Said to have the ability to both battle climate change and restore soils, biochar has plenty of benefits for backyard growers.
Biochar is charcoal made by burning woody materials, agricultural waste or any dried organic material like manures in a low-oxygen environment. Unlike charcoal, biochar is intended for combining with soil and has some properties that make it excel at this.
For your soils to get the most out of biochar, it should be ‘charged’, which means soaked in a nutrient-rich mix such as manures, urine, worm castings or compost. Left uncharged, it can bind nutrients and make them less available, at least in the short term. Even uncharged, biochar will eventually still improve the nutrient-holding capacity and exchange in soils.
There are lots of ways to ‘charge’ biochar, but a simple way is to add it to your compost – this fully charges it with bacteria and fungi, and gets it into the soil when you apply your compost to your beds. Your compost shouldn’t be more than about five percent biochar, and remember its carbon is locked away, so don’t count it as
