Yep, it's definitely nothing we're going to make our money back on. I bought the cheapest brand I could find. I just ground-up two large bags, made about a wheelbarrow bull of charcoal granules and dust (man, what a dirty job!) and dumped a trowel-full into each planting hole before I stuck my tomato start into the hole. The leftover was spaded-under into an area where I typically have a pile of compost cooking, for use next year. I think the scientist was advocating the idea as a start-up industry, and as a way to revitalize over-worked soil in many third-world countries. It's certainly within the technical ability of you or I to make our own solar-powered charcoal generator vessels and make our own, using raw materials that are essentially free. But for now, I did it mostly as an experiement and for the "warm fuzzy" feeling of actually having sequestered some carbon in my own yard, for thousands of years to come. Worth a few dollars. On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 3:18 PM, Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Chuck, I heard the same broadcast and I wondered how one could cheaply obtain enough charcoal for a modest yard or garden. Briquettes, as you found, are just too expensive to cover an entire yard. Perhaps the savings in water (one of the benefits, as I recall) would pay for such an investment.