Anyone ever use Biochar?

[gobug]

I recently read in another group about Biochar. IIRC it is vegetable matter cooked at a high temperature without air(pyrolysis) to make a charcoal. It supposedly is a good soil amendment and helps microbes in the soil prosper.

So, I bought a bag (1cuft) to try. It wasn't cheap ~($60). The only information supplied with my order was a piece of paper with a website listed. The link said to mix it with compost and let it sit for a couple weeks. Then the bag (+compost) will cover about 480sqft. The mix is put down about a 1/4" deep and mixed into the top 5" of soil.

I am hoping others in this group know about this and can reply with their experience.

Thanks
Gary

[gobug]

Here is a link for the curious:
http://www.biochar-international.org/biochar

[K.B.]

I've heard many good things, but have not tried it yet myself.

[snowcap]

Oh, my $60 could buy so many things that would do so much more.

[Paquebot]

As stated on the Manure thread, it is a good soil amendment which has been around for as long as there has been wood to burn and lasts equally long. It has no food value for anything and its same beneficial properties may be obtain by crushed lava. The Biochar-International site is careful to not make any exorbitant claims. The fifth paragraph is the most important one as that covers the main purpose of what a gardener might use it for.

Martin

[geo in mi]

Biochar can be yet another of those trendy things for those who are seeking that just so certain magical elixir or instant solution to a successful garden. As stated, it can be useful for absorbing water soluble compounds and thus keep them at the soil roots a little longer. It is pure, elemental carbon that has been converted by a heat process, from a carbon source, usually wood. Microbes, bacteria, protozoa, in your compost, won't eat it, so I don't know why there would be any reason to sprinkle it in your compost pile, especially if you paid that much for it.

The organisms in your compost pile eat organic compounds found in dead and dying biomass. Just like in your stomach, these compounds break down, exchange chemical elements, and reorganize them into sucrose, proteins, and so forth. They also use the carbon compounds to form their bodies in the form of cellulose, lignins, etc. They die, and other microorganisms eat them--until there isn't very much carbon left, called humus, which is nearly pure elementary carbon, but not quite. Humus carbon forms humic acid, a stable compound that lasts nearly forever in the soil. But humus is not elementary carbon......

When these microorganisms in your compost die and break down, they yield the nutrients your plants can take up in their roots, mostly nitrogen--again in a compound form. (And, plants get their carbon from the air, not the soil, from carbon dioxide.....) Keep in mind that this composting process takes place anywhere there is soil and biomass. Putting that stuff into a pile is a human process to make supposedly faster, hotter, and more powerful(so we think). And it probably makes it more convenient for us to spread around. Anything organic--wood chips, deer heads, feathers, rotten squash, cabbage roots, WILL compost, but the speed is greatest when the ratio of carbon compounds to nitrogen compounds is around 25:1

Personally, I wouldn't buy another sack of carbon. In this case, a sack of manure would be better.....

geo

[gobug]

Martin,
Thanks for your input. My first response on reading it was "alright, information I wanted". But, no one here who responded has tried biochar. So I looked a bit further into pumice (lava rock).

You wrote, "It has no food value for anything and its same beneficial properties may be obtain by crushed lava." I presume you have used lava rock.

If my primary purpose in posting this thread is to find someone who has used biochar and read about their experience and impressions, your comment did not achieve that goal. I still found value in your comment.

If my primary purpose was to achieve those same beneficial properties you allude to, the goal was met.

Unfortunately, I did not mention my primary purpose and main interest in biochar is to help break up my clay soil. Lava rock would fail because it is a concrete additive (a Pozzolan) and it helps the soil make clay.

People in the area of Mt Saint Helen were told that the volcanic dust would help their gardens. In the little I just read, one posting said they had not seen in changes in their garden in 3 years.

In the first paragraph what I saw was biochar sequesters carbon from the environment. I don't think pumice will do that.

I might be the first in this forum to try it and report what I experience.

