Convert Dead Soil Into Loam

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You had your soil tested. And it came back lacking nutrients. Not surprising when, according to the United Nations latest report, 20% of agricultural land is severely degraded. And this report only considers 3 factors: changes in land cover, land productivity, and carbon in the soil. The National Geographical Institute reports the amount of degraded soil as high as 75% because they consider many more factors.

How degraded is your farm soil? You probably sent that soil sample to a lab or your local extension service. They gave you recommendations based on the synthetic chemical protocol. But is there a better way to repair your soil?

Consider the Characteristics of Your Soil

Even if you have the proper nutrient mix, it won’t work very well if the proper microbes, bacteria, fungi, and sufficient water aren’t present. And if your soil is sandy you know that every time it rains the nutrients leach out of your soil, leaving you with just a fraction of the needed nutrients for healthy crop yields. On other parts of your farm where the soil is clayey the nutrients are so tightly bound up that whenever it’s dry for a few days it’s rock hard and impossible for roots to penetrate the soil to reach the nutrients they need. This just leads to more and more frustration. And more cost with less profit.

Is There No Solution?

Thousands of years ago in South America the indigenous peoples discovered the secret to soil fertility. Today we call it Biochar. A solution so old it’s new again.

The Amazon Basin is notoriously infertile (like your field?) but there are places where the soil is wonderful black loam. Archeologists surmise that the Amazonians discovered terra preta (black earth) in areas where they had made depressions for cooking fires. Biochar is created by pyrolysis in a low oxygen environment so it is surmised that when they snuffed out their fires after cooking by covering them with soil the wood continued smoldering, creating pockets of black earth that the indigenous people discovered and used for agriculture. (1)

Large cities formed in the middle of the Amazon Basin because with greater soil fertility larger populations could be fed. The beginnings of indigenous agriculture are also the beginnings of YOUR soil fertility.

Did they figure out in one year that they had pockets of rich soil? No. But their experience, and today’s science, makes it so you CAN have that kind of fertility almost overnight.

  How Does Biochar work?

Biochar is like a sponge. It has a ton of microscopic pores that act as a home to microbes, water, and nutrients. Like a wet sponge drying out on a hot summer day a biochar particle releases its payload as the soil needs it. There is a lot of information exchange going on under our feet. That biochar sponge becomes the home of beneficial microbes and a storehouse for nutrients and water. “Around an ounce of biochar can have the surface area of a high school soccer field.” (2)

When you add organic matter to your soil it begins to decompose and revive your soil, but every year you lose a great deal of the nutrients from that organic matter to leaching, oxidation, and binding. Because you add biochar to your soil you are creating a reservoir of fertility. So, when your soil requests more water or a particular nutrient it is right there, and the biochar releases it.

Does Biochar Last or Will It Leach Out Every Year Too?

Let’s look again at the Amazon Basin. Archeologists discovered these areas of terra preta that have been carbon dated to between 7000 and 500 calendar years BP and are of pre-Columbian origin. The Amazonians created pockets of extremely fertile loam that is still being farmed, still fertile. Adding Biochar to your farm soil will give you an immediate reward and because you embraced the “new-old” technology all the generations that follow will benefit with fertile loamy soil.

 How long does biochar last?

 Research on the Amazon Basin’s terra preta soils and naturally occurring biochar from forest and grassland fires implies that biochar can persist for millennia with very little decay. Laboratory studies using the latest technology estimate that biochar has a mean residence time in soils on the order of 1300–4000 years.(2) Many scientists are examining biochar from numerous sources: animal dung, grasses, corn stover, rice hulls, and others for effectiveness in increasing soil fertility. Biochar can be made from any organic material, but not all biochar is useful for the same purpose. As a farmer, you need to determine your soil pH and intended use before amending it with biochar. The pH of pure biochar is alkaline and will pull all the nutrients from your soil when first spread. When you charge it up with nutrients from your compost or manure pile the pH becomes neutral. It is recommended by biochar producers to charge up your biochar before added to your crops, or you will stunt your crop’s growth the first year.

