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biochar

Biochar addition without disturbing soil structure

Posts: 69

Location: Burnet County TX zone 8a

posted 1 year ago

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We'd like to add biochar to our garden but don't want to till, have not tilled in years. Has anyone experimented with how to add biochar without turning the soil?

I wonder if a broadfork could be used to sink in narrow columns of biochar, letting it fall into the holes left after you lift up the fork, gradually adding some biochar over time every time you use the fork.

Bolar clay loam ph 7.4 lightened with mulch, sand and sulfur. Caliche limestone 4-12" under that, so we build up deeper with retaining walls.
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Aaron Pate

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Location: Spartanburg, SC USA

posted 1 year ago

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Hey Reno,
Posting here to follow this thread.

I've been taking charcoal from my firepit and mixing it into my compost pile to "charge" it, so later the resulting biochar is spread on the surface of garden beds with the compost. I usually scratch that new compost into the bed a bit, but at most I'm just disturbing the top 4 inches or so.

On a hot day in the summer I can find bone dry chunks of charcoal on the surface of the garden. This leaves me wondering if that surface char has been desiccated and sterilized by the sun, and if it has any benefit anymore.

Curious to see what others say!

Dennis Bangham

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Location: Huntsville Alabama (North Alabama), Zone 7B

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I think this is exactly how terra preta soil started. Old firepits.

Other people may reject you but if you lie in the forest floor for long enough the moss and fungi will accept you as one of their own!

Douglas Alpenstock

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Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b

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Reno Husker wrote:I wonder if a broadfork could be used to sink in narrow columns of biochar, letting it fall into the holes left after you lift up the fork, gradually adding some biochar over time every time you use the fork.

I think that's a workable plan. Your method will probably work better if the char is ground fairly fine instead of big chunks. I assume you plan to inoculate the char before using? Unless your soil is already insanely fertile, it's better to inoculate.

I wonder if it needs to be a special operation though. How do you normally feed your soil? I find that soaking char in some stinky weed juice and then working it into my compost piles is a fairly efficient all-in-one method.

R Scott

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Location: Kansas Zone 6a

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If you have worms it will work its way down in time. Broad fork will speed it up. I think tilling would do more harm than good.

I agree that mixing it in with compost is an efficient way to charge and spread it.

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Phil Stevens

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We're very much no-till here. In the garden beds, I spread it on top and use the broadfork to open up cracks, just as described. Works great. In the larger planted areas where I grow corn, beans, pumpkins, etc (also under trees in the orchard), I spread it on the surface and put a layer of mulch on top. The worms are gradually taking it deeper and this is also working well. Both of these methods are using inoculated biochar.

In the grazed paddocks I spread it over the surface and let the animals tread it into the soil. I've even skipped the crushing step in this instance, as their hooves break it up pretty thoroughly. So far I've done two distinct areas this way, and on one I used "raw" material because it was sort of a triage action to deal with pugging after some massive rainfall last winter. The pasture regrowth on this one has been superb. The other one got inoculated char and it's still on the surface, so too soon to tell.

Eric Hanson

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Location: Southern Illinois

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I have to say that using Biochar without tilling is a great idea!! There is a lot of very good information here already, but I will just echo statements by others. Soaking/charging the char first is an important step. Better still is to incorporate into compost as the compost breaks down.

I would think that spreading the Biochar on the surface would be good enough as your worms will take it and drag it under the surface soon enough. Using a broadfork is a viable option, but probably not necessary, but if you just want to use the broadfork anyway, this is certainly better than turning the soil over.

Good luck.

Eric

Some places need to be wild

Eino Kenttä

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We have an experiment along these lines going at the moment. We've soaked the char in urine, mixed with kitchen scraps, spread in a layer on the ground and covered with whatever covering material we had (mainly grass cut at the end of the season and debris flushed up on the lake shore). "Final" results still pending, as the first bed was started a year and a half ago, and I suppose the real test is whether it's more fertile than surrounding ground a thousand years from now! Initial, preliminary results do seem promising, though. We grew some potatoes in the bed, and although the yield was far from brilliant, we did get a harvest (in not-at-all optimal weather conditions) and at harvest the bed was packed with worms, and had quite a bit of mycelium visible (growing mainly on and around the char). After harvest we topped the bed up with another (quite thin) layer of char and a bunch more covering material. Will update with notes on how it performs in the future.

Reno Husker

Posts: 69

Location: Burnet County TX zone 8a

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Thanks to all who replied so far. I should have noted that we do lasagna the garden soil quite a bit, which is another avenue to move the biochar down.

We don't have ruminants in our growing area at this time, they are out in zone 3, but that is an excellent idea for any who do have hooves to employ for crushing.

John Suavecito

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There are many options here. I agree that crushing it will give you way more surface area, and therefore, much more bang for your buck. Make sure that the char you remove from your fireplace is thoroughly cooked. You don't want wood inside or it will just turn into soil and go away some day. Biochar will last hundreds of years. Lasagna gardening or mixing with compost is a good strategy. You don't want to leave biochar by itself on the surface. It will dry out and fail to incorporate the biology and become part of the system.

I add it to my orchard by digging it in. I put it at the drip line of the trees or bushes. I dig in the shovel and move it back and forth like a broad fork to create a crevasse and put the crushed, inoculated biochar in. It has really helped my orchard.

John S
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