Biochar..has anybody tried this?? "The technique using charcoal to improve the fertility of soils originated in the Amazon basin at least 2500 ..

[IGBT]

The technique of using charcoal to improve the fertility of soils originated in the Amazon basin at least 2500 years ago. The native Indians of the region would create charcoal, mix it with organic matter and broken pottery, and incorporate it in small plots of land from 1 - 80 hectares in size..."A multidisciplinary team of scientists and Indigenous partners suggests that the ancient Amazonians intentionally created the rich soil thousands of years ago to better foster their crops."

 

[Red Squirrel]

I recently discovered the concept of it and read up on it. Never actually attempted it but at some point I do want to play around with that on my off grid land and build a pyrolizer. would also be cool to look into how to activate the carbon, as it would be useful for water filtration.

 

[IronWing]

How much it might help depends on what your native soil is like. In the Amazon, the soils are laterites which have been stripped of most soil nutrients through prolonged weathering. Adding any biomass to a laterite will help with fertility. If your soils are already high in humus, adding a biochar is probably not of mulch value.