In the 60's there was a radio show called 'Around the Horn' and in that show was a character called Rambling Sid Rumpold. This salt of the earth, pseudo farmer philosopher would sing a ridiculous ditty and end with the catch phrase 'aargh - my Deareoes, the answer lies in the soil'. I think there are times when I come perilously close to mimicking old Sid when talking, at length, about soil fertility and biochar.
The next stop on our way north was Albrechtshohe, tucked into the landscape about 100 km to the north west of Windhoek, the farm, owned by Wanjo and his wife Birgit, had been my home for a few days when I was last in Namibia. In November last year after many weeks work and many meetings, a group of seventeen scientists, researchers, politicians, farmers and funders, came together at Albrechtshohe to discuss the future of biochar in Namibia.
We had a wild time trying out stuff and I demonstrated the first Kon Tiki pyrolysis unit. The picture below shows it in full flow and you can see the volotile pyrolysis gases burning dark orange, dancing above the wood fuel.
After the process has finished and cooled, just the clean charcoal remains and if it's put into soil we call it biochar.
You see what I mean 'rambling friese rumpold' strikes again!
Simons daughter found the whole thing fascinating though and took home some sticks of char to draw with.
I mention all this because Will's and I found that Wanjo and Birgit had used the biochar to run a small trial growing green peppers and tomatoes. The results so far are recorded below. Williams thumbs up means the plot has biochar in it.
............. thumbs down means it's the control and doesn't.
You see there is a difference. By the way you may think that Williams thumbing style is not very scientific and his body language shows bias, but the way things are going in the academic world - I think it could catch on.