This Sounds Too Good to Be True

 As an organic or regenerative farmer, you are already using cover crops, adding organic inputs, and if you have livestock you may be mob grazing. But these practices aren’t keeping, or getting, your soil as fertile as you’d like. Of course, you know the reason is that you must keep putting MORE amendments on your soil to keep up. Some inputs leach away, some are bound up in the soil – unable for plants to access, and every crop you harvest pulls nutrients right out of the ground. Add biochar to your ag tool kit and stop losing all those nutrients you keep adding. You can improve the fertility of your soil AND increase farm profits.

 Biochar as a component of compost has synergistic benefits. Biochar can increase microbial activity and reduce nutrient losses during composting. In the process, the biochar becomes “charged” with nutrients, covered with microbes, and pH-balanced, and its mobile matter content is decomposed into plant nutrients.

And the Best Part? – Biochar Keeps Rebuilding Your Soil

Rebuilding? That’s right, biochar keeps charging up your soil. As an organic or regenerative farmer, you would like to know your farm is healthier when you retire than when you started farming. Using biochar as an additive to your organic fertilizer mix or spreading it after you have crimped your cover crops and then adding compost or manure every year gives the biochar nutrients to hold for future use. You only have to add biochar every few years – the terra preta has lasted 1000s of years in the Amazon. Your use of inputs will go down every year and your farm profits will go UP!

If Biochar is So Great – Why haven’t I heard About This Miracle Carbon Before?

Biochar, in one form or another has been around for centuries but in 1964 the Green Revolution took off and it was the heyday of industrial and chemical farming. A lot of “ways to farm” went by the wayside, including many small family farms. And with those losses went a great deal of agricultural wisdom.

Let me tell you, both sides of my family are farmers, but they couldn’t be more different than if they were accountants and mechanics. The “Big Ag” wheat farmers are out in the High Plains in the Dakotas spreading chemicals and tilling the soil while the “Organic” farmers are in the Midwest. They don’t talk much to each other. Because I’m writing this you can be sure I’m not the “Big Ag” folk. But I’m also not really one of the organic farmers because they are suspicious of biochar and the claims made for it. They spread vast quantities of organic matter and some even till every year. They, perhaps like you, think it’s just too good to be true.

Historically biochar has been used by many civilizations around the world – from the Ancient Egyptians to the inhabitants of the pre-Columbian South American Rain Forests – to traditional Japanese farmers. Throughout most of human agricultural history some type of hand hoe was our major tool. We had small farms and walked the rows.

Then came the mold board plow…

Then came the Green Revolution with the promise of higher yields with synthetic chemicals and crop breeding…

Then came the Organic Movement and no-till promising the yields of chemicals without the side effects…

Then the Regenerative Agriculture movement with polycultures and the integration of livestock and now finally…

BIOCHAR – Old - yet now new with scientific production methods.

As farmers we are having to relearn the intricacies of the life cycle of the soil – of the microorganisms – of mineral uptake by plants – of water flows – of the whole of it. If you are converting your farm into a regenerative farm, you are probably beginning to walk your rows more often and observe. As you walk your fields you see where the loss of topsoil has left behind the subsoil and it’s light brown, dusty, dirt. If you’re regenerating your farm, you’re planting cover crops, pasturing chickens, and on the path to mob grazing. All that organic matter in your soil is great but it won’t stick around very long. Adding biochar to your farm will help retain more of the nutrients and give a place for all those beneficial microbes to live. Not to mention the impact adding biochar has on water retention.

Has This Stuff Been Around All Along?

 The short answer is, yes!

