Soil

Wood Vinegar and Bioactive Charcoal

Today, I will tell you about two important agricultural inputs that have started to be used in our country in recent years, which permaculturists already know, and which have been used by ancient civilizations. It’s a long article, so grab your tea and coffee and start reading.

Bio-active charcoal and wood vinegar can be made very easily at home. For a truly sustainable farm, these two ingredients must be made with materials from the farm. Even if you buy it from outside for trial purposes at first, it is very important to handle the production internally in order to become a self-sufficient farm.

When making bio-active charcoal, wood vinegar is produced.  In the image below the dark blue drum burns the wood, whilst the pale blue drum condenses some of the smoke.

Image by Paul Harrison (flickr) under CC BY 2.0

Bio-active charcoal is the solution obtained as a result of organic substances that are converted into carbon by burning at temperatures of 280C to 400C in a completely oxygen-free environment.  It is crumbled like flour and added to manure or compost heaps, worm manure or microbial liquid fertilizers. Since the material reduced to carbon contains many pores, it becomes a home for bacteria. It collects and stores nutrients and regulates the acidity in the soil. It balances excess nitrogen.

Bio-activated charcoal should not be made with barbecue charcoal. Because charcoal still contains plant extracts and volatile liquids that will burn, and these are actually compounds that can stop plant development.

The pyrolysis process, that is, the combustion process without taking oxygen, is carried out in a closed environment, with smoke coming out of a single chimney, and in a longer time than charcoal.

Wood vinegar is obtained by condensing the moisture in the smoke coming out of the chimney with a distillation still as a result of this combustion. This resulting liquid is called raw wood vinegar . As a result of resting, the oil inside rises to the top and the tar sinks to the bottom. A light honey-coloured liquid collects in the middle layer. This liquid is refined wood vinegar .

When making charcoal in an oxygen-free environment, hardwoods are generally used to make better wood vinegar. You will encounter alcohol, methanol, acetone and floral scents in well-refined wood vinegar . Some companies produce wood vinegar chemically and its smell is really bitter and tarry. If its colour is light and its scent consists of alcohol and flower scents, it means it is a quality and refined wood vinegar.

Approximately 2-7 litres of wood vinegar are produced from wood burning for 12-15 hours in a 200 litre barrel. The amount varies depending on the hardness of the wood. In chemistry, it is called Pyroligneous acid .

Different trees produce wood vinegar with different properties. There is even a difference between the bark and timber of the tree. That’s why it is very important that wood vinegar is made with wood or organic materials from your farm. In terms of the components specific to that region and the components it contains, the components needed by the region can only be found in wood vinegar made with local organic matter.

Bio-active coal was unearthed layer by layer during excavations in the Amazon forest. It was concluded that charcoal was spread on large areas of land by human hands and agriculture was carried out here. Considering that before the industrial revolution, humanity mostly heated itself by burning wood, there may be a need to use the coal and ash that will be produced somewhere, or it may have been thrown into the garden or field haphazardly and the benefits may have been realized, thus paving the way for its use in agriculture.

Although the use of wood vinegar is found in written records dating back 2000 years, it is known that it has been produced and used since ancient times. It is especially common in Japan. It was actively used everywhere in the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Chinese civilizations. It has taken its place in ancient medical practices for the treatment of various diseases. It is known that there are very old areas of use in the Amazon basin. Considering that the first place where bioactive charcoal was used was the Amazon basin, we can guess that wood vinegar was actively used there.

Bio-active charcoal and wood vinegar are ancient materials, but we are just now rediscovering their use and putting it on a scientific basis. The results obtained are also very satisfactory.

Wood vinegar has been widely used in agriculture since the 1930s. We even know that some countries’ Ministries of Agriculture establish working groups and conduct scientific research on data collection and use criteria. It is also a very good product for organic certified agriculture. It would be very useful to produce wood vinegar for additional income in facilities that produce charcoal.

It consists mostly of acetone, acetic acid and methanol components and contains about 200 organic substances. It contains around 80% to 90% water.

We can also call wood vinegar liquid bioactive charcoal.

It is slightly toxic to fish, and very toxic to plants if the proportions are not followed. Therefore, it is used by diluting it at a ratio of 1:500 or 1:200.

 

Benefits of Wood Vinegar

Wood vinegar, on which research continues, is supported by the ministries of agriculture of different countries, especially for its use in organic certified agriculture. The sources I found originate from Australia, Thailand, China, some states of the USA and South America.

In general, it has positive contributions to the development of roots, stems, tubers such as potatoes, and the development of leaves, flowers and fruits. When it was first used in an orchard, there was an explosion in the amount of fruit.

It does not cause any harm to any living organism as long as the limits are not exceeded and it is not overdone.

It does not harm especially pollinating insects and bees.

It causes a significant increase in Brix values. All the nutrients in the soil pass to the fruit and leaves. It increases photosynthesis. This event causes the nutritional values ​​of the fruit to increase.

The quality is increased by using it in compost making.

It balances the excess nitrogen in the soil, accelerates plant metabolism, and increases the sugar content in the fruit.

It promotes egg laying in chickens.

It is perfect for fungal and viral diseases.

It increases meat quality in cows.

