This video confirms a few important issues for gardeners - 1) biochar does help to retain nutrients in the soil; 2) a plant will only take up nutirents that it needs. For those reasons - I would take issue with the idea that - if your soil is already rich in minerials and nutrients then there is no need to add biochar as a soil amendment. There are a few other qualities that would make a good arguement for using biochar. 1) Biochar will increase a soil's water retention capacity. 2) Biochar has a very positive effect on the microbial life in the soil by providing shelter and storing nutrients for the microbial health and reprodution. 3) Research has shown that biochar, when used as a soil amendment improves soil structure by increasing soil porosity while decreasing bulk density, as well as enhancing soil aggregation. 4) Biochar attracts beneficial fungi as well as microbes. 5) Once biochar has been added as a soil amendment, there is no need for a repeat application. It will last for an extrodinary long time, it virtually does not decay or decompose. When I apply biochar as a soil amendment, I not be adding it as a "fertilizer" for the benefit of the plants I am growing this year. I'm adding it more as a soil amendment for the LONG term benefit of supporting the life in the soil from now on. I know that the healthier my soil life is, the healthier the plants will be growing in that soil. Just because my soil is fertile today without biochar doesn't mean that the present fertility is going to be a permanent condition. If there is a surplus being stored because of biochar, then future applications of fertilizers becomes less necessary. Water retention is also a big bonus. In my opinion, there are multiple reasons for using biochar - all good. But yes, your garden was growing fine before you heard about biochar, and it will continue to grow at least that well if you never use it. I'm aware of the benefits, I am adding it, and at some point in the near future, I won't need to add any more. The video is excellent. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that the other qualities of biochar are not overlooked as a part of the discussion. Thanks.

Also in the University of Illinois studies, biochar had some great capabilities of absorbing commercial fertilizers, commercial Healthcare products and pesticides as well as some heavy metal concentrations and allowing a oxidation or phosphate to occur and reduce the negative effects of these elements in the soul.

Thanks for taking the time to do this test, and filming it. I find your videos very useful.

I thought biochar was more about creating a home in the soil...for beneficial microbes and fungi.

I'm mostly interested in biochar for its dark color solar heating of my soil in early spring. My climate has a very long frost free period but the temperature stays very cool for the first 2 months of the season leaving my actual growing season relatively short.

Excellent stuff yall!!! Thank you for doing such important work so thoroughly and professionally, and for sharing the results along with your analysis! Bravo, much appreciated 🙏

All these years later this study still has great value and has been confirmed in multiple studies. Biochar for Sandy soil is great, but Microbes in all others is the key.

Awesome results ***** ! Very interesting to see how the biochar, control and rockdust groups have been doing and had a wealth of information by both you and OneYardRevolution . I didn't have a many surprises as the rockdust results and I'm pleased to see how it retains nutrients and excited to see how it performs in poor soils, great video Stephen thanks for the great detail :)

Thank you for answering some of the questions I have had . Especially after 55 years of organic gardening and not being willing to spend the money for professional testing.

I'd love to see a study on the functions behind biochar making such a major improvement in with my in-ground tomato plants. I have at least 70% less instance of blossom end rot, and virtually no sign of root knot nematode since I began using it to line the bottoms of my planting holes.

Thank you so much for bring this experiment. It reminds me to my Mom in Indonesia. Long time ago she always added biochar in to her soil/container garden before planting her flowers or fruits. The result is all her plants growing awesome. This is really working :)

your tests are the yardstick we all trust best info by country mile thanks

Thank you for your ongoing and thorough scientific evaluation of biochar. I come from a warm, dry climate (zone 7). I live in a moderately-high altitude, also moderate to high wind area, so water-retention on the soil surface is also important (I also have many trees competing with the lawn and garden), and mulch is regularly blown away in the swirling wind we normally receive (although it stays well-put in many areas of my yard). In the spirit of water-conservation, I have tried biochar with mixed results, and I am now trying to incorporate volcanic rock dust to the soil to try and further lessen the frequency of watering. I have used biochar in my houseplants, which I notice have far better soil structure since, and recently tried mixing in volcanic rock dust, which I have noticed helps retain moisture far better, resulting in the need for less-frequent watering. I am glad for people like yourself and Mr. Dolan who have done the control-study analysis of how soil relates to vegetation output. Keep up the good work! My regards, Chris.