In the past, biochar has been called charcoal, but it’s not like the charcoal you use to grill burgers. Those briquettes have additives in them to make them light quicker. Those same additives are not good for the microbes in your soil. Don’t try to use charcoal briquettes as a soil amendment. Both charcoal briquettes and biochar are made by burning biomass with little or no oxygen, they are smoldered to a point where there is almost nothing left but the structure of the feedstock. Under a microscope it looks like the craters on the moon. And each one of those pores will be home to nutrients, microorganisms, fungi, and water as soon as it is “charged.” In biochar there is still a small bit of “mobile matter” that is actually good for your soil and will filter out of the biochar as soon as it is incorporated into your soils, compost, or manure. This material is also sometimes referred to as “labile” because it leaves the biochar, leaching into the soil and is then ingested by soil microbes. It is not likely to be released to the air as a gas component. The mobile matter is not the component of biochar that remains in the soil after one or two years, according to Hugh McLaughlin of Alterna Biocarbon.(4)

The Amazonians created “charcoal” which increased the fertility of their soil and allowed them to grow crops in an otherwise infertile Rain Forest soil.

Josiah Hunt et al, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa wrote in “The Basics of Biochar: A Natural Soil Amendment”

Biochar is a relatively new term, yet it is not a new substance. Soils throughout the world contain biochar deposited through natural events, such as forest and grassland fires. In fact, areas high in naturally occurring biochar, such as the North American Prairie (west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains), are some of the most fertile soils in the world. Historical use of biochar dates back at least 2000 years. In the Amazon Basin, evidence of extensive use of biochar can be found in the unusually fertile soils known as Terra Preta and Terra Mulata, which were created by ancient, indigenous cultures. Due to the large amounts of biochar incorporated into its soils, this region remains highly fertile despite centuries of leaching from heavy tropical rains. In parts of Asia, notably Japan and Korea, the use of biochar in agriculture also has a long history. Recently, heightened interest in more sustainable farming systems, such as Korean Natural Farming, has revived the use of biochar in Western agriculture.

There is scientific evidence that biochar can have negative effects on plant growth. This is usually because the biochar has not been charged up. It is good practice to mix biochar with compost or manure before spreading on your garden or fields for more fertility and higher yields. In temperate climates biochar should only be used after it is first loaded with nutrients and when the char surfaces have been activated through microbial oxidation. In other words – spread biochar over your compost and manure piles for a few days to a week – it’ll soak up all those microbe and nutrient goodies. That’s called “charging your biochar.”

This short period allows the biochar to reach a neutral pH and short-lived substances such as tars or resins to be decomposed by microbes. Because the microbes need nitrogen and other nutrients to do their work that leaves little short-term nutrition for plants. Patience is paramount in using biochar as a soil amendment. Remember it is going to be home for microbes, nutrients, and water for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

 In Japan, the oldest mention of “charcoal use in agriculture” is in a textbook written by Yasusada Miyazaki in 1697. He wrote, “After roasting [burning] every wastes, the dense excretions [compost or manure] should be mixed with it and stocked for a while. This manure is efficient for the yields of any crops. It is called the ash manure”. But it’s not the “ash” from your wood stove. (5)

 Can Biochar Increase the Fertility of My Soil?

 Healthy soil should include a myriad of life forms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and other forms of life. Biochar increases the microbial activity in the soil which in turn increases the soil fertility and crop yields. The greater the soil biodiversity the healthier the soil.

If you have a wonderful loam soil that you farm sustainably then you may not need to add biochar, or any other soil amendments for that matter. If you are planting cover crops, rotating crops, mob grazing, and using no-till you might be almost breaking even on the nutritional health of your soil.

 But…

 Can you really say you are adding more organic matter to your soil every year than you are taking off?

When you harvest do you use machinery that compacts the ground?

Do you have to irrigate to get a good crop? 

 If you are tilling at all you are decreasing the organic matter in your soil, both to oxidation and to wind erosion. You are also breaking up the microbial communities that depend on each other and your plants. Cover crops help but they won’t give you a 100% pay back. And they decay rapidly, leaving you with the task of adding even more organic matter all season long.

 Adding biochar to loamy soil won’t show much difference in the short term but…

 Remember that terra preta soil in South America? Still highly productive thousands of years after the biochar was incorporated into the soil. Isn’t that the dream of every organic farmer? When your children take over the farm, they will inherit all your good work.

 What if My Farm Has Sandy Soil?

