Biochar is agricultural-grade activated charcoal. While medical charcoal is made with acid, biochar is made with physical heat and low oxygen. It’s a faster, slightly less precise way to make it. In soil, biochar increases: water-holding capacity, cation holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, and microbial ecosystem capacity. Forms of biochar have been used for thousands of years throughout Asia and by a mysterious lost civilization of the Amazon Rainforest.
It has no fertility of its own, but it is able to capture and hold naturally created and synthetic fertility and hold it in a plant-accessible manner. The material is incredibly porous. These pores allow it to absorb water like a sponge. It also has both negative and positively charged carbon structures which allow it to take up both micro and macronutrients that are commonly lost in the soil. You see, whether from Miracle-Gro or produced by soil microbes, soil fertility is fleeting and will wash out or gas out of the soil if there is nothing to bind it up.
Plants will take in What they need as it is immediately available, but most of the fertility goes to waste. This is compounded by conventional plowing or rototilling. Tilled soil has little structure available to hold onto fertility and build up a fertile savings account for future needs. The only thing that really holds onto fertility in the soil is carbon structures. Commonly known are compost and humus, but a proper charcoal works the same. The standard name for agricultural charcoal is biochar. Compost gets reduced to nothing in 2-4 years. Biochar lasts forever. It’s one of the only permanent actions you can do to improve soil.
Biochar has a not-yet-understood action on altering the microbial ecosystem. Soils treated with biochar have higher numbers of beneficial microbes and lower numbers of pathogenic microbes. The most common theory is that it simply causes higher numbers of microbes overall, which leads to the beneficials taking over. That principle has been noted before in microbiology.
In both large and small applications, biochar is thoroughly proven to improve soil condition, tilth, fertility, moisture, and drainage. Biochar, in proper granulation, can replace peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite in garden and potting soils. The product I manufacture is shaved down so it’s applicable to both large gardens and small-container growing. Apply it at around ½ inch across the soil, or 1 gallon to 5 gallons of potting soil/compost.
The same biological effects are observed when biochar is included in livestock feed. Internally, it improves the gut microbiome of all farm livestock. This leads to better feed conversion, better immune function, and better a smoother regulation of hormones. What that means is your animals will have less gut trouble, less illness, and better behavior and instincts. I have observed and had reported to me, a great reduction in intestinal worms for animals fed biochar with their regular feed. Small amounts of biochar fed regularly, for example, 1 ounce to 10 pounds of feed, show the best results. I hope my mentions of biochar in previous articles serve to convince you to give it a try. See our biochar products by clicking on the BIOCHAR or STORE tab on the home page.
Please read this report on my own biochar experimentations: Evaluating Regenerative Growing Methods Without Any Fertilizer