• Home
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Policies
  • Recent Posts
    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

A Magical Mess

Finding Magic in Every Mess

  • About
  • DIY
    • Crafts
    • Finances
    • Blogging
    • Side Hustles
  • Self-care
    • Travel
    • Beauty
    • Garden
    • Fitness
    • Fun
      • Pets
      • Movies & Shows
      • Games
      • Books
      • Funny Posts
  • Food
    • Magical Treats
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Dessert
    • Appetizers
    • Snacks
    • Cocktails
    • Free eCookbook
  • Shop
    • Gift Guides
Home » How To Make Biochar for Improved Garden Soil

Crafts Life

How To Make Biochar for Improved Garden Soil

Home » How To Make Biochar for Improved Garden Soil

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

Pin
Tweet
Share

The soil in my backyard and I have been spending quite a bit of time together lately. I’ve realized that it has been neglected and needs some TLC before I plant my vegetable garden this year. After reading all about how to improve your garden soil, I discovered the magic of biochar. It can be kind of expensive to buy, so I’m excited to show you how to make biochar for yourself.

How to make Biochar for your garden soil

What is biochar?

You might be wondering what the heck biochar even is… well, it’s actually the politically correct term for charcoal. But unlike the stuff you’d throw in a grill, biochar has no chemical additives. (Nothing to aid in ignition or anything like that.)

Why do I want biochar in my dirt?

Garden soil is a lot like our intestines. It’s full of microbial life and has tons of surface area. You’ve probably heard some version of an analogy for the size of human intestines like your intestines are the length of a football field or something similar. While that isn’t quite accurate, it’s not quite wrong either. The length of our intestines is about 25-30 feet. But the surface area of human intestines is about the size of an entire tennis court! All the folds in our guts allow for a massive amount surface for the of absorption of nutrients. Soil also has an incredible amount of surface area if you think about each tiny particle and its surface.

As for the microbial life, we need a plethora of healthy gut flora (that’s what we call all those little living bacteria friends) to survive. Some help digest the foods we eat. Some actually “poop” out vitamins that we wouldn’t otherwise have. The same is going on in the soil with plants. Plants and soil microbes are relying on each other for certain nutrients.

How to make biochar for your garden and why you want it!

This brings me to why you want biochar in your garden… Biochar has no nutritional value but dramatically increases the surface area available to all those great little soil microbes. It’s like adding billions of appealing apartment complexes to the area around your plants that can house little nutrient producers to help nourish the plant. Imagine how many people you could fit into the lines of one parking space. Maybe 20 if they were all standing really close together? Now imagine if that parking space had thousands of platforms for people to stand on. You could fit exponentially more just because of the increased surfaces.

That’s what biochar in the soil does. It provides valuable real estate for healthy soil microbes. You see, these microbes need space. Think of what a coral reef does for an ocean otherwise void of surfaces for life to live on. (If you look at biochar under a microscope, it actually looks a lot like coral.) When they grow, they bump into each other and compete for space and nutrients, causing them to produce agents that prevent the growth of their neighbors. (This is actually where we get many of our antibiotics.)

But when you increase their living space, not only do you have more of each, but you are able to have more of a variety. Where does the variety come from? COMPOST! I freaking love compost and you can read all about that here.

Once you’ve got all your rich compost to mix into the soil, you need to make sure there is enough ‘room’ in your soil for all those wonderful microbes that your plants need to thrive. It also helps keep them from washing away.

You can either purchase biochar to mix into your garden soil, or make your own. Once you get the hang of making it, it’s super easy using the trench method. There are other methods, but this is the one I am most familiar with.

How to make Biochar for your garden soil

How to make Biochar

Trench method:

  • Dig a trench about 12″ deep.
  • Lay DRY (woody) materials flat and burn.
  • Once the smoke thins out, shovel 1″ of dirt over the burning materials. This will decrease the amount of oxygen feeding the fire so charcoal is produced instead of ash.
  • Once the charcoal stage is reached, use water to extinguish the fire.
  • Mix your homemade biochar into your garden soil.

Once you’ve got biochar in your soil, add your compost and let it sit for as long as you can before planting. It is recommended that up to 10% of your soil can be comprised of biochar.

Remember–while biochar is charcoal–don’t just throw the stuff from your grill into your soil unless it’s completely organic and without harsh chemicals. You do not want igniting agents in your garden!

How to make Biochar for your garden soil

For other methods on how to make biochar, check out this book: The MiniFarming™ Guide to Composting. He shows you (with great pictures) how to make biochar in a wood stove along with other methods.

Would you consider making biochar for your garden?

Pin
Tweet
Share


6 Comments

About Shelley

Mother of two (Adam, 17, and Chesney, 13), successfully divorced--we're really good friends. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Benedictine University with a BS in nutrition science. I love food, fitness, reading, and all things science. I'm the sister that travels.

« 12 Concentrated Tart Cherry Juice Benefits
Easy Blueberry Crumble Recipe »

Comments

  1. Sarah L says

    April 12, 2016 at 12:58 am

    That’s very interesting. Nothing I could use since I live in a townhouse, but I will tell a friend about it.

    Reply
  2. ellen beck says

    March 14, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    We have a woodburner, and I do add ash to our soil. You do have to be careful though because if you add too much it changes the Ph. I have beautiful tomatoes every single year I think from not only composting but by adding the char. Oddly the tomatoes are sweeter and HUGE compared to the neighbor;s who cant figure it out.

    Reply
    • Shelley says

      March 14, 2017 at 5:12 pm

      Hi Ellen!

      Yes, so true about the pH. And yeah, we had squash grow to be giants with the compost/char mix. Like CRAZY GIANT! 😀 So fun!

      Reply
  3. Margot C says

    March 16, 2017 at 4:03 pm

    Not having the space or city ordinance that would allow this I wonder, is the wood charcoal sold for grill basically bio-char and could I use that? Obviously not the stuff treated with “starter” – which I never buy anyway.

    Reply
    • Shelley says

      March 16, 2017 at 4:12 pm

      Hi Margot!

      Excellent question! As long as it’s not treated with any chemicals, it should be fine! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Erin says

    April 26, 2017 at 2:33 pm

    This is SO neat! Thanks for the tutorial, will definitely be using it!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Us

Two sisters, raised apart, now trying to adult together. We love to share ways to make life a little more magical! Jen and Shelley from A Magical MessEmail: jen@amagicalmess.com

Categories

Warm Up!

Magical Melting Unicorn Hot Chocolate Recipe
A Magical Mess is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

You May Also Like

blue hot spring in Yellowstone National Park

Hot Springs in Montana

Unicorn coloring page with colored pencil coloring

Free Unicorn Coloring Pages

Green and yellow alcohol ink four leaf clover

St. Patrick’s Day Crafts with Alcohol Ink Clovers

colorful unicorn snack mix spilling out of striped paper cup

Unicorn Party Snack Mix Recipe

Honey Sweet Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Sliders Recipe

Fun Game Day Appetizers and Party Food

Copyright © 2019 · Divine theme by Restored 316

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more