 If so, listen up. Biochar charged up will keep nutrients around the roots of your crops – and retain water, too! The use of biochar on sandy soil has been shown to increase productivity substantially. “Adding biochar improves soil quality, helps the soil store both nutrients and water and makes the soil a better media for plant roots,” says David Laird of Iowa State University.

 Rebecca Barnes, researcher at Rice University’s Biochar Research Group, said “…the highly porous structure of biochar makes each of these pathways more torturous than the pathway that water would take through sand alone. Moreover, the surface chemistry of biochar — both on external surfaces and inside pores — is likely to promote absorption and further slow the movement of water.”(6)

 Rainwater won’t immediately reach the water table! Every droplet will have to move through a maze of pores – slowing down the movement and allowing crops to access needed water. Along the way microbes, mycorrhizal fungi, and nutrients will benefit.

 What if My Soil is Clay?

Do you have problems with compaction?

Does your soil turn into rock in the middle of a hot dry summer?

Does it retain water and keep you off your fields for spring planting?

 The addition of charged biochar to your soil will reduce soil density and hardening. Biochar will also change the structure of a clay soil both physically – through increasing the porousness of the soil – and chemically – by changing the chemical binding properties of the clay, according to a study done by Kayode S Are. He also found that “… biochar application decreased the tensile strength of soil cores, indicating that the use of biochar can reduce the risk of soil compaction.” (7)

 Heavy clay soils, Vertisoils, that exhibit swelling and shrinking properties are globally widespread and are estimated at approximately 300-350 million hectares, according to Alfred Obia etal. The potential of biochar in improving drainage, aeration, and maize yields in heavy clay soils. (8)

  The current global distribution of Vertisols is estimated at around 300-350 million hectares (741-865 million acres). Clay soils are characterized by poor drainage and hence poor soil aeration but are some of the most chemically fertile soils due to the inherent nutrient holding capacity.

In the past organic amendments have been added to clay soils in attempts to create clay loams and have been partially successful. But because of the nature of clay soil it takes a great deal of organic matter over an extended period to make a difference. Including biochar in your organic amendments could decrease the number of growing seasons necessary to achieve greater porosity and aid drainage. In a field study a biochar amendment increased both biomass and grain yield of maize for two consecutive years after a one-time application. Yields increased over two years which implies that , even after only one application, biochar “…has positive effects on heavy clay soil for more than one cropping season. The increase in yield could be due to the decrease in soil bulk density with increased biochar which could result in an improvement in root growth.” (9) The increased yield in maize, in a study conducted by Obia et al, showed an increase consistent with earlier reports for clayey soils for durum wheat.

In other words, you can get on your fields sooner in the spring and have better yields in the fall. Biochar has the potential to improve drainage, aeration, and yields in heavy clay soils.

The smaller the pores on biochar, the longer they retain capillary water. The addition of biochar can reduce your dependence on irrigation throughout the summer. Biochar is an effective soil additive to reduce issues associated with drought on crop productivity. The addition of biochar eliminates soil constraints, especially in clay soils, that limit the growth of plants and decreases the acidity of soil because it is a neutral additive.

What Kind of a Fertilizer Is Biochar?

Biochar is not a fertilizer. All by itself it has no benefit and if added to your soil uncharged may even stunt the growth of that year’s crop. But, as many studies have shown, it is an extremely porous carbon made from pyrolysis with no oxygen present. High temperature burning with no oxygen produces a carbon that has little ash or nutrients, but it does have innumerable microscopic pores where microbes, water, nutrients, and mycorrhizal fungi love to live. Biochar charged with compost or manure increases the C, N, Ca, Mg, K and P for crop growth because it absorbs the nutrients and releases them as your crops need them. 

That means that when you harvest and leave the roots in the ground to decay, the organic matter and nutrients that slough off those roots are stored in the pores of biochar. In the process you create more fertility for next season’s crops leading to higher yields.  And it gets better!