One reason for delays in regulatory agency approvals of biochar is that the label must show details that are difficult to maintain in the biochar manufacturing process. In other words, each batch could be unique and require new labels.

It can be made at home though!!
Gary

[gobug]

Thanks geo

I recognize a lot of your comments as true.

My first impression was that biochar was just another trendy thing. But "homemade" biochar has been around for eons, just not a product on the big market scale.

I think the difficulty in getting regulatory agency approval requires a large investment for the packager, and influences the high price more than the trendy impact.

It is not added to the compost pile, compost is added to the biochar and it is allowed to sit for 2weeks. The reason for adding compost to the biochar is to get the healthy things in the compost to move into the unique molecular structure of the biochar, which does not break down at all. The mixture is then mixed into the top 5in of garden soil. That way, if the soil already needs help, the biochar increases the benefits of compost. If the compost is a variable, won't results vary?

Wood is an ingredient, but if I understand correctly, it is mostly used to produce the heat needed for pyrolysis of the vegetation. It is burned separately from the greenery that produces the biochar.

The price I paid was high, but 17% of that was shipping. Everything at the garden center is now expensive (they pay shipping too). I paid the same price for the smallest bag of copper oxide for a fungicide. I paid a third the price of the biochar for a small bottle of spinosad pesticide. A 2in planter with 1 tomato plant is a buck on sale. Since that bag of biochar is reputed to last forever (does not compost or breakdown) it is a small investment if it works.

My garden is fairly small (13 x 40). It has raised boxes in the center for annuals, and perennials along 3 of the edges. Most of the soil in the boxes was bought from a garden supply as top soil and compost. I have not added anything to the soil, and not tilled. When I used my pitchfork to harvest some beets and carrots, the soil was very compacted (grapefruit sized clumps hard to break). This problem is what piqued my interest when I read about biochar.

I do not see one mention of biochar in Lowenfels & Lewis's book, "Teaming with Microbes". But carbon is essential to the microbial life in the soil. If biochar does not break down, then the carbon sequestration is the key to why it might work in aiding the microbes in the compost.

Thanks again for the input.

Since I do have the biochar to treat my small garden, do you have any suggestions for how to use it and evaluate what I bought? I'm thinking I should leave one small space untreated and plant the same plants in a treated nearby space. I was also thinking of different ratios of the biochar mix per square foot of box.

[Paquebot]

The part about biochar absorbing healthy things from the compost is exactly right. However, it's only done one time. In the soil it is released so that the plants can use it. But once it is released, it's just like an empty glass which will not fill on its own. After that, the biochar's use becomes an absorbent for moisture but with no nutritional benefit. At that point, anything like lava will serve the same purpose as it has about the same quality for water retention. The purpose of both is identical in that both are able to hold and release both nutrients and water. The water-retention feature of both is why they are an aid to microbial life since they rely on a consistent supply of moisture or they die. They get nothing else from the inert material.

One corner of my garden has plenty of biochar from being the site of a burning barrel for probably 40 years. I can't say that it is any better or worse than the rest of the garden. There is some crushed lava in several community plots which were previously rented by me. I got it at perhaps 25% as a lot of broken bags from a local garden center. It definitely improved the structure of the soil and will be there forever. However, I would never buy it at full price as I can get the same result with coarse sand.

Martin

[gobug]

A burning barrel does not create pyrolysis needed to make biochar. So your experience cannot be compared to real biochar.

There are so many different chemicals in pumice that it is hard to prove that it stays in the soil forever. Some of it may.

Same result with coarse sand? While I agree that sand does have an impact on the soil structure, I don't follow the logic that it is equal to pumice, which you say has the same effect as biochar. And that biochar only releases the microbes once. I think the continual biochar sequestration of carbon would provide the carbon needed for the microbes to multiply forever. They do not eat the biochar, but continue to harvest the carbon for their reproduction.

No comprende.
Gary

[Paquebot]

The biochar which remains in the Amazon region was the result of mostly open cooking fires. The results would have the same had they had burning barrels or metal fire pit rings. Natural biochar comes from forest and prairie fires. Doesn't have to be produced in a kiln.