Experiments in hydroponic production are continuing, but I could not find anyone using it regularly. It is already a little harmful to fish, but it can be used as leaf fertilizer. It can be used in hydroponic production by controlling pH.

It is necessary to reduce fertilizer use by 50% in places where it is used in agriculture. Since the wood vinegar used in the soil improves both microbiological life and photosynthesis of plants, it is said that there is no need to use too much fertilizer.

There are also studies showing that it is good for people with liver diseases, hepatitis, jaundice, and lung cancer. It has also been used in diseases such as skin ulcers and mouth ulcers.

It has also been used for issues such as regulating stomach acids and eliminating body odour.

 

Wood Vinegar Usage Rates

The rates below are the rates revealed as a result of long research. If you exceed these rates, it can have a devastating effect.

It can be used as a soil supporter and regulator by diluting 1:200 to 1 litre per square meter of soil.

50 litre of solution prepared by diluting 1:50 can be thrown into 8-10 cubic meters of compost.

It can be applied to the leaves by diluting 1:200 in the first leaf fertilizer and 1:300 in the following ones.

It is diluted 1:200 and applied to the seeds to be planted overnight. These seeds germinate quickly.

It can be used to repel insects by diluting it at a ratio of 1:20.

It provides resistance against root nematodes with 1:500 solutions for tomato roots and 1:200 solutions for strawberry roots.

If 1:500 is applied to cabbages and 1:300 to corn, it will repel insects and moths.

It is good for fungal diseases and root rots in tomatoes and cucumbers with 1:200.

In peppers, it increases the transformation of flowers into fruits by 1:300.

If applied to fruit trees by diluting 1:500 or 1:1000, it improves fruit quality and increases sugar content.

Wood vinegar diluted 1:50 will remove the odour when sprinkled on the coop litter.

If used in poultry, cattle and sheep feed by diluting 1:200 or 1:300, it has a beneficial effect on the flora in their intestines and ensures better digestion of feed. It controls salmonella. When cows are given 300 grams of bioactive charcoal and 100 grams of molasses daily and wood vinegar is mixed into their water, it reduces the bacteria that produce methane gas, accelerates digestion and increases the amount of meat.

A farmer named Doug Pow, who produces meat with a herd of 60 cows in the state of Western Australia, spent 1000 Australian dollars and gave the bioactive charcoal and molasses he bought to the cows at the above rates, and made a net profit of 17 thousand Australian dollars from meat sales alone. Considering that the resulting cow manure is of very high quality and feeds the pastures and that methane gas is reduced, the returns are actually much higher.

 

My Usage Method

In terms of scale, I do not have a large enough space and organic material to make wood vinegar. I buy wood vinegar in 1 or 5 litre canisters.

I sometimes buy bio-active charcoal from barbecue leftovers and sometimes to grow seeds. The filters I use in Irimtuzen also contain charcoal. As I change them, I crumble them and bury them in the garden. In the process, the flammable substances in the coal are removed and the bacterial effect activates it.

I compared wood vinegar to liquid charcoal above. In other words, it offers an ideal environment for good bacteria to live. Based on this, I add wood vinegar to the microbial liquids I prepare, especially to the irfan teas I prepare in an oxygenated environment. When we look at the values ​​given above in terms of ratio, I add an average of around 1:500 wood vinegar to LAB, nettle and comfrey fertilizers, mix it well, filter it, fill it into watering cans and water the garden. I increase the quality of the worm compost by adding the remaining residue to my worm compost and adding rock flour to it.

In ancient times, nothing else was used for agriculture other than bioactive charcoal, ash, wood vinegar, farm animal manure, rock flour and whey from cheese making. I come across these items very often in the articles I read. Logically speaking, no other material exists naturally other than these materials. We are actually the ones who make agriculture difficult.

The use of bioactive charcoal and wood vinegar on commercial farms should not be considered as an addition to normally applied chemicals and fertilizers. The farm owner should holistically review all of his practices, restructure them around bioactive charcoal and wood vinegar, and change all fertilization, spraying, and maintenance timelines. It should even set up mechanisms to burn the organic material from the field and turn it into wood vinegar and bio-active charcoal, so that it can be an example of sustainable agriculture. In other words, instead of patchwork practices, a wholesale mentality change is essential.

 

Resources

The resources below are in English, but if you search, it is also possible to access Turkish resources. The dilution rates given in some Turkish sources are 100 times the ones I gave, but I think they gave these values ​​for their specific products. I recommend that you follow the usage instructions of the company you purchased it from.

I did not read Turkish sources. It is very important for me and a duty to you, my readers, that the information I have compiled here comes accurately from reliable sources. It is my principle that the research and sites I read are reliable and that accurate information is published on my blog.

http://www.woodvinegar.com.au/

https://www.woodvinegar.org/

Pyroligneous acid – Wikipedia

Wood vinegar and salmonella

Antimicrobial activity and chemical profile of wood vinegar from eucalyptus (Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis – clone I144) and bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris) | SpringerLink

Using wood vinegar in chicken feed

Drinking water supplemented with wood vinegar on growth performance, intestinal morphology, and gut microbial of broiler chickens – PMC (nih.gov)

Australia and New Zealand Biochar and wood vinegar report

 

This article was written by Gurkan Yeniceri and has been reposted from havatopraksu  under creative commons licence 4.0

 

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