Biomass Extraction...

[SwampDonkey]

They're doing the same hear, and the visual (non-scientific) results aren't all that impressive. But, there has been no official scientifc results reported yet. It's on a  trial basis.

While it does contain alot of micronutrients, it contains no nitrogen and a bit of Phosphorus, but a good source of potasium. It is very alkaline and helps reduce PH as you say. Here is an organic nutrient chart. Our soils are not lacking in potassium as it gets continuously replenished by rain water since the Maritimes are pretty much surrounded by ocean. Most of the parent material under farm soils are full of calcium, but below rooting depth, so lime has to be applied. The drinking water is very hard. Our cedar forests are sitting on calcareous rocks or lime. The best natural sources of N and P are fish and crush crustaceon exoskeleton, as well as bird and bat guano.

http://www.cbc-canada.com/grow/nutrientorg.html

[jack]

Gents & Ladies,

Regarding biomass ash, for farm production.  There are a few items of concern,
What gets burned in the plant,  some bio mass burners dont always take pure wood chips, some burn ground up pallets, green waste, and other items of combustuble value.  They have magnets but not of the Zinc, etc.. are removed in the cleaning process,  Some Ash has high metals content, BEWARE.   Also some biomass plants prescreen the incomming material and the "fines" are often available,  TEST THESE TOO> before applying to soil.   Remember, a little of some thing might be good,  but check the long term effects of the buildup in the soil,
I take a sample and send it to a lab,  find out everything in the material, $130.00
Then the soil lab can make recommendations as to how much, how often etc... that the material can be used without harming your soil.
some metals are availble to the soil are picked up by your crop, and injested into what ever is eating them.  Serious coin could be at stake......

Jack Kimmich
Soils To Grow LLc

[SwampDonkey]

Here is a study done by the local university in forests in my neck of the woods.

http://www.unbf.ca/forestry/centers/biomass.htm

When you see figures for m²/ha keep in mind that includes small limbs of the crown that would normally be too small diameter for pulp or too crooked. (1 m²/ha ~ 1 cords/acre) I haven't seen any 48 cord/acre hardwood stands yet here, but I've seen a few 38 cord/acre sites and they were on the best of sites. If they exist in NB, tell me where. I wanna see. Be rest assured I'll have my prism and d-tape. There is a big difference between total volume and 'conventional' merchantable volume.