Pilot project begun to help improve productive soil

December 17th, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

A pilot project has begun to test the efficacy of creating "biochar" using waste wood from orchards and forestry to improve the quality and health of local soils.

The Renewables, a group of Motueka residents who are working to address local and global environmental issues, want to test the evidence from many places around the world that crushed charcoal dug into soil encourages micro-organisms, increases water retention and sequesters carbon.

The biochar trench - 6 metres long, 1 metre wide and 1 metre deep - was dug last Friday by Paul Wood, who was asked by Community Board chairman Paul Hawkes. The experimenters earlier last week had their request for funding for a contracted digger turned down.

"We're very grateful to the two Pauls for taking this project seriously and supporting it when the Community Board wouldn't," said Lynda Hannah, a member of The Renewables.

Waste wood from adjacent kiwifruit orchards will be buried in the ditch and the first biochar burn will be done in the New Year. Makeshift chimneys help funnel the air flow to enable burning. A thermocouple and temperature gauge are used to monitor underground progress.

When the material is burnt it is allowed to cool, then dug up, crushed and made available for spreading on productive land. Samples will be sent to laboratories to test for quality.

"We anticipate there will be some techniques to perfect before we get it right," said Lynda. "As far as we know this method of producing biochar from kiwifruit orchard waste hasn't been attempted before."

A successful project would be seen as a win-win for orchardists who would otherwise burn off waste wood, other growers who will use the improved soil, and the general public, as carbon is locked away in the soil for hundreds of years instead of entering the atmosphere and air quality improves.

If the pilot project works, The Renewables intend to move on to a more efficient, larger-scale plant which could then be a commercial operation, but this would be some way off.

Comment by Tom Watkins:
[Posted 21 December 2013]

What a splendid initiative! Congratulations to the Renewables.

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