Hi Craig,
I too am sorry to hear about your 'bump" in life’s road. Sharing what you have with others on that same bump shows character and that’s priceless. Good will come to you, always look up. Good luck to you all.
Pepe
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gasification has been a god send …were surrounded with our beautiful environment, trees, animals etc. it’s like camping but with all the luxry’s. The one couple I met were running on propane in their tent and now they go collect the wood material, process it etc. I’m teaching the one guy how to weld… and educating everyone on the technology. Next ( still too cold right now ) but we are building a mound of bio char for a garden this summer and i already have all the seeds. Maybe this was where i was meant to be in life…but, would have never been possible with out all your great knowledge and help.
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Be a lil careful with the bio char, ash, etc. It may decrease yields the first year or two, or so I have read. It needs to be primed and/or given a chance to break down. It depends a lot on your soil type. However, over the long haul it should be totally worth it.
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Update: Things are progressing so quickly. Today stopping in at the food bank, I was greeted by one of our local politicians who caught wind of our camp. He wants to come out and see it but am reluctant in fear of being shut down, or in trouble. ( But there are many of us that want to keep our independence and self pride, this project has allowed us to do so ). Talking to my brother ( lives in a different province/state ) he was talking about this gasification project with his church and they are talking about raising money and sending me to south Africa to help with their energy problems. He also works with a guy: who’s interested in having me build him a gasifier for his farm. It’s really overwhelming and feels good. I have lots of hours of video for you guys and will post them when i get a chance. Happy gasifiying ! 
special shout out to Bobmac for being such a great guy !
in regards to Sean : researching Terra preta ( what ancients used for the amazon ) we plan to dig down 18-24" to create a layer of bio char. Then use the ash as a pest deterent: primarily slugs: as our main crop will be potato’s and were in bit of a muskeg area
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Actually the size of charcoal and the ratio of charcoal to soil will be the factors that will affect one’s yield. I used my charcoal in straight compost and had noticeable results in a few weeks. The rule of thumb that I am going by is no more that 25% charcoal to compost. This size I used was no bigger than 1/2". No I didn’t screen it.
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I inoculate my char with chicken manure and water or urine before adding to soil or compost.
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Craig jump all over building the gasificer for that farm. Anything you can do to get your foot in the door there will pay back in spades. I really see a farmer being more then happy to help you out and get access to a quality welder. Keep in mind most farmers are only a short distance from bankruptcy themselves but speaking as a farmer who grew up on this farm and is trying to get it going again if somone does good work on a farm and treats you fairly that goes a long ways. Too many people aren’t willing to get dirty which you can’t avoid on a farm. I would say just be open to creative methods of payment if the farmer is really tight for funds.
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The ash should help balance the pH, it is extremely alkaline and can contain stuff that may kill the plants if applied to liberally. It should increase the CEC (cation exchange capacity) of the soil, which you want in the root zone. However, it can also react with the nitrogen in the soil that you want for plant growth early in the season, which defeats the purpose of applying nitrogen.
I have heard of the ash with potatoes as an insecticide, but I thought it was for the beetles. There is a research paper on it which is based off an old farmers technique that discusses application rates. I haven’t tried it. I just saw an experiment literally 30 years ago. You most likely know more about it then I do. 
I would apply everything right before fall digging and just mix it in when I was digging to make sure it is getting in the root zone which is where you want it if I was just looking at a soil amendment.
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Craig, in northern soils there shouldn’t be a need to incorporate material that deep. The active layer of our soil is the top 6 - 12". If you dig down through an undisturbed soil profile you will see that the topsoil layer is only maybe 6" deep, then the subsoil 6 - 12. Also digging that deep will be a pile of work. If nature wants it deeper than that, it will eventually move it around, with earthworms, etc. Best to put the amendments where the most active soil is, I think.
Kudos on the biochar initiative. It may well take more than a year for the soil organisms to adapt, and maximum benefit.
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If he is growing taters they go to like 18-24" so he is already disturbing the soil fairly deep. Otherwse I would totally agree. Even if it doesn’t end up beneficial being that deep, it will most likely make it easier to dig.
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I think up there I would go up with the potatoes. There was an old school method of growing them inside a couple of old tires you plant the potatoes the put the tire over the plant once it comes up and fill the tire as the potatoes grow. It is supposed to be a easy way to hill them and you don’t have to dig in the fall you pull the plants and flip the tire out. I have seen it done and the people who like it say it holds more water on them and is easy to weed.
For myself I rototiller the entire area about 6 inches I think. Then I add what I want to augment the soil with and rototiller again. After that is done I plant and hill the potatoes.
To be honest potatoes should grow pretty good in poor soil. But be careful about organic mater with potatoes. I have been told it causes scabes. And I know first hand that if you use straw for weed control the potatoes will grow around it and you will have chunks of straw in your potatoes.
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Thanks guys for all the great advise. Things are on the up and up, was able to come up with some money and back in my home. I’ve left my gasifier with my homeless friends and not giving up on the project. I want to try start a ’ pilot project ’ with the city as …There’s many out there that want to stay independent and out of the shelters. As for the garden were going to do sections, some with bio-char, some with out, some mixed and see how it goes. It’s a calling in life i think …besides it’s passing the knolledge down to others.
initially i was running with a bubbler / scrubber and while it had seperating benefits, I don’t think it’s the best way. I tried many different fuels , even coal and …it would create tar balls and even much of the wood I used were from construction sites ( covered in mud and sand ), it would create sand balls and even seperation of the heavy metals. Now I understand why it’s done mostly on a industrial scale as a ’ reformer ’ would most likely need used. Happy gasifying !
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Glad to hear you are back in your home. Hopefully things will continue to look up.
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Craig,
l think if you get tar in the bubbler, this might mean two things. The gasifier running to low power/dimensions wrong for the aitflow and the other is more positive, the fact that the bubbler collects tar is good! Tar is generaly hard to pull out of the gas.
Glad to see your situation went up, happy gasifiing to you too!