Stoneharbor
10-06-11, 08:22 AM
If you are into organic gardening, you are wasting valuable resources every minute, including not just the compost and minerals you add to the soil, but also the rain that falls and the water you apply manually, IF you don't have biochar in the garden plot.
Soils allow water to pass on through, taking valuable minerals with it. This is especially true when there is an over supply of water, as after a heavy rain or with continual rain. You lose the minerals AND the water from the root-feeding layer of soil by not having something there that can hold onto both the water and the minerals for your plants to use over an extended period of time. And it turns out, by losing the water and minerals, you also lose some of the bacteria needed for healthy plants as well.
No matter how much compost you add to soil, you are losing valuable minerals that were in the soil before you ever started amending it, and you will gradually lose the minerals such as lime, potash and rock phosphate that you are buying and adding as well.
The additional ingredient you need in soil to maximize its ability to hold water and minerals and bacteria is biochar. It's a time proven soil amendment that has been used by man for over 2000 years to make good gardens in some of the most trying climates and soils in the entire world, including the Amazon.
What is biochar (also known as terra preta)? According to the International Biochar Initiative,
"Biochar is a solid material obtained from the carbonisation of biomass. Biochar may be added to soils with the intention to improve soil functions and to reduce emissions from biomass that would otherwise naturally degrade to greenhouse gases. Biochar also has appreciable carbon sequestration value. These properties are measurable and verifiable in a characterisation scheme, or in a carbon emission offset protocol.
"This 2,000 year-old practice converts agricultural waste into a soil enhancer that can hold carbon, boost food security and discourage deforestation. The process creates a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and water. 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. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and can hold carbon in soils for hundreds to thousands of years. Biochar is produced through pyrolysis or gasification — processes that heat biomass in the absence (or under reduction) of oxygen."
A lot more here: http://www.biochar-international.org/biochar
Now if this sounds technical, just forget it! Go to Mother Earth News and make your own biochar right in your garden with your own garden waste. The cost is just your time! A Mother Earth article tells you how:
"To make biochar, pile up woody debris in a shallow pit in a garden bed. Burn the brush until the smoke thins and then damp-down the fire by covering it with about an inch of soil. Let it smolder until the brush is charred, then put the fire out." There's more here:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx
My personal experience with biochar is accidental. One of my newer garden beds happens to be over an old burn pit that had been used for years to burn garbage and brush. It had a lot of charcoal in it as well as ash. I removed as much of the ash as I could by just digging it out. But some charcoal remained. That bed produced faster growth by far than any other bed in my garden this year. I'm sold on this idea, and now will be burning my discarded bean, tomato, and okra plants in the beds, to make more biochar. Once it's made, I will just rake it around to spread it out in the pit I made in the bed, then recover it with the soil I pulled away to make the pit.
I would suggest to save time, if you currently have a burn pit or barrel that could be free of toxic chemicals, you might want to use a sifter to separate ash from charcoal and then move the charcoal, crushed a bit, into the garden. If you aren't burning wood scraps, branches, etc. you probably won't have much charcoal though.
Soils allow water to pass on through, taking valuable minerals with it. This is especially true when there is an over supply of water, as after a heavy rain or with continual rain. You lose the minerals AND the water from the root-feeding layer of soil by not having something there that can hold onto both the water and the minerals for your plants to use over an extended period of time. And it turns out, by losing the water and minerals, you also lose some of the bacteria needed for healthy plants as well.
No matter how much compost you add to soil, you are losing valuable minerals that were in the soil before you ever started amending it, and you will gradually lose the minerals such as lime, potash and rock phosphate that you are buying and adding as well.
The additional ingredient you need in soil to maximize its ability to hold water and minerals and bacteria is biochar. It's a time proven soil amendment that has been used by man for over 2000 years to make good gardens in some of the most trying climates and soils in the entire world, including the Amazon.
What is biochar (also known as terra preta)? According to the International Biochar Initiative,
"Biochar is a solid material obtained from the carbonisation of biomass. Biochar may be added to soils with the intention to improve soil functions and to reduce emissions from biomass that would otherwise naturally degrade to greenhouse gases. Biochar also has appreciable carbon sequestration value. These properties are measurable and verifiable in a characterisation scheme, or in a carbon emission offset protocol.
"This 2,000 year-old practice converts agricultural waste into a soil enhancer that can hold carbon, boost food security and discourage deforestation. The process creates a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and water. 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. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and can hold carbon in soils for hundreds to thousands of years. Biochar is produced through pyrolysis or gasification — processes that heat biomass in the absence (or under reduction) of oxygen."
A lot more here: http://www.biochar-international.org/biochar
Now if this sounds technical, just forget it! Go to Mother Earth News and make your own biochar right in your garden with your own garden waste. The cost is just your time! A Mother Earth article tells you how:
"To make biochar, pile up woody debris in a shallow pit in a garden bed. Burn the brush until the smoke thins and then damp-down the fire by covering it with about an inch of soil. Let it smolder until the brush is charred, then put the fire out." There's more here:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx
My personal experience with biochar is accidental. One of my newer garden beds happens to be over an old burn pit that had been used for years to burn garbage and brush. It had a lot of charcoal in it as well as ash. I removed as much of the ash as I could by just digging it out. But some charcoal remained. That bed produced faster growth by far than any other bed in my garden this year. I'm sold on this idea, and now will be burning my discarded bean, tomato, and okra plants in the beds, to make more biochar. Once it's made, I will just rake it around to spread it out in the pit I made in the bed, then recover it with the soil I pulled away to make the pit.
I would suggest to save time, if you currently have a burn pit or barrel that could be free of toxic chemicals, you might want to use a sifter to separate ash from charcoal and then move the charcoal, crushed a bit, into the garden. If you aren't burning wood scraps, branches, etc. you probably won't have much charcoal though.