I have been planting my
biochar mostly around the driplines of my
trees and bushes. Because the trees and bushes are located throughout the
yard, I have started to notice that I am now covering the majority of my
land. I place the biochar to a depth of one shovel, or about 9 inches, and maybe 2-3 inches wide. Sometimes, the driplines connect with other driplines that have already been established. Now I am thinking that I have been creating networks of biochar throughout my land. I was just checking with a soil scientist that I know, and he was confirming that biochar can improve the flow of nutrients throughout the land. This includes not just
water, but phosphorus, other nutrients, and the kind of communication that Suzanne Simard has written about at UBC. She has shown that unrelated trees can communicate through the mycelium to tell other unrelated trees about animals eating the leaves, so they can put more antioxidants into their leaves, discouraging the animals from eating too many of the leaves.
Even though I dig it in with a shovel, I am realizing that this could also be true with those who are digging a trench and burning the biochar in place. It's entirely possible that this could also happen eventually with just spreading the biochar and letting it sink in. I do think that covering the biochar would prevent it from drying out and becoming less hospitable of a hotel room for microbes. Perhaps the indigenous people who invented forms of terra preta or biochar throughout the world were noticing the connections that are improved with either intentionally set fires, like they did here in the Willamette Valley where I live or in Brazil, or by working with natural forest fires in other places.
Tilling would of
course destroy the connection and communication system that would have developed. Is anyone else designing biochar this way or thinking about it this way while installing their biochar?
John S
PDX OR
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