Carbon is found naturally in all soils, but it leaches or oxidizes out quite rapidly. Adding biochar to your soil actually helps your soil retain its natural carbon. This is a phenomenon termed the “negative priming effect.” The Rodale Institute has spent decades studying this and has discovered that “…between 64.9% - 68.8% of the native soil carbon – carbon already in the soil – was stabilized and kept in the soil.”(10)

Are You Working Too Hard to Keep Your Soil Productive?

Let biochar give you a hand by providing…

·        More soil fertility

·        More nutrient dense crops

·        More profit

·        Less labor

·        And that activity you may have forgotten, LEISURE

Biochar stays in the soil for hundreds – if not thousands – of years. With the addition of biochar your farming chores could be decreased dramatically. If you are a regenerative farmer your soil fertility will increase and the nutrient profiles of all your crops will increase. Being able to sell your crops at a premium price will immediately increase your PROFIT.

How Much More Profitable Would Your Farm Be – Both in the Short Term and For Posterity?

Not all biochar is equal, it depends on what the feedstock is. Research what your soil needs and then find the biochar created out of the correct feedstock to solve your problem. Some biochar feedstock has pores that are too small for microbes, some has a liming effect, and some has a higher ability to retain water.

Most biochar producers in the USA use wood feedstock, but not all. Wood feedstock creates the best generic biochar pore structure for water, nutrients, and microbes to colonize. Questions to ask a biochar supplier include:

·        Is the wood sustainably sourced from fallen trees?

·        Is what you are buying PURE biochar?

·        Is the biochar already “charged” so it can be used immediately?

·        And if “charged” with what?

·        If it hasn’t been charged what are the producer’s recommendations for charging?

·        What feedstocks have been used to create the product?

·        Were they sourced sustainably?

Making biochar from fallen trees, corn stalks, or rice husks, among other waste products are good for the earth. For example: wood rotting in the woods – with the help of thousands of bacteria and fungi – are putting off greenhouse gasses. Methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide are the three biggies. (11)

When you charge up your biochar on your manure or compost piles you are doing several things at once.

·        Keeping down the fly and insect populations

·        Trapping the greenhouse gasses that those piles emit during decomposition

·        Charging up your biochar

When you spread that compost or manure on your garden or fields you are also spreading the nutrients that would have been outgassed from those piles into the atmosphere. If you crimp your cover crops, spread biochar at crimping time so you only have to go over the field once. The crop residue on the surface of the field is outgassing greenhouse gasses just like your compost pile and the biochar remediates that effect of crimping. Grazing cattle in a cattle/crop rotation is nutritional for your soil but the livestock dung and urine are emitting greenhouse gasses as they decompose – and you are losing nutrients to erosion, oxidation, and runoff.

What Kind of Yield Increase Could I Expect?

 In a field study undertaken by Dengxiao, Zhang et al, corn production was 23.7% higher in a field with biochar and a low dose of nitrogen fertilizer than under the control field with only the low dose nitrogen fertilizer.(12)

According to USDA statistics, in 2018 the average corn yield was 176 bushels per acre, and the market price was $3.39 per bushel. That means before expenses you got $596.64 per acre.(13, 14)

But add Biochar to your fields and you can increase that yield to 217.7 bushels per acre. And assuming the market rate is the same at $3.39 per bushel. On that same acre you would make $738.00 per acre

How many acres are you farming? Are you only farming 1,000 acres? That increase in yield per acre would add up to an extra 41,700 bushels of corn. Multiply 41,700 x $3.39 per bushel = $141,363 – that’s the INCREASE in Farm Profitability

Is Biochar Worth the Investment? Even With an Application Every 2-3 Years?

