Excerpt from article by Peter Cundall on growing corn.
A good use for charcoal too small too burn,
Sweetcorn plants need a deep-dug bed enriched with a full bucket of well-rotted manure worked into every square metre of soil.
Add a double handful of decomposed poultry manure or granules.
Now here's a trick to ensure healthy plants and huge crops of amazingly delicious cobs.
Collect half a bucket of black charcoal pieces from a wood stove and tip on to a hard surface.
Then pulverise the lot into pea-sized crumbs using a lump of firewood.
It helps if water is sprinkled over to stop any black dust rising.
You'll finish up with half a bucket of tiny wet pieces.
Pour in half a cup of seaweed concentrate and half a cup of fish emulsion.
Double the bulk by adding potting soil then pour in water - about four litres - until the mixture can take no more.
Make deep grooves one metre apart in the prepared ground and dribble in the black slurry to thickly cover the base of each groove.
Then backfill, burying the layers of enriched charcoal, but leave shallow grooves directly over the top of each.
Seeds are then sown directly into these shallow drills, spacing them about 100mm apart, but keep out of contact with the charcoal.
Rake to cover and water deeply
Thought it could be useful
Stewart
charcoal little bits
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Re: charcoal little bits
My standard practice is to add both ash and unburnt charcoal shrapnel to the compost. I haven't heard the worms or the plants complain about it yet!
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"Beauty lies in the hands of the beer holder."
"Beauty lies in the hands of the beer holder."
Re: charcoal little bits
Agreed. I've been using the ash & tiny charred bits of wood & charcoal leftover from the spit in my compost for years. Works great for encouraging flowers on strawberries and tomatoes.
Great work kiwiman!
Great work kiwiman!
Charcoal: 22.5" Weber OTP 2000 | Wood Oven: Al Forno Piemonte R8 | Portable: Weber GA 2006
Gasser: NG WeberQ 320 | Rotisserie: Gaganis custom dual spit | Smoker: 18.5" WSM 2004
Gasser: NG WeberQ 320 | Rotisserie: Gaganis custom dual spit | Smoker: 18.5" WSM 2004