{"id":23132,"date":"2023-06-08T10:46:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T08:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/?p=109482"},"modified":"2023-06-08T11:34:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T09:34:56","slug":"what-is-biochar-and-should-you-buy-it-for-your-garden","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/rss_feed\/what-is-biochar-and-should-you-buy-it-for-your-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"What is biochar and should you buy it for your garden?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Botanist Ken Thompson looks at whether it’s worth buying biochar to use the in the garden <\/p>

By Ken Thompson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 08 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

There are many soil additives<\/a> on the market, all offering gardeners the appealing promise that they will make your plants bigger or healthier. Often there is little, if any, way of knowing whether they will work \u2013 the claims made by the products may simply not have been adequately tested, and it\u2019s hard to tell what\u2019s in them.<\/p>\n

Biochar is touted as having many useful benefits \u2013 but is it worth buying biochar? We asked botanist Ken Thompson for his advice.<\/p>\n

What is biochar?<\/h2>\n

Biochar is basically charcoal and can be made by burning almost any kind of organic material. The result is as variable as the material you started with.<\/p>\n

What is biochar used for?<\/h3>\n

There are countless claims relating to biochar\u2019s beneficial qualities and its effects on, say, soil microbes or heavy metals are huge research fields on their own. It is also said to have beneficial effects on plant growth and moisture retention when you add it to soil. So, to keep things simple, let\u2019s focus on its effects on plant growth; first, because that\u2019s probably what gardeners are most interested in, and second, because those marketing biochar to gardeners clearly see better plant growth as its main selling point.<\/p>\n

Does biochar work?<\/h3>\n
\""Preparing\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Preparing biochar in a pit<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

There has been a great deal of research on biochar. First, the good news. Across all studies, biochar increases crop yield a little, on average.<\/p>\n

But closer examination reveals that all the studies reporting improved yield are in the tropics. In temperate climates, it doesn\u2019t do anything. Not only that, even in the tropics the effect of biochar is very variable.<\/p>\n

Tropical soils are typically both acidic and low in nutrients, and biochar can potentially fix these problems, as long as the biochar itself is both nutrient-rich and alkaline, which is sometimes the case. In other words, biochar can sometimes have a beneficial liming and fertilising effect, in soils that need lime or fertiliser (although it would be simpler and cheaper just to add lime or fertiliser).<\/p>\n

But low-nutrient biochar (made from wood, for example) doesn\u2019t do anything, and acid biochar is positively harmful. There\u2019s also some evidence that biochar might help to retain water on coarse, free-draining soils that would otherwise be at risk of suffering from drought. But this is just one of the symptoms of a lack of organic matter, and garden soils are usually adequate in this respect already.<\/p>\n

Should I buy biochar?<\/h3>\n

In any case, you would probably do more good by just adding the original organic matter as a mulch, rather than wasting time and energy burning it and turning it into biochar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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