Phosphate biochar innoculation affects plant immunity

This was a really interesting experiment.  It's been known for quite some time that you don't add lots of phosphate to your organic garden if you want the mycorrhizal networks to build a place for it on their own.  This experiment shows that it actually negatively affects the plants' health and immunity:

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-alternative-phosphate-fertilizer-biochar-basis.amp

John S
PDX OR

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing, this was really thought provoking. I understand that this kind of science is being done with an eye to industrial agriculture, but it would be interesting to see this same experiment on a longer timeframe and with an eye to soil health, as well as plant uptake. I hadn't thought about phosphorous uptake though, specifically, it's great to see people working on this solution!

This is interesting,  but brings up more questions.
Where I live wheatstraw and  chicken poop are not available for free, in bulk, the way wood is..

This is a good thing William, in terms of not adding so much chicken manure to the biochar.  I think the main idea is to not add too much phosphorus to the biochar.

John S
PDX OR

I was worried that wood would(!) also be too high in phosphorus, the way compost can be.
Upon reflection,  it's probably the "green" portion of compost that causes this, and leaves, straw, wood,cardboard etc, are not the issue.

Its a shame to turn  poop into biochar anyway,  it's very valuable as a compost input .

I use poop from my red wriggler worms. However, I think that the quantity is small enough that I'm probably not overweighting the phosphorus in the mix.  
I also don't know if worm poop is super high in phosphorus.

JohN S
PDX OR

Did they quantify the chicken manure char in term of the NPK value for easier comparison? I haven't heard of char made from manure solely, but I can imagine too much of any good thing can have an adverse effect.

I haven't seen exact percentages.  Most biochar in North America (and in most places that are forested) is made of wood.  Wood has a lot more mass than other forms of biomass in general.  It's harder to make as much final biochar product with other forms of biomass.  Some farms have used old corn cobs, or sugar cane pulp, for example.  If we think of biochar as "hotels for microbes", it makes sense that more mass would make more hotels for more microbes.  I think of chicken manure as optimal in biochar as one of the types of inoculants to charge it with.  For example, burn the wood, quench it, and then crush it.  Charge it with a mix of say, a mix of seaweed, compost tea, chicken manure, and rotten fruit, depending on what you can use cheaply.  As long as phosphate rich materials like chicken manure aren't too high a percentage of the final product, it should do well.

JohN S
PDX OR

John Suavecito wrote:For example, burn the wood, quench it, and then crush it.  Charge it with a mix of say, a mix of seaweed, compost tea, chicken manure, and rotten fruit, depending on what you can use cheaply.  As long as phosphate rich materials like chicken manure aren't too high a percentage of the final product, it should do well.

JohN S
PDX OR

That's what I do too using carbon-rich biomass pyrolysis to provide porous structure for inoculation. In the article it seems like chicken manure was used as the feedstock for burning. Chicken manure contains much less carbon, the high level of nitrogen probably is lost as gas, then is the phosphate absorbed on the carbon in the final product? How is this biochar phosphate compared to the inorganic mineral form?

I agree with your thinking.  Chicken manure isn't much carbon, so it's a poor source of basic char.  ALso not a balanced source on inoculating nutrients.  I guess that the chicken manure is easily bioavailable. Probably too much so.  Then it tells the mycorrhizae that they don't need to develop that pipeline. We're rich in phosphorus here, man! Develop something else.

John S
PDX OR