Biochar...

Mother Earth News, Feb/Mar 2009, has an article on Biochar. The technique they describe is not one I've seen before, and it looks easy.

Make Biochar — this Ancient Technique Will Improve Your Soil
Charcoal made from brush can increase your soil’s fertility and help slow climate change.
February/March 2009 By Barbara Pleasant
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx

Many of you might remember I wrote an article on Biochar last October, and here's the link for those who missed it.

Biochar: Good for your garden AND your carbon footprint!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1669/

I'm going to cross-post this on the Sustainability Forum, too...

Thanks for sharing the additional info!

Interesting.... right after I read my latest copy of Mother Earth News I performed a search at Dave's garden to see if there was any chatter about biochar.

About the only thing that I found was the article you mentioned and subsequent comments.

I was thinking about posting comment on the MEN article in this forum but thought I should research the issue. I haven't really found the answer to my question so I will post it here..

Firstly, I guess because of my limited understanding, It appears to be counter productive.

I believe wood ash will add potassium to the soil and raise the PH; which when over done is detrimental.

As students of composting and soil amendments we are taught that adding too much wood to your soil can also rob Nitrogen to the point that your plants will suffer without adding more Nitrogen.

Now, I can only assume that the wood has significantly changed in the transformation to charcoal.

So my question is, does it really work as well as claimed, for any type of soil?
e.g. an Alkaline soil.

Also, if it hasn't been significantly transformed then will I have to worry about too much potassium, a high PH or a Nitrogen deficiency?

From what I have read so far the answer appears to be no to the latter question, but again it don't sound right, yet.


Thanks

You are right to question, :) So many folks add anything and everything without questioning...

First, you only add biochar to the soil, NOT the ash... which as you say, is alkaline. And also as you say, adding wood robs nitrogen, but only IF the wood is still decomposing, which in the biochar state, it is not.

As to results, I'm in the process of finding out but that's probably a long-term deal. My soil is alkaline, and I sift my woodstove ashes for the small chunks of biochar, and just use those. It is helpful to "seed" the biochar with something containing beneficial bacteria... compost, bokashi, etc. I will compare pH levels as time passes. My first biochar only went in the garden last summer.

Thanks for the article and extra link darius. I will make good use of that in early spring, trying to get rid of a few leftover dry leaves and brush. When you don't own a chipper, this would let you deal with brush and prunings as a resource instead of sending them to yard waste pickup. (Small amounts here- we are not supposed to open- burn in Suburbia.)

Would love to hear any followups to this post. I am quite thrilled with the results using biochar (at a ration of 10% in the soil), and as it is N deficient, I soak it in diluted Fish Hydrolosate, some molassas and EM. WOW...HEALTHY plants and good growth. I will come back to some of the other questions later after I research more.