One of the common mistake I usually had when it comes on planting my vegetables are the soil that I use. These are the main reason why my previous vegetables died. I saw that underneath that the roots got rotted. It becomes clay like soil overtime and the roots wasn't able to move freely, grow and live a longer period of time.
Because of that mistakes, I looked for some answers which can help me to have a better type of soil for my future vegetables planting season. What I discovered was combining other materials like sand, coco peat, egg shells, animal waste and rice hull can helps me to achieve a better soil quality. It was needed to mix on an ordinary soil which you have right now at your yard. As of now, I don't have a coco peat, but a rice hull which my lettuce seeds faced some serious trouble.
I have wrongly used that rice hull that's why today, I will share how I did a Carbonized Rice Hull. It is simple but it really takes several hours and patience throughout the process.
Here's what I did:
- I place all the rice hull that I have on the ground. I looked for a long tin can like this and place it in the middle of the rice hull. I put some thin dried branches to make some fire.
- Once the fire burns the bottom part of the branches, you can blow it underneath so it can create a fiery surface underneath. It is important not to have an actual fire inside. We just want to see a smoke and let the tin can slowly burn the rice hull.
- Leave it for few minutes after the first try. This is just to ensure if the rice hull was slowly been toasted. Once you saw a smoke, pile the rice hull and mix it.
- By doing that, you will have to toast/burn other remaining rice hull. That's why it takes several hours to watch for it as it turns into black. Always keep in mind that it needed to be a slow process.
I started it before 8 in the morning and finished around 4 in the afternoon. It's quite longer than I expected because the wind blows very very hard nowadays. Aside from that, it is needed to cool off right away. You can spread some water into the rice hull also.
When you add carbonized rice hull in your soil mix, it will maintain a natural moisture and a fertilizer. Making your soil to have Potassium, Magnesium and Calcium and micronutrients to helps our different crops to grow healthy. Though it is easy to buy some online, I think it is better to save money by doing some DIY that added on your stock knowledge.
I hope it can help those plant lovers out there to achive and have a successful crops, flowers and even vegetables without spending more money. Thank for supporting me by upvoting amd sharing this post. See yah :)
Note: It is not totally or fully black type a carbornized rice hull. It's my own preference not to totally burned them all because I was tired and the wind was so disturbing and blows away some rice hull on the ground so I finished it just as is. All photos are mine. Thanks!