How long does activated biochar keep effective microorganisms once packaged?

Hi guys

Two questions please.

1. If im making my own activated biochar using castings, tea and compost and I package it. How long do the microorganisms live for once packaged?

2. Whats the smallest crushed biochar that I can use? Once its powdered can it still house EM,s ?

Thanks
Sebastian

Really good questions, and I don't yet have definitive answers. However, I hope to do some testing in the near future to get a handle on this. My quick takes:

1. I'm pretty confident that if the biochar is kept out of heat and cold, it could harbour live biota for months. And if the material does dry out completely, the majority of the microbes and fungi should be able to produce spores, buds, or forms that survive dessication via lower metabolism. Soil bacteria and fungal spores have been detected in air samples taken high in the Himalaya, at the South Pole, and in the middle of the Pacific. Life is durable. Once conditions are favourable, they "reanimate" and get back to business.

2. Even powdered biochar still has immense internal surface area. The microstructures (Pores and channels) are at least 10-100 times smaller than the fines produced by grinding in any machine that we would be using.

I think Phil's comments are spot-on. Well said sir!

I agree.  However, biochar is not at its best in storage.  It is made so that the full complement of active microbes can enter it, eat other microbes, and so minerals and other nutrients can flow through it. It kind of mimics natural soil conditions when forest fires are allowed to burn naturally.  Drying it out and separating it is going to delay the time when it becomes effective. Inoculating it makes sense, especially if afterwards, you put it right into your soil. It doesn't get to its optimal effectiveness in storage and it delays the time when it will become effective.
John S
PDX OR

What John said is totally relevant...it's not doing you or the soil much good if it's being stored.

Of course, I type this as I look out at my window at the 10 or so cubic meters of biochar I have stockpiled at the moment and feel a twinge of guilt. It's not crushed or inoculated yet, and I'm just considering it as staying ahead of what I hope will be an increase in demand plus all the autumn and winter planting we plan to do. Summer has been good for making but it's really a lull in the application side of things.

It makes sense what you're saying Phil.  If you're selling it, obviously you have to wait for someone to buy it, so you may not yet be able to put it in the ground.    I was thinking of people who are making their own biochar for their own property.   I like the feeling of knowing where you are in the cycle. Gather substrate (wood for me). Dry it out.  Burn it. Crush it.  Inoculate it.  Apply it (selling for some).  

John S
PDX OR

so I make a homemade fertilizer mix with coffee grounds, crushed charcoal, and bone meal, and if I don't use it any that gets left in a container immediately gets covered in fungus and mold. it doesn't bother me, since it's still biota and most of whatever nutrients it used are probably still in the mold and it all goes into the soil.
I make microorganism mixes for my bokashi and so far i've never had one not be active- the master mix I use for mixing up the bran/sawdust sprinkle is at least 2 years old and still going strong, despite living in a black plastic barrel that gets really hot in summer.

Sebastian Wolff wrote:Hi guys

Two questions please.

1. If im making my own activated biochar using castings, tea and compost and I package it. How long do the microorganisms live for once packaged?

2. Whats the smallest crushed biochar that I can use? Once its powdered can it still house EM,s ?

Thanks
Sebastian

Good question, and one I’ve pondered over.
Some people sell biochar in sealed plastic bags for example.
How long will the microbes in this case survive?

It's not an on/off switch.  The longer you isolate your biochar, the fewer microbes will live in it. Inoculating it, as you did, is helpful to retain life in it or for putting it into the soil.  If you put it into soil, even after isolation, it will fill in with more microbes.

The smaller you make your biochar, the more microbes can live in it.  The only warning it that if you live in a desert area or one with droughts at times, the powdered biochar can't store as much water as the clumped biochar.

John S
PDX OR