Biochar - Anyone used it?

Extract from wikipedia:

"Biochar is a name for charcoal when it is used for particular purposes, especially as a soil amendment. Like all charcoal, biochar is created by pyrolysis of biomass. Biochar is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration to produce negative carbon dioxide emissions. Biochar thus has the potential to help mitigate climate change, via carbon sequestration. Independently, biochar can increase soil fertility, increase agricultural productivity, and provide protection against some foliar and soil-borne diseases. Furthermore, biochar reduces pressure on forests. Biochar is a stable solid, rich in carbon and can endure in soil for thousands of years."

More to read:

"Biochar is found in soils around the world as a result of vegetation fires and historic soil management practices. Intensive study of biochar-rich dark earths in the Amazon (terra preta), has led to a wider appreciation of biochar's unique properties as a soil enhancer.

Biochar can be an important tool to increase food security and cropland diversity in areas with severely depleted soils, scarce organic resources, and inadequate water and chemical fertilizer supplies.

Biochar also improves water quality and quantity by increasing soil retention of nutrients and agrochemicals for plant and crop utilization. More nutrients stay in the soil instead of leaching into groundwater and causing pollution."

And even more:

"My Land Institute colleague Tim Crews, whose ecology research focuses on soil nutrient cycles, says biochar has two primary agricultural benefits: improving soil "tilth" (its physical condition, which affects plant growth) and increasing the soil's capacity to retain nutrients and make them available to plant roots. "Biochar is not," he stresses, "a significant source of nutrients itself." If nitrogen, or phosphorus, or other essential elements are deficient in a soil, incorporating bichar into the soil won't add enough of those nutrients to make a difference. But for certain types of soils that don't hold onto nutrients or water very well, biochar can help.

Addition of biochar improves soil tilth and nutrient-holding capacity, according to Crews, only when it's in the technique's "original context." The practice was first used millennia ago to improve heavily weathered tropical soils in the Amazon basin. "There," says Crews, "years and years of slash-and-burn cropping cycles, with long periods for regrowth of natural vegetation between episodes of burning and tillage, added charcoal that persisted in the soil for a very long time. Not just any old kind of charcoal-making will result in such durability, so it must have been done with some insight; the burning must have been done with a smoldering fire in an oxygen-deprived situation, which is required to make 'good' biochar." And it was done again and again and again. Over the centuries, that charred plant material was incorporated into the soil and has remained there.

In those very old, weathered, acidic, iron and aluminum-rich soils with often low organic matter–known as Ultisols and Oxisols –the addition of biochar brought significantly better crop growth, because the soils were better able to retain essential nutrients until the crops needed them. Those soil types are found throughout the tropics, but in the United States they are common only in parts of the Southeast. Most soils in temperate latitudes were rejuvenated in relatively recent geological history by glaciers "rototilling" the Earth. These soils retain nutrients very well without any amendments like biochar."

I started mixing it with wood ash, my own compost and loam (which is what I have everywhere here) for this year's outdoor grow. Wonder what the results will be? :hookah: Has anybody used it indoor or outdoor?
 
I haven't but damn, I'm interested now brother. Apart from wanting to give the herb as wide a choice of nute sources this bio char might just be what I'm looking for.

We moved into a new house and the soil is dead, dry and lifeless. And it seems that biochar might be the 1st step to bringing this soil back to life.

Thanx for the info LoL

Love and Light
 
Yeah, it's a cheap and very effective organic amendment for your cannabis soil mix and your garden in general, especially if you have poor quality soil.
 
My outdoor grow with biochar added looks very good so far!
 
i used biochar for many years in the potting of woody ornamental plants. Upon repotting after 2,3-4 years i observed that tree roots completely enveloped the small lumps of hardwood coal. i try and screen out the coal bits to reuse.

my interest in biochar is renewed in connection to cultivating mj. bio char is neither cheap or readily available in my region. i may use some crushed hardwood charcoal and innoculate it by bubbling with castings for a day or so.

Con, what ratio did you use when adding to your garden?
 
I've used shitloads ths year literally. I added at least a bucket to every spot I planted my plants in. Mixed this well with bamboo mulch, compost and other ingredients. If you're curious about how it affected my plants just click my grow and check The Sunny Spot update. I too pics this morning.
 