On your clay soil the benefits of Biochar are tremendous. This is a short list of benefits:

 Aeration

·        Compacted soils will benefit from biochar’s porous structure

·        Increased water flow through the soil – allowing for better root growth

·        High-quality biochar is 85 % empty space – lots of room for nutrients, water, and microbes

Long Lasting Impact on Soil

·        Cation Exchange Capacity gets better with age

·        Nutrients are not leached away and remain available for crop health

·        Biochar’s carbon structure creates a perfect shelter for beneficial microbes- necessary for soil fertility

·        Increased fertilizer efficiency by 10 to 60%

·        Reduced fertilizer requirements – up to 60%

Stability and Affinity

·        Stability – The carbon ring formations are stable. The carbon will not decompose

·        Affinity – The interior of the pores has a slight negative charge. The biochar will hold onto water and nutrients which will then be provided to the plants (15)

The Bottom Line

·        Higher yields

·        Greater nutritional profiles in crops – selling at a premium

·        More profit

·        Less labor

 On your sandy soil the addition of Biochar has important soil fertility benefits:

• Enhances soil structure
• increases water retention and aggregation
• reduces nitrous oxide emissions
• improves porosity
• regulates nitrogen leaching
• improves electrical conductivity
• improves microbial properties

 Is Biochar a Soil Additive to Consider?

There is a great deal of scientific research being done on biochar. Many gardeners are using it in their vegetable and flower beds with great results. Biochar producers generally recommend you start by using biochar on 5 of your least productive acres. 

 Test your soil before applying biochar and at the end of the season. Real data is important in this emerging new/old technology. Agriculture is moving away from chemicals and biochar is a natural amendment. More field results need to be documented so the “cautious” farmers will be willing to abandon their Green Revolution chemicals. They need to see your fields are more productive.

 The question is: As a farmer are you one of the early adopters? Are you one of the farmers who is willing to make more money per acre?

 You will have to explain your crop yields to your neighbors, but some problems are good to have. You will have to explain higher yields and higher sales prices because you’re getting a premium.

 There are many biochar producers and distributors, be sure you ask the right questions. The new/old technology of biochar will help us feed the world.

  Resources

1. Novotny, Etelvino H, Michaeil H B Hayes, Beata E Madari, Tito j Bonagamba, Eduardo R de Azevedo, Andre A de Souzo, Guixue Sopng, Christiane M Nogueira, Antonio S Mangrich, “ Lessons from the Terra Preta de Indios of the Amazon region for the utilization of charcoal for soil amendment. Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society Online version ISSN1678-4790 https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-50532009000600002

2. www.wakefieldbiochar.com/science-of-biochar

3.Rawat, Jyoti, Jyoti Saxena, Panlaj Sanwal “Biochar: A Sustainable Approach for Improving Plant Growth and Soil Properties, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.82151

4 Mclaughlin, Hugh, “The Biochar Revolution” Chap 8, p 98, Global Publishing Group,2010.   

5. biochar.jp/en/biochar-in-japan/-

6. news.rice.edu/2014/09/24/study-biochar-alters-water-flow-to-improve-sand-and-clay

7. www.intechopen.com/books/biochar-an-imperative-amendment-for-soil-and-the-environment/biochar-a-sustainable-approach-for-improving-plant-growth-and-soil-properties

8.Obia A, Mulder J, Hale SE, Nurida NL, Cornelissen G (2018)

9.PloS ONE 13(5): e0196794. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196794

10. Obia A, Mulder J, Hale SE, Nurida NL, Cornelissen G (2018) The potential of biochar in improving drainage, aeration and maize yields in heavy clay soils. PLoS ONE 13(5): e0196794. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196794

11. rodaleinstitute.org/blog/whats-biochar-how-to-stabilize-carbon-in-your-soil/

12.  Dengxiao Zhang 1, Genxing Pan 1, Gang Wu 1, Grace Wanjiru Kibue 1, Lianqing Li 1, Xuhui Zhang 1, Jinwei Zheng 1, Jufeng Zheng 1, Kun Cheng 1, Stephen Joseph 2, Xiaoyu Liu 3 “Gas Emissions Under Balanced Fertilization In a Fainfed Low Fertility Inceptisol, 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.04.088

13. www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/agpr1118.pdf

14. quickstats.nass.usda.gov/results/E30FAAE8-FAA4-330B-B9D3-4A0E7C57ADEF

15. www.wakefieldbiochar.com/science-of-biochar/