Anaerobes the enemy in biochar?

Hello happy people,

I am just wondering why a lot of people stress so much on anaerobic conditions for liquid innoculation of biochar and if i am missing something. This is what I have noticed down the rabbit hole.

Be patient, I'll get there lol ...

As a home brewer and looking for cheaper alternatives to multiply and feed yeasts I found that by killing the yeast and feeding that to my live cultures to be a complete food source for the yeast bacteria. It includes readily available Vitamins and minerals.

For example:

Dead bakers yeast =

Vitamins = B1,B2,B3,B6,B12

Minerals = potassium, zinc, magnesium, manganese, selenium,copper and iron

It is also a complete protein source of all 9 essential amino acids.

Charcoal is added in the Brewing process for the same reason as we add it to the garden (a good shelter for the microbes and to clean impurities.

These yeasts for Brewing are not anaerobic or aerobic bacteria, they are fulcatative bacteria which can live between both environments (presence or absence of oxygen).

If my biochar for my garden gets innoculated in a anaerobic environment then I don't think there is reason for concern as they will die either 'instantly to a few weeks' once exposed to oxygen, that benefit would mean all the pores in my biochar will be loaded with the above vitamins and minerals (more or less depending on the species of dead anaerobe)
So the stress about adding anaerobic bacteria seems irrelevant as long as you expose your biochar to oxygen for a few weeks if you want to go that far.

It is the fulcatative bacteria that should be of concern and not the anaerobes. As for liquid innoculation you can avoid bad fulcatatives like ecoli and salmonella by not innoculating with animal products like dairy, eggs, animal manures and meats.

Terra preta has all 3 types (aerobic/fulcatative in the top layer, anaerobic/fulcatative below) in its beautiful black earth. If the Amazonians threw all their waste and charcoal in a pit at different times of the year you would assume there would have been accumulations of aerobic/fulcatative bacteria in the dry season and then a switch to anaerobic/fulcatative bacteria in their longer wet season.

Does it make sense that if a animal died and was disposed of on top of that terra preta (in the wet season)that there would be a massive accumulation of bad anaerobic bacteria as opposed to minimal bad bacteria in a dry season and the lesson being: eventually nature balance it all out.

For this reason I like to soak my biochar for anywhere from a few days to a week in seaweed/worm tea/fish waste and then as a added innoculation process I drain my char and mix it with compost/manures/worm castings in a aerobic environment for a few weeks to months.

Like a lot of us down this rabbit hole when I started reading I kept questioning if I was doing it right, is this a good or bad thing that im doing and comparing it to multiple sources.

Is anyone thinking along the same lines?

Does this make sense?

What has your journey been like on the road to Eldorado?

It's my first post, I hope I haven't upset any die hard biocharians, have a awesome day

Please explain what biochar has to do with yeast?

And anaerobic conditions for liquid innoculation?

I will be the first to admit, I am not well versed in the technical aspects of biochar and the function but I do utilize it.

My understanding is that biochar undergoes 'charging' to fill it with good stuffs to be available for plants right off the get-go. You can apply biochar raw, but it will take some time to setup.

I would think that if you put biochar down that is charged with anerobic bacteria but the environment would be aerobic, time would correct the 'issue'. Dyeing bacteria will feed the soil and the local stuff will move on in.

I think, perhaps naively, that there is no harm no foul.

Note: yeast are fungi, not bacteria.

This thread make it sound easy to inoculate biochar:

https://permies.com/t/47484/Activating-inoculating-biochar-advice

wrote:eventually nature balances it all out

I think regardless of whether you're using biochar or aerobic or anaerobic or bokashi or trenching or whatever, this is the key. given enough time, it all sorts out.

Tereza Okava wrote:

wrote:eventually nature balances it all out

I think regardless of whether you're using biochar or aerobic or anaerobic or bokashi or trenching or whatever, this is the key. given enough time, it all sorts out.

I agree. It's easy to overthink the problem.

I often soak/inoculate a pail of dry char (made in winter) by filling it with stinky anaerobic compost tea (made in summer). The result makes my plants happy. Obviously the soil biota know how to handle it.

I don't know where you are getting the anaerobic being needed.  I mostly follow Elaine Ingham and she is arguing that most of what plants need are aerobic in nature and you want to charge stuff with the aerobic because if you charge it with anaerobic you have to kill off all of that life cycle and grow what you want thus a complete change out of growing materials that takes time and energy.

I have to agree with C. Letellier here.  I don't want to cultivate disease creating microbes in the soil where I'm growing plants.  And microbes is the point of the biochar, isn't it? If deep soil has anaerobic microbes, I want to keep that soil deep.  Remember that tilling kills a lot of the life and fertility of the soil.  When you dig up the microbes at 1 foot depth and put them on the surface, it kills them.  When you dig up the surface microbes and place them at 1 foot, they also die.  

The point of charging the biochar is so that it has some of the momentum that real soil has in it when the plants are using it. If you build anaerobic soil, then kill those microbes, you are losing the momentum.  There is a practice in mushroom cultivation where they intentionally cultivate anaerobic microbes, then kill them, to prepare the soil for fungi. That kills all of the momentum. That is the opposite of what I want to do. I want all of the networks primed and ready for my plants' growth when I put the biochar into the soil.

John S
PDX OR

John Suavecito wrote:The point of charging the biochar is so that it has some of the momentum that real soil has in it when the plants are using it.

I respect your approach. Perhaps someday my techniques will have a little more finesse.

For myself, the goal these days is simply to soak nutrients into the char. I'm dealing with large volumes, so I rely on soil organisms to sort it all out.

Interesting. I agree that one need not be so fastidious in regards to the bacteria in charcoal. I throw it on top of the soil uncharged or mix in nitrogen rich matter to charge.

While reading through I did have a thought though. Maybe, some element of the charcoal slows down decomposition due to residual toxins, and those toxins allow organic matter to build up more than they would usually. It is like how oak duff in the forest gets deep because of how tannic it is. Perhaps these residual toxins are not a bad thing but the secret to the terra preta’s multiplying potential? Hopefully not too off topic.

Yes, as we've said on other threads, it depends on your land. If you have a tiny spot, say in a big city, you can focus on a tiny section, and really make that great.  If you have lots of acres,  you can grow way more stuff, but it will be harder to micromanage, both in terms of space and time.

John S
PDX OR