Article about biochar from North Carolina county extension

https://richmond.ces.ncsu.edu/2021/07/biochar-2/

It's a little disheartening that four years into the study, the biochar amended trees aren't doing any better than the control group. It takes a pretty significant amount of time to make large quantities of biochar. It would be nice to think it would pay off.

The article is a bit sketchy. I wonder how, or whether, the biochar was innoculated. If not, it would not be surprising that it has not had much effect yet.

I didn't see the article as negative at all. They are four years into a 10 year study. The trees haven't shown positive or negative results, but the soil is retaining nutrients better. The beans are showing higher yields and better nitrogen retention. These sound like net positive results to me.

Like Nancy, I was surprised to see nothing about crushing or inoculating.  There have already been many studies showing that it won't show a benefit for a few years unless you crush it and inoculate it.  It seems like they are trying to replicate a lack of benefit.

It kind of reminds me of some studies that said that "compost tea doesn't work".  They didn't follow the instructions of anyone who had been successful with that when it was new, so they also used unsuccessful protocols to find a lack of success.  Since then, of course, many have followed the procedures that were successful and had benefits with compost tea.  Imagine!   Likewise with biochar.

Why not try a protocol of someone who claimed success to see if you can replicate it?