{"id":5530,"date":"2015-03-06T06:51:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T11:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/?p=5530"},"modified":"2020-05-25T07:19:05","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T11:19:05","slug":"biochar-benefits-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/biochar-benefits-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"BioChar Benefits Your Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">BioChar Benefits Your Garden<\/h3>\n<p>I just opened an issue of Organic Gardening, the first article I stumble upon is about BioChar titled &#8220;<a title=\"Carbon&#039;s Chamption by Organic Gardening\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groworganic.com\/blogs\/articles\/what-is-biochar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What is Biochar<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When I first saw the piece, it seemed like I was looking at a popular advertising campaign&#8217;s &#8220;most interesting guy in the world,&#8221; that got my attention.<\/p>\n<p>The short piece in Organic Gardening was very interesting, opening with a discussion on how Rohnert Park, of California and founder of Carbon Gold Ltd., a company in Bristol, England., hadn&#8217;t washed his hair since 1965! He states,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;<strong>&#8230;there\u2019s a healthy ecology of microbes up there that he doesn\u2019t want to scrub off by using soap. And so a rinse with warm water and olive oil is all he uses<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The above article discusses Rohnert Park&#8217;s founded ventures like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Whole Earth Foods, Europe\u2019s first organic food brand,<\/li>\n<li>Green &amp; Black\u2019s chocolate company,<\/li>\n<li>Carbon Gold<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rohnert Park is also chairman of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.soilassociation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Soil Association<\/a> (the British organic agriculture organization).<\/p>\n<p>He seems to be a guy who has spent as many years working with and around organics and earthly matters as he as spent not washing his hair, interesting.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 517px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rodalesorganiclife.com\/sites\/rodalesorganiclife.com\/files\/images\/carbon-champ-780_0.jpg?resize=507%2C317\" alt=\"Craig Sams Carbon Champ via Organic Gardening BioChar Benefits Your Garden\" width=\"507\" height=\"317\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Sams Carbon Champ via Organic Gardening<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;ve talked and written on the topic previously &#8220;<a title=\"BioChar\u2026 Revisiting something old, introducing it in a new form.\" href=\"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/biochar-revisiting-something-old-introducing-it-in-a-new-form-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Revisiting Something Old<\/a>&#8221; when I&#8217;d read about it in Ode Magazine a few years back.\u00a0 I haven&#8217;t incorporated this into my gardens yet, I still use wood ashe in the soil as an amendment, but haven&#8217;t yet taken that extra step to make oxygenless wood ashe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is it important to know about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Biochar is plant matter, wood mostly, roasted until it\u2019s black and crumbly. It\u2019s not burnt to ash but is a form of charcoal that has some of the same characteristics as humus, plus one very important other function: When it\u2019s buried in the soil, it stores carbon so it doesn\u2019t enter the air as carbon dioxide and contribute to global warming.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Is this just for gardeners and farmers? How does it compare to compost?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Compost<\/strong>: Adding 18 to 20 tons of compost per hectare (2.2 acres) of land, and only 1 ton of the carbon in the compost stays in the soil. <\/span>As the compost decays into humus, the rest of the carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">10 to 20 percent of the carbon goes off as carbon dioxide after a decade, the rest is sequestered in the soil for hundreds if not thousands of years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Added benefit as <strong>it reduces nitrous oxide emissions<\/strong> by up to 50 percent, due to the proliferation of soil biota that sequesters it.\u00a0 Farmers can use half their nitrate use and get the same results.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nitrous oxide<\/strong> is a <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide<\/span><\/strong>. It\u2019s emitted by nitrogenous fertilizers, including the anhydrous ammonia that\u2019s widely used in conventional farming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Does biochar help the development of soil life in the same fashion as compost?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Roasting plant material retains all the cells and tubes for sap. Providing refuge for beneficial soil microorganisms, protecting them from \u201cgrazers\u201d like nematodes and mites that feed on them. The nematodes can\u2019t get into the caves and channels, so the fungi in particular survive. It houses many microorganisms with sticky surfaces for plant nutrients to adhere to so they aren\u2019t washed away.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Should you start making your own<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>That fact is up to you, your space, access to material,and other resources. If you are interested, Carbon Gold&#8217;s <strong>SuperChar 100<\/strong>, a portable roaster for farm residues and wood waste. Gases from the roasting are recycled and burned within the roaster. Most of the used energy is from initial ignition, then it fuels itself. There is a unit that\u2019s 10 times larger, for bigger applications. It will make a 1-tonne batch of a day.<\/p>\n<p>Carbon Gold also has:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>GroChar<\/strong> activated with actinomycetes, mycorrhizal fungi, and seaweed.<\/li>\n<li>A coir-based compost that is an effective replacement for peat.<\/li>\n<li>An organic 5-5-5 fertilizer mix is then pelletized. By putting the microorganisms and nutrients right with the biochar, you can use less. And since it\u2019s black, it speeds soil warming in the spring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In <a title=\"BioChar\u2026 something old, it in a new form\" href=\"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/biochar-revisiting-something-old-introducing-it-in-a-new-form-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">my previous article<\/a> I wrote of the benefits which are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High Nitrogen<\/li>\n<li>Retains Moisture<\/li>\n<li>Stimulates Microbe Growth<\/li>\n<li>Stabilizes Nutrients<\/li>\n<li>Makes soil resistant to nematodes, fungus, and insects<\/li>\n<li>Soil Neutralizer<\/li>\n<li>Recarbonizes the soil<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Organic Gardening&#8217;s article on\u00a0 <a title=\"Organic Gardening and Biochar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groworganic.com\/blogs\/articles\/what-is-biochar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">can be found here (via groworganic)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherearthnews.com\/organic-gardening\/making-biochar-improve-soil-zmaz09fmzraw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mother Nature News has a nice DIY Biochar<\/a> on making biochar as does <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodalesorganiclife.com\/garden\/biochar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rodale&#8217;s Organic Life<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts on, will you consider using it with your soil and have you started researching how you can get your own supply?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BioChar Benefits Your Garden I just opened an issue of Organic Gardening, the first article I stumble upon is about BioChar titled &#8220;What is Biochar.&#8221; When I first saw the piece, it seemed like I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":36567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,893],"tags":[28,81,176,800],"class_list":["post-5530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden","category-organic","tag-biochar","tag-fertilizer","tag-organic","tag-soil"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/http%3A\/\/www.biochar-international.org\/sites\/default\/files\/CHARTREE2.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1qEFP-1rc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1671,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/biochar-revisiting-something-old-introducing-it-in-a-new-form-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5530,"position":0},"title":"BioChar&#8230; something old, it in a new form","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"October 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"BioChar... something old, it in a new form One of my monthly magazines had a very interesting article on BioChar, a charcoal made by burning plant material in absence of oxygen, the resulting residue is high in nitrogen.\u00a0 The article in Ode Magazine detailed how Danny Day \"discovered\" plants growing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BioChar Someone old is now new","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_sVKcBs4vE78\/TLJ4V1DWoeI\/AAAAAAAAA_A\/cw-GLSz5ghM\/s1600\/firepitwrb.bmp","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1632,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/companion-planting-via-organic-gardening-solutions-blog-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5530,"position":1},"title":"Companion Planting Organic Gardening Solutions","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"May 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Companion Planting Organic Gardening Solutions Old time gardeners have planted certain plant combinations together for years believing the combinations have extraordinary (some even believe mysterious) powers for helping each other grow. 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