BIO-CHAR retains water in agricultural soil.

BIO-CHAR retains water in agricultural soil.

The fact that bio-char helps
Ken Bourne (not verified) | November 9, 2011 - 7:15pm

The fact that bio-char helps to retain moisture in a known fact! The benefits of bio-char as an agricultural amendment are ancient history,e.g. terra preta. What we need is for some brave scientist, who is not funded by international chemical companies,to start telling the truth.
The world is inundated with problems that politicians are reluctant to cure. Waste, pollution, water shortage, food shortage, diseases and other chronic health problems, and worldwide unemployment.Power is also a massive problem especially where nuclear energy is concerned. Most of these have been caused, in my opinion, by over application of chemicals which reduces the amount of nutrients in food, and the products obtained from oil.
All of these problems can be reduced, if not eliminated by bio-char and organic food production. All organic waste can be turned into bio-char. So can sewage, farm manure, waste from sawmills and farms, forestry waste(slash piles) and the millions of trees that dead from pine beetle. Sewage would not pollute the oceans and our water would be filtered by the charcoal in agricultural and forestry soil. Chemical farmers must change over to organic farming and the large monoculture farms split up and returned back to family intensive farms. This would eliminate the food shortages as the food produced would be nutrient rich so that the consumption would be reduced considerably as, for example, one apple would contain the same nutrients as 5 of today's!(This would be the same as the nutrient value of food 60 years ago.) There would be far more available jobs, power would be created from the heat of creating the bio-char, and the resulting bio-oils and gases can be used for vehicular power instead of oil and natural gas. the actual process of creating bio-char creates more power than is used. Organic food production results in more food per acre than chemical farming and restores the top soil that farmers have nearly eliminated. This would also reduce the amount of diseases that are caused by our immune systems being compromised, and the associated health problems of obesity. (Good food would taste so good that children would eat it!) Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson realize the potential, lets hope that the people we elect and those that we pay to research come to the same conclusion soon.
Ken Bourne. BC. Canada

Soil Blocks for transplanting

The CARIBOO GARDENER by Ken Bourne

Soil Blocks- less shock when transplanting.

Transplanting seedlings from flats or pots directly into the garden always creates some stress in the plants and in the process some roots are damaged and take some time to recover. This could put an end to your well-laid plans for an early garden as so much time is lost if you have to re-sow the seeds.

One of the best solutions is to grow your seedlings in soil blocks. They are easy to make, inexpensive and really do work. Plants take off immediately because they have a superb root system that has not been damaged by tearing them apart.

Soil block machines are available in many garden and hardware stores or from a seed company like Veseys. The ideal size for the home gardener makes four blocks at a time.

Use potting soil with a peat or coir (coconut husks) base and make it very moist so that the blocks stay intact. You fill the four holes very firmly and depress the lever to eject the four soil blocks.

There is a depression in the top of each block to sow your seeds. For larger seeds put in one seed and for smaller ones you can sow a few and when they have germinated reduce them so that the strongest plant remains. After sowing cover the seeds with a sprinkling of soil and keep the blocks moist.

The seedlings will not require any fertilizer until they are transplanted when they have 2 to 4 true leaves. If kept any longer you can give them a weekly boost of compost tea but they must be transplanted as soon as roots start showing through the sides of the soil block.

Copyright 2011 by Ken Bourne

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(One of my garden columns)

Winterizing Garden Machinery

 Here is a column that I wrote that is appropriate for this time of year!


Winterizing Garden Machinery.

We use them all Summer and abuse them all Winter, and expect them to start after a few pulls on the starter cord in the Spring. That’s how most of us treat our garden machinery— and the amazing thing is that we very often get away with it ! One day it won’t start and this is the year when our sins of habitual neglect will catch up with us.
We can save expensive repair bills, or at worst a trip to the dump, by properly putting our gas powered machines to bed at the end of the season. Each machine will take less than an hour to prepare for hibernation, and this will go a long way towards warding off the evils of small engine neglect, such as — rusty gas tanks, sticky valves, blown pistons or even a seized up engine.
There are more varieties of gas powered garden aids than varieties of Willow, so the first step is to read the owners manual— they often have few pages devoted to storage— if you do not have a manual get one.
The difference between two and four stroke engines is relatively minor when it comes to storage. Simply put, a four stroke engine runs on straight gas whereas a two stroke runs on a mixture of gas and oil. Two stroke engines get fresh oil with every fuel up, but the oil in a four stroke engine needs to be changed regularly to keep the moving parts lubricated and running cool. It is very important to change the oil at the end of the season. Even if you only used the machine once the oil will contain contaminants that will that will attack the engine’s interior over the Winter. The biggest killer of small engines is dirty oil. When we check in the spring the oil looks clean because all of the grunge has sunk to the bottom, as soon as we start the engine that grunge then gets stirred up and will gum up the works. Good clean oil is very cheap insurance!
As it is futile to change the oil when the engine is cold, get those machines started again before we really get some snow. Run each machine for about 20 minutes, then turn off the fuel tap. Let the engine run until all of the gas in the carburetor has been burned up. If the machine has a large fuel tank top this up so that there is no room for condensation that may corrode the tank. If the implement has a small gas tank , as most mowers and tillers do, the object is to empty both the carburetor and the gas tank .Some engines have a small sediment bowl in the fuel line— remove ,clean and replace this.
The engine is warm , the gas tank is empty— now is the time to change the oil .As a  safety precaution remove the thick black wire that is connected to the spark plug. To drain the oil from a mower raise it onto a couple of wooden blocks— you can normally see under the larger machinery such as tillers. Check in the manual for the crankcase drain plug— this is often on the bottom of the engine, to one side , and normally the only square headed thing that will turn. Remove the drain plug and let it drain for at least half an hour before replacing it .Next remove, clean and set the gap on the spark plug. Remove and clean the air filter ( on some the air filter will need to be replaced).Refer to your manual for these operations. Before you replace the spark plug, squirt about a tablespoon of fresh oil into the hole, and give the cord a few pulls. Now is the time to give the whole machine a good clean— while you are cleaning the underside of the mower, remove and sharpen the blade— and dress up the tines of the tiller with a file. Now that the engine is clean, refill the crankcase with clean oil . If your machine has an electric starter then that will require a year - end battery check. Remove the battery and top up the cells with distilled water. Clean the terminals and lightly grease them with petroleum jelly— then store the battery in warm dry place ( not on a cement floor) and give it a trickle charge once a month during the winter. Lubricate any cables and any other moving bits, such as pivot points and throttle linkages and check the tire pressures. Now store the machine in a weather proof shed or garage. Do this every year and it could double or treble the life of the machine and make your gardening so much more enjoyable


Copyright   c   1997 by Ken Bourne. .