The power of black biochar... · The Permaculture Collective

Jun 25 (edited) in General

The power of black biochar...

"It is very useful for improving soil structure, especially by creating pore space in the soil for water, air, living space for microbes and storage space for food and nutrients. The generous porosity helps with reducing fertilizer loss (leaching) and remediates contaminants such as heavy metals, petroleum, and excess salts."

I wonder whether you have observed a change in the way the basic functions of biochar are most often described. Lately I have noticed that a typical lead introducing biochar will go something like the above. Read it carefully. I chose it because it is among the best written introductions of its kind I have read recently.

And I find it utterly useless.

Now first, out of respect to the source, let me say that it is completely true and accurate, and states some valuable attributes of biochar, in their order of importance.

And let me also emphasize that I am grateful to the author for not leading with sequestering or drawing down carbon. But that is another story.

All that said, there is still something very wrong with this picture, something missing, something so fundamental to the nature and essence of biochar as to make the rest of the description meaningless. As written, the above description could apply to any or all of a hundred other things we can add to soil, and completely miss the charctrizations that make biochar uniquely biochar.

I am very curious to know whether you have noticed this as well.

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