Plants were started in a soil mix inoculated with Micosat F WP Len (Italian product) and then watered with it twice if I remember well.
 
I just ordered a small batch. I might do a comparison grow based on the addition of biochar to hibrix kit soil.

My main concern is that the usefulness of biochar is diminished when the soil quality is already excellent and the basic, required service period for the soil is relatively brief. With outdoor cultivation those are not much of a concern.

Your garden in sunny Italy looks fantastic. In my container garden hibrix tomatoes are looking nuclear. The weather has been perfect and variety seems well acclimated to our environment here in the village of Dankville. I'm gonna post a pic of my first sexy fruit cluster!
 
I just started with biochar so cannot tell you a lot, but it goes well with mycorrhizae and my own loam, which needs to be cut cause it's too heavy on its own.
 
Biochar has produced terrific yields for me at a 3-5% application rate (I use Black Owl Biochar in my soil). There are more crystals, healthier and sturdier plants and the plant "tastes" sweeter. It also helps fight against mold. I really recommend it. I am also going to start using their powdered biochar in my irrigation and hydro system.
 
I'd like to see a comparison grow. I'm skeptical at this point after watching this video.


QUOTE=VonDankenhoek;2148290]I just ordered a small batch. I might do a comparison grow based on the addition of biochar to hibrix kit soil.

My main concern is that the usefulness of biochar is diminished when the soil quality is already excellent and the basic, required service period for the soil is relatively brief. With outdoor cultivation those are not much of a concern.

Your garden in sunny Italy looks fantastic. In my container garden hibrix tomatoes are looking nuclear. The weather has been perfect and variety seems well acclimated to our environment here in the village of Dankville. I'm gonna post a pic of my first sexy fruit cluster![/QUOTE]
 
thats an interesting video.

I wonder though why dumping 16# of azomite into an undisclosed substrate is called "rock dust" or "mineralized."

Also what is the starting point for the biochar, is it charged, what is the source and size of the char. Lastly shouldn't the soil analysis be performed before the experiment commences? What if the soil is already mineral rich or lacking in biota?

What if the rock dust plants are high brix? There is no measure of quality he is all about yield.
 
I was potting up some potted plants today. One of them was loaded with char that i placed in the mix maybe 3 or 4 years ago. The plant is growing well the root mass was crazy thick. The pics show a hunk of charcoal with roots trying to work their way inside. There is still lots of material where the roots have not penetrated. I use the fine charcoal in my pots currently. I left these as chunks because this soil mix is for woody ornamental plants that I pot up every few years. I try to reuse the char part.

The pic on top is chunk broke in half revealing some penetration. The bottom pic shows the roots around the outside of the chunk.

3-31_coal_1.jpg
3-31_coal.jpg
 
Half burnt wooden log colonized by fungi :hookah:

biochar1.jpg
 
More than just affecting yield (which I've seen a trial w/ biochar showing a 17% increase in dry weight), because the biochar retains more nutrients in the root zone (that would normally leach through the soil profile), there is a potential savings in fertilizer cost. The increase in water holding capacity is huge these days too. Lot of talk about the water 'footprint' of cannabis along the creeks and rivers in Humboldt County recently. Facilitating growth of beneficial microorganisms may be the most important feature. It develops a strong fixation pool for soil organic molecules, which will slow down the leaching of nutrients (already mentioned) and encourage the formation of complexes with high microbial activity.
 
I use BioChar in my ACT and my SST soil drenches both indoors (canna) and outdoors (non-canna) gardens. I've been adding it to my compost teas I make regularly. i think all we have to do to see that this works is go for a walk around Mt St Helens and see the growth. That soil in the forest was already some of the best, then the forest was burned down leaving biochar to start life going again. Heck I think there's even a National Geographic article about that very thing. Even the wildlife that survived that ate the sprouts from out of the ash thrived right along with the trees, plants and the soil. It's part of the circle of life - fire - water - stone will eventually lead to US. Now WE have to figure out a way to keep the soil/plant/food chain sustainable. I'm sure biochar is a part of that. Humans figured that out WAY before man made "fertilizer".
 
Good point bobrown14. Plus, as much as 10% of the carbon found in the Plains of US from 10,000 years+ of prairie fires. Rumor has it there's pretty good soil in the mid west!
 
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