Adding biochar to pie cherry trees

I dug in biochar around my pie cherry trees.   I did this because I have read that they prefer a neutral to alkaline soil, and we have very acidic soil naturally.    Before, my pie cherry tree was in a pleasant plateau, making a moderate amount of pie cherries every year.  This was for about 6 years, after it had reached maturity.

Afterwards, the tree doubled in size and doubled in fruit quality. The cherries themselves are larger as well. So I did it to another pie cherry tree in my yard.  Same result, but maybe 50% more on that tree.  These trees have now stayed at the new, improved level for the last 4 years.

Then I biocharred all of my other pie cherry trees, which are smaller and not in as much sun. They are coming along nicely.

John S
PDX OR

Nice!

Did you have to dig the Biochar in deep or did you just spread it on the surface?  I assume that some ash made its way with the char as the actual char should be Ph neutral.  Either way, what an awesome result for your experiment.

Eric

Very cool.  I love hearing results of this type experiment.  I have a number of fruit trees that are doing anywhere from "eh" to "not good".  I may have to try this and see if it perks them up.  I lost a beautiful cherry tree this  year that had lots of cherries last year.  I have no idea why.  I also lost two apricots that were old enough to bear fruit.  It was an easy winter too, so no idea what happened.

There is some small amount of ash, but I intentionally make it so that I douse it before much ash is created. I want max biochar. I have found that to get max biochar, I douse it so that there is also a small amount of wood left inside a few limbs. So I save those and burn them the next time.  Dousing really hot biochar also puffs it up so that it has more air in it and can accommodate more microbes in its housing.  We have a housing shortage for microbes in this country, too.  

I dig it in to the depth of a normal garden spade, about 8-9 inches.  I jimmy the spade back and forth so I'm creating a crevasse, like with a broad fork.  I am definitely not plowing or mixing up the soil layers.   I try to keep most of it buried. I have read that if you expose it to the surface, it dries out and stuff is no longer living in it. That would especially be true in our extremely dry summers here in the PNW.  I dig it in at the drip line of my fruit trees and berry bushes.  I have put some in containers and raised beds too.  Also under the surface.  

John S
PDX OR