Another great video! Thanks, Stephen!

Informative and good. Keep up the good work!

Appreciate the analysis and work you've put into this. Seems to support what I've believed. That the plants take up what they need. Like a sponge dipped into water will only take up as much as it can hold. I think it is good to have the surplus in the soil however. Can't take up what isn't there.

Another great presentation furthering understanding!

Thanks for conducting this trial! I have always thought of Biochar as a boon to the home organic gardener not because our plants need help in the nutrient dense soil but as a way to lessen the amount of work involved in making compost to keep those nutrient levels up. My understanding is that its capacity to hold the nutrients means that when there is enough char in the bed you will no longer have to fertilize (other than a little mulch of course). This certainly seems to be the case in the Terra Preta soils and other less well known examples of rich soils existing many hundreds of years after they were built with char.

Great information on how biochar can help to reduce nutrient leaching.

Love your vidz!! So many actual facts to back what you say. Awesome =)

Hey man looks like it’s been awhile since you’ve posted a video Any chance to get a 3 year update on your experiment?

Actual science in organic gardening.....What sorcery is this?!

Great info, thank you!

Great investigation

Thank you for saving me time 👍🏼

Makes sense to me , there’s also many claims about free fertilizer from weeds and peel’s soaked in water but no analysis given , so thank you very much ,

Oh so fascinating. Thank you for doing these experiments. It is so fascinating to see the actual results. I am looking forward to seeing if the rock dust preforms better in the second season. But this alone tells me biochar might be very beneficial in my soil.

Thank you very much for carrying out this trial. I look forward to your trials on poor soil. In the long term it would be extremely interesting to discover whether biochar has the effect of continually recharging the soil, as was implied in the documentary of Terra Preta where the soil was being mined.

Thanks very much. Your videos are very helpful.

Nice investigations on the topics of biochar (this video) and rock dust. Interesting to note that the plant will only take what it needs, and leave the surplus behind. Only a deficit will ultimately affect the nutritional value of what you grow. Can't wait to see your follow-up review of biochar when supplementing poor-soil conditions.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

Is there additional info in this video, as compared to the one uploaded previously? Thanks as always for a very interesting project.

Thank you for you work and sharing. An interesting study well reported. Practical science at its best.

Excellent video Stephen.

This is awesome! Thank you!

Thank you for sharing. Quite irritated that I had to sift through 10,000 videos about crap, anecdotes, claims and conjectures to get to a video with some scientific basis for its claims!

Hi , fantastic informative video Did you do any lab tests on the water holding quality’s of bio char in soils ? Was the water used in the test beds monitored per gallon or per litre in the test beds ?

I’ve heard this same claim before, good soil doesn’t need Terra Pretta, (bio-char), but since I live in Phoenix AZ, we certainly can change the harsh dry clay soil in the Valley of the Sun.

It would be interesting if they could test the plots all these years later. Biochar advocates say that biochar will add fertility to the soil for centuries. This is likely to be BS, but it would be nice to have a long-term study.

Great video

I can see a tremendous benefit in sandy free draining soils where biochar would be an asset. Would love to see you assess some of the diva biochars that charge exorbitant prices. Need your opinion. I took hardwood charcoal briquettes bound only with vegetable oil and soaked them in a barrel until they dissolved into a charcoal sludge. I took the sludge and mixed it with compost kelp meal and flour and let this mixture compost for 2 weeks after which I placed the mixture in the rows between my crops and harrowed it in. Did I waste my time? Too cheap to buy char or burn wood to produce. Thought the natural hardwood briquettes without any harmful additives was a great alternative

That goes to show that biochar will feed your soils not your garden. But by feeding and caring for your soil you care for much more that nutrients but pest control and long term nutrient levels. That is soo important for the long term gardener and food forrest Gardner. Thank you very much for your input. And for the great ideas to build the healthiest soils I can for my forrest.

Not to many gardens or farms can do crop yield test when putting a bag of worm castings for every 6' sq. of garden and then adding something else to see if that something else is going to make a differnce

Great episode! As you point out, biochar may not be worth the added expense for the home gardener who's working with fertile soil where there's a surplus of essential elements. Again, it seems that annual soil testing may be a better approach to ensure all the essential elements for plant growth/health are there for optimum nutrition.

