Biochar
What is it and why you should use it in your garden
Biochar is one of the best amendments you should have in your soil to improve your plants growth. Biochar can be created from several different feedstocks/forest waste, but some are better than others. Physical and chemical characteristics of biochar depend on the feedstock and the conditions it was created in. These conditions are heating, temperature, pressure, and timing. You can get all these dialed in and get a biochar that holds minimal nutrients. The key is starting with a good feedstock, we use oak hardwoods. The bioavailable nutrients are Nitrogen, Carbon, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium. If you were to use a soft wood for your bioavailable nutrients it would rapidly decrease to Carbon and Phosphorus.
How it’s made
The process of making biochar is called pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is restricting oxygen when burning your feedstock. There are several different methods you can use to make your own pyrolysis chamber. Some people will use a 55-gallon metal drum to burn in, another very popular method is digging a cone shaped hole in the ground to burn from. Both methods are incredibly easy for making small amounts of biochar. Once your feedstock is being burned carefully watch for a white coating of ash around your feedstock to appear, this will be a sign that it is ready to be put out. Applying heavy amounts of water can work to put it out, but keep a distance so the steam doesn’t burn you.
Where did biochar originate
A lot of people don’t know this but tropical soils are incredibly bad to grow plants in. They are constantly rained on which leads to a lot of soil eroding and nutrients being leached out. The native Indians that lived in the amazon realized this and came up with an incredible solution for this. Around 2,500 years ago they began creating what is now called Terra Preta. Terra Preta is biochar mixed with organic matter and broken pottery. This was able to turn a very poor soil into one of the most fertile soils in the world. Terra Preta has an extremely high phosphorus content and a high cation exchange capacity. This is what led the native Indians to be able to survive and farm in the amazon.
Carbon Sequestration
One of the biggest reason biochar is growing in popularity is its ability to pull CO2 out of the air and bring it back into the soil. If the feedstock were left to sit outside and degrade overtime it would release carbon dioxide into the air. This is a natural process and shouldn’t be completely stopped, but since humans are doing several things that produce carbon dioxide we need to invest in practices to reduce carbon dioxide in the air. When we take some of the feedstock and make biochar out of it we are now creating a highly porous product that is carbon negative. Being that it is carbon negative it will absorb carbon dioxide and even smells, biochar also lasts in the soil for thousands of years. Companies like Microsoft and Shopify have started to invest in biochar after seeing how multi useful it can be for earth.
What can it do for the soil
This is where biochar really shines. In the soil it is one of the most effective additives you can have. Being that it is highly porous its perfect for housing things like beneficial microorganism. It also enhances soil structure, increases the water retention and aggregation, decreases your acidity, reduces nitrous oxide emissions, improves porosity, regulates nitrogen leaching, improves electrical conductivity, and is great as an aeration material. Best of all it doesn’t take a lot when adding to your soil. We recommend a 5 – 10 % mixture in a soil for best results.
Biochar in your compost pile
Biochar is fantastic for adding to a compost pile. 70% of biochar is carbon so adding it to your compost will help if you have a high nitrogen content. On a carbon to nitrogen ratio biochar is 100:1 carbon. Adding it to your compost will allow it to be a housing space for microorganisms, typically 10 – 30% of the total carbon in biochar will be available for microbes to consume. You can fill your compost with anywhere from 3 – 25% biochar depending on your nitrogen content. This can result in a rapid bacterial metabolism of nitrogen. Since biochar is fantastic at aeration and holding moisture you won’t have to turn your pile as often. Just remember to add plenty of nitrogen if you are adding high quantities of biochar.
We will be adding future posts and videos of biochar and some of the awesome effects we are having with our plants. If you are interested in purchasing biochar, we do sell it in our store. We use high temperature hardwoods to make ours and run it through a mill. The results give us a variety of sizes from fine dust to 1 inch chunks. This sizing is perfect for its wide variety of uses. If you have any question don’t be afraid to reach out to us. Thanks for reading!
