean that the layers of soil and organisms stay in the same relative position after a pass. It looks amazing! It may be worth it for someone to buy one and lease themselves out to the farmers who are too small to own one.

Meanwhile I am plugging away on a small scale. Last year I mixed the char into the soil thoroughly, now I am layering it in lasagna style, at least until spring when I loosen the soil with a pitch fork. This is a section of the garden that was previously a walkway between raised beds. With our droughty weather I have decided to fill it in to retain a bit more moisture by lowering the top bed and also experiment with layering the char with common garden refuse. I will add another layer of char, compost and soil as the season progresses.

 

patsapeachygal's Public Gallery - AOL Pictures

[palmtreepathos]

It would be great if there was a video of that contraption online

And there is...this is one amazing Aussie gem

 

ROTOCULT ONE PASS Cultivator - AOL Video

[erich]

A comment from Gary Jones ,( AKA; Back40) to the Biochar List , the thread; Yahoo! Groups

 

 

Char Shanking

 

 

There was some topic drift in another thread that was groping for methods to apply char as a top dressing or some other method that did not seriously disrupt the soil due to sensitivities about soil structure, outgassing etc., the sorts of things that matter to those involved with conservation tillage methods such as no-till, or permanent pastures.

 

It may be worth giving closer attention to the Keyline System, especially its use of Yeomans plows. The Keyline system was first published in 1954 by P.A. Yeomans, thus the name of the plow. Specifically: Friends of the Five Forests

 

The Yeomans Plow Company (Pty Ltd) also produce a 'shank pot seeder' that when attached to the plough, is designed to drop seed or fertiliser into the sub-surface furrow.

 

A minimum of two passes with the plough are proposed, twelve months apart. The first to a maximum of 150mm (6 inches) depositing seed to produce biomass and the second to a greater depth, with an adapted 'shank pot seeder' or trailing air seeder, to trial injecting biochar into the channel and or spreading the material on the surface.

 

 

Greater detail: Keyline Subsoil Plowing

 

Mounted directly behind each 22” shank on our Yeomans Keyline plow is a seedbox that enables us to drop seed directly into the rips created by the shanks. Whether it’s a pasture grass or legume to boost feed value, a taprooted dynamic accumulator to mine fertility and build soil or a secondary crop maximizing the use of your field, this system provides a simple and effective means of making use of the friable planing bed the plow creates.

 

Additionally, we’re in the process of developing a liquid feed injection system. This simple tractor mounted system makes it possible to literally pour fertility directly into the subsoil rips via 1/8” tubing mounted behind the shanks. Liquid fertilizer amendment options include compost tea, sea minerals, skim milk and more. This simple system allows you to get even more out of each pass.

 

 

Other terms used to describe this type of non-disruptive tillage are "knifing". Knifing or shanking in everything from seed to liquid fertilizer to char is increasingly common, so common that an orchardman on RFD-TV talked about how he was shanking in biochar in his orchards, and demonstrated the principles involved for the TV journalist. The use of air or liquid under pressure to aid in material flow is done as well.

 

I don't think that ag professionals find anything daunting about char usage. It's just another soil amendment, a materials handling task, and they do that for a living.

 

--

Regards,

Gary Jones

[erich]

Prototype Applicator for Chicken Litter, should work for Char;

 

 

Thomas R. Way

Agricultural Engineer

USDA-ARS National Soil Dynamics Laboratory

411 S. Donahue Dr.

Auburn, AL 36832-5806

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: (334) 844-4753 Fax: (334) 887-8597

 

 

 

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=2d31956211&view=att&th=122d0a2d7aea4ae7&attid=0.2&disp=inline&zw

[erich]

sorry for the bad link,

Ican't find the photo link I intended to post,

but here's Way's upcoming paper;

 

Paper: Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter in Pasture and No-till Soils.

[erich]

Dear Listers,

I finely have found photos of the Poultry Litter SubSurfer

http://www.americanfarm.com/DF%20poultry.pdf

 

The Chesapeake Bay water shed has a major solution here for nutrient run off.

 

Researching systems to spread Biochar most efficiently in the root zones, by banding applications, these injection and Knifing systems for Subsurface poultry litter look most promising.

 

The Australians have been using this approach for 4 years now; The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater

The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater*(Science Alert)

 

 

Subsurface application can allow high ton per acre application rate testing with the least amounts of biochar, least amount of tillage, and provide for formulations of Chars with compost , litter, inoculations or fertilizers.

 

Also, these systems would ease handling of fine grain fluid-bed reactor chars subject to winds..

 

 

Richard Perritt – NC Farm Center [email protected] ,

Website; http://www.ncfarmcenter.org/

is using the Boichar 1000, Biochar Systems :: make biochar

and when we spoke at NABC, said he was working with Dr. Way's litter injector from USDA;

Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter in Pasture and No-till Soils.

Abstract: Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter in Pasture and No-till Soils. (2009 Annual Meeting (November 1-5, 2009))

 

Thomas R. Way

Agricultural Engineer

USDA-ARS National Soil Dynamics Laboratory

411 S. Donahue Dr.

Auburn, AL 36832-5806

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: (334) 844-4753 Fax: (334) 887-8597

 

Dan Pote, USDA; <[email protected]>,

Phone: (479) 675-3834 ext. 344

ARS | Publication request: Developing Technology for Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter in No-Till Systems

 

knifing technique;

ARS | Publication request: Incorporating Poultry Litter into Perennial Grassland to Improve Water Quality

 

Greater N in Cotton;

Cotton Response to Poultry Litter Applied by Subsurface Banding Relative to Surface Broadcasting -- Tewolde et al. 73 (2): 384 -- Soil Science Society of America Journal

 

 

Here are the only other photos I could find;

Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter

Curtis Dell, USDA ARS (5 minutes)

Air Emissions After Manure Land Application Including Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter and Solid Manure - eXtension

 

 

 

 

Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.

Cheers,

Erich

 

 

Erich J. Knight

Eco Technologies Group Technical Adviser

Shenandoah Gardens (Owner)

1047 Dave Barry Rd.

McGaheysville, VA. 22840

540 289 9750

Co-Administrator, Biochar Data base & Discussion list TP-REPP

[erich]

Dan Pote at USDA; [email protected],

"SubSurfer" BBI Spreader's commercial introduction.

http://www.bbispreaders.com/foundations/store/PressReleases/press.asp?code=20

Dan is doing demos around the country,( not near Sonoma unfortunately)

 

For Forest & Slopes; Permatrix Another integrated & formulated application system;

A custom formulated hydro-Seeding system is operating in the PNW, Philomath, talk to "John Miedema" <[email protected]>, also producing a quality char for their Permatrix Hydro-seeding products http://permamatrix.com/

Keyline Subsoil Plowing

"Priority One"

by Allan J. Yeomans, is a seminal work on top soil and how it can sequester enormous amounts of carbon. He parses all the numbers for you in chapter 5;

SOIL FORMATION CAN HALT GLOBAL WARMING

http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/docs/PRIORITY-ONE-Chapter5.pdf

Free download;

http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/priority-one.htm

 

Brian "Keyline Cowboy" Bankston injects a mix of compost tea and biochar as he keyline plows Sadie's pasture on The Farm, in Summertown Tennessee, October 12, 2010.