I first got interested in biochar after reading “1491” by Charles C. Mann. It is a fascinating book about how populous and intensively managed the Americas were, prior to 1492 when the Europeans started to conquer and plunder, and inadvertently unleashed catastrophic waves of epidemic diseases across the Americas, wiping out a huge percentage of the populations, shockingly quickly, which changed the landscape into the wild, untamed wilderness that we assume it always was.
One of the biggest surprises revealed by the modern deforestation of the Amazon (and also with Lydar of the jungle canopy), is that there used to be a vast network of sophisticatedly arranged villages all over in the Amazon basin, surrounded by intensively managed agriculture. It is estimated that it had once supported a population of up to 5 million people. It turns out the dominant tree species of the Amazon rainforest are actually the same ones most useful to the humans that lived there, and seem to have been intentionally introduced and naturalized into a vast permaculture-like food-forest. Even more surprising to archeologists, is that since the jungle soil was too poor for agriculture, their theory that the Amazon could only have supported small populations of primitive hunter-gather and basic slash-and-burn agriculture, was completely false. In the garden areas that surround the remains of these Amazon villages, is the most fertile soil on earth. If all the patches of this dark earth were pushed together, it would equal a land area the size of France. This dark earth soil, known locally as Terra Preta, is man-made soil. And the key ingredient seems to be charcoal, aka biochar.
In Jeff Cox’s book, “Gardening with Biochar”, Jeff writes, “I’ve seen some remarkable advances in crops and gardening over the years… but nothing with the potential to revolutionize gardening and benefit the environment like biochar.”
What is biochar? Biochar is charcoal that has been made in as environmentally friendly a way as possible, for the purpose of amending soil and sequestering the carbon. It is a term coined to distinguish the biochar charcoal from the low-temperature, highly polluting traditional ways of making charcoal for smelting and grilling.
What does biochar do for your garden? Biochar is very stable and will remain in the soil for possibly thousands of years. It helps sandy soil retain moisture. It increases the tilth and drainage of clay soils. Its vast internal surface area can become a haven and reservoir for beneficial soil microorganisms. Biochar immensely increases the cation exchange capacity of soil. The cation exchange capacity is a measure of the fertility of soil.
One of the biggest surprises revealed by the modern deforestation of the Amazon (and also with Lydar of the jungle canopy), is that there used to be a vast network of sophisticatedly arranged villages all over in the Amazon basin, surrounded by intensively managed agriculture. It is estimated that it had once supported a population of up to 5 million people. It turns out the dominant tree species of the Amazon rainforest are actually the same ones most useful to the humans that lived there, and seem to have been intentionally introduced and naturalized into a vast permaculture-like food-forest. Even more surprising to archeologists, is that since the jungle soil was too poor for agriculture, their theory that the Amazon could only have supported small populations of primitive hunter-gather and basic slash-and-burn agriculture, was completely false. In the garden areas that surround the remains of these Amazon villages, is the most fertile soil on earth. If all the patches of this dark earth were pushed together, it would equal a land area the size of France. This dark earth soil, known locally as Terra Preta, is man-made soil. And the key ingredient seems to be charcoal, aka biochar.
In Jeff Cox’s book, “Gardening with Biochar”, Jeff writes, “I’ve seen some remarkable advances in crops and gardening over the years… but nothing with the potential to revolutionize gardening and benefit the environment like biochar.”
What is biochar? Biochar is charcoal that has been made in as environmentally friendly a way as possible, for the purpose of amending soil and sequestering the carbon. It is a term coined to distinguish the biochar charcoal from the low-temperature, highly polluting traditional ways of making charcoal for smelting and grilling.
What does biochar do for your garden? Biochar is very stable and will remain in the soil for possibly thousands of years. It helps sandy soil retain moisture. It increases the tilth and drainage of clay soils. Its vast internal surface area can become a haven and reservoir for beneficial soil microorganisms. Biochar immensely increases the cation exchange capacity of soil. The cation exchange capacity is a measure of the fertility of soil.