New Fertilizer Biochar

[blufford]

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp...il&Format=HTML

"Dr. Mingxin Guo has invented a fertilizer named "biochar." It starts as leaves, wood chips and even chicken manure. Together they are all cooked at a high temperature in an oven and come out looking like charcoal."

There has been some interesting work done already on the use of charcoal (biochar) in soil nutrient retention. I'm just starting to use it myself. Especially for those of us with very sandy soils it might possibly be a big help in moisture and nutrient retention.

.....Alan.

[seedspreader]

Wow, Biochar almost sounds like what's left after wildfires. Isn't God amazing?

[blufford]

Originally Posted by seedspreader

Wow, Biochar almost sounds like what's left after wildfires. Isn't God amazing?

But you can't take whats left over after a forest fire and sell it as a carbon tax credit to a polluting company.....and then start new forest fires so that you can make more money selling tax credits to polluting companys. :banana02: And yes God is amazing and I'm amazed he doesn't strike us all dead sometimes.

[Windy in Kansas]

Oh I get it, composting of a sorts done with energy consuming heat instead of by natural means.

I am a little unclear about this statement, "According to Guo, the biochar allowed the soil to absorb more water and nutrients, so plants could be watered less." So that the plants could be watered less, or just less frequently?

I also find this amusing, "Dr. Mingxin Guo has invented a fertilizer named "biochar." I assume just invented, and, "stays in the soil for hundreds of years." If it was just invented how does he know?

At least there is research going on with soils and nutrients.

[sgl42]

the idea's not new. known as terra preta, eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta

--sgl