Since the use of lava sands and similar is primarily in the arid SW region of thus country, there is no need for its water retention ability in wetter regions. Here, its best use is to change the soil structure. Then it becomes equal to regular sand of similar size. I have no idea why any garden centers here would carry it except for greenhouse or potting soil mixes.

www.dirtdoctor.com/Lava-Sand_vq489.htm

Added, there is nothing to back up any claims that biochar is a carbon supply for microbes. It is totally inert and remains in the same form virtually forever. Since it is pure carbon, anything feeding from it would eventually consume it and that does not happen. (I note that the original link also had no mention of microbial consumption.)

Martin

[gobug]

The Amazon region used pits not cooking fires. To make biochar it must be a low temperature pyrolysis, not a flame. This produced smoke, gas and oil like the newer biochar processes, but the deep layering prevented the open fire. Not the same as a back yard fire barrel at all.

[gobug]

Martin, thanks for the link, I saved it.
I read about the lava rock and looked up biochar on the site. There was a bit of information there, but not much.

The reference to carbon is there in the link I provided. It sequesters carbon from the environment. It reduces CO2 in the atmosphere as a result. That is where it gets the carbon. It also reduces other greenhouse gases.

I am not trying to sell or convince others to use biochar.
Gary

[Paquebot]

If it can be produced naturally "as a result of vegetation fires", and from present cut and burn farming which is taking place in the Amazon, it can be produced either in a burning barrel or in an uncontained fire. The terra preta in the Amazon wasn't just wood, it was also from animal and human bones as well as their homes. When it was all analyzed, it was really just their daily garbage and repository for their cremains with the carbon content preserved forever.

Martin

[gobug]

Production of biochar in the Amazon is now being reconsidered since now they burn so much of their agricultural waste. It is not the same. It is too high of a temperature to make the biochar. Regular charcoal is what you get with a high temperature process, not biochar.

[OffGridCooker]

A cult has sprung up about biochar. I have been reading about it for a few years on the biomass stove forum. The effects are still being studied. It seems to work in some soils but the effects ware of in a few years. The problem is that the people studying biochar are they are the true believers, not objective and there is some climate logic involved.
There is a group of stove developers that design char making stoves. They think that they are going to save the planet by burying charcoal produced in cooking stoves.
It would be helpful if you could do some objective test and get back to us in a season and then every year for a few years.
Even though I am skeptical the results I have seen have been dramatic and almost amazing so I am curious.
Please keep me informed.

[Paquebot]

When I just searched for "biochar production" on Bing, first site involved metal barrels so how it's produced in modern means is by modern equipment. Also, biochar would be any charcoal produced from organic matter which officially is biomass and hence the name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

That aside, terra preta has been discussed on forums forever and often it is surprising that the same system that produced it still applies. There are still tribes whose homes replaced almost annually, their garbage pits and toilets are behind their homes, and they cremate their dead and eat the smaller bones. They do not produce as much terra preta as the original huge masses of people previously did over centuries but it is ongoing by the same exact means today.

Martin

[snowcap]

How many square foot of biochar would you need to do 1500 sqare foot of garden?

[gobug]

snowcap
I estimate that would be (3) 2cuft bags (although I posted "1cuft" above, it is a 2cuft bag) since the bag I got will treat ~500 sq ft.

The mix of compost and biochar is added at about 1/4in to the garden soil, then mixed in to ~5in. Although my garden is ~13x40, the boxes are only about half of that square footage. The online instructions say that is all that is needed, but more can be added.

[Paquebot]

How much is needed for 1500 square feet depends upon how much one wants to apply. If ¼", it would need 31 cubic feet. Double that for ½" and 4 times that for 1". There is no minimum amount to use. You can aim for a certain percentage and apply according to the depth of tilling. That is, if you till 5" and want 10%, then you'd till in about ½". Same amount would result in 5% if the tilling was 10".

Martin