posted 5 years ago
I inoculate with a "soup" mix of compost, worm compost, rotten fruit, urine, and sometimes some mycelium. I pour the soup into the batch of biochar and then out say, twice a week for a month or two. I want the biochar to be in an oxygenated condition, so as to favor aerobic microbes, which work better with human food crops. If it is drowning in fluid for the inoculation period, it will be in an anaerobic condition, and therefore favoring disease carrying microbes, a la Elaine Ingham.
I think biochar could work well for you. I also think you're on track adding organic matter. Adding organic matter and biochar could be great.
One of my initial hypotheses is that biochar tends to work better in higher rain areas, partially because a lot of rain tends to wash out some nutrients/minerals. In addition, it is easier to grow trees quickly in higher rain areas, so excess organic material to turn into biochar should be easier to come by. Higher rain areas tend toward more acidic soils, and the remnant of ash would tend to make the soil more alkaline.
John S
PDX OR