Great Video, thanks for putting so much effort into soil and plant analysis of nutrients. Is there a Vitamin % analysis between the pepper from the different groups, this would help us understand whether plants are able to manufacture more Vitamin and Organic Compounds. Is there a way to tell which group has more soil microbes?. Thanks

I’d like to see you do the analysis with mycorrhizae and Bacteria blends using the same soil. One bed being a mycorrhizae inoculated bed, the being a Bacteria only bed, the third being both and the control with nothing.

Considering the results of the biochar what have you I'd be interested in a follow up that pitted biochar + enriched (exactly as in this video) vs enriched soil vs biochar + poor soil and just poor soil. I'd like to see starting and ending soil comparisons, and starting and ending plant weight. That would be rinsed with all root and top structure.

V helpful video.

You need to quantitate biomass in conjunction with nutrient analysis in order to determine uptake per plant. Plants can grow into their limiting nutrient availability thus the biomass "dilutes" the greater uptake. This is particularly true of Nitrogen. Tissue analysis might not show much impact insofar as Kjeldahl Nitrogen but biomass may increase tremendously. A better measure may be "total uptake/plant".

How long was the biochar left in the soil before testing? Because that can also play a big part in the outcome.

Cool experiment. I think this is great, but as you point out, there is a limit to what can be derived from any experiment and always possible confounders that we aren't thinking of. I know that ashes are rich in minerals and especially calcium at around 25% to 45% lime, much higher than most people are aware. That fact might confound results since the increased mineral content could be due to ash. In other words, you may have simply added more nutrients to the biochar bed that have simply not washed out yet. I've actually added ashes to a control bed just to possibly offset this factor, though all kinds of testing would be necessary to do this in anything like a controlled way and frankly, I don't think it would be worth it. Even if the ash is washed off, the char could still absorb and hold the minerals. Vegetables obviously don't just randomly suck up everything that is in the soil, but rather take what they need. So, I think you're right that if the soil is already basically replete with minerals, they aren't necessarily going to show any difference in the nutritional analysis of the produce. It would seem more likely that you'll see a difference in the poor soil trials, just as organic produce is sometimes found to have better nutritional scores than modern farm produce, probably due to the use of complex organic fertilizers v.s. mostly just major macro-nutrients, or possibly due to soil health/microorganisms etc... I think the real test is going to be in the long run as these things all even or settle in over time. This little research piece I did on historical use of charcoal has some compelling accounts of old charcoal pit sites and their continued fertility. There are a few such accounts, but croll down to this one: >The Farmers’ cabinet, and American herd-book, Volume 11 From the Farmer and Mechanic Comparative Merits of Charcoal and Barn-yard Manure as Fertilizers.< turkeysong.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/some-citations-on-biochar-in-europe-and-america-in-the-19th-century/ My own experiments are less controlled, but I'm really looking for major differences and setting them up to observe over as long as possible... as long as I am alive I guess! If I don't see major, obvious, practical, working differences, then I'm not really interested in using the stuff. Do you have an idea of what percentage by volume 1/2 pound per square foot is if dug in to 12" deep? and how deep were the beds? That doesn't seem like a lot of char. I'm shooting for 15% and up lately and deep. The last two beds I did are 20% and 30%, both to 2 feet deep (yes, that is a lot of charcoal!!!). The bed I'm working on next will be three equal sections of around 20%, 30% and 45% by rough volume. Keep up the good work. I appreciate your attention to detail and integrity in performing these experiments. Following.

I may be late on the subject but have you tried biochar in making a vermicomoost?

Great idea that your going to use poor soil too. I think you could grow anything in the bed you have with the mix you put in. Thanks for doing the tests and all the work you put in.

I'd also like to point out that surplus nutrient in soil may not have an effect the first season, the question becomes how capable of sustaining enrichment is the soil. So a starting and ending soil breakdown would be helpful to see how much nutrient is leeching out of the soil throughout the year.

I am so glad I found your channel, I have learned so many things already. I am very thankful to you. Coming to the topic of Biochar, do you think it will be a good idea to use them in potting mix? I feel that lot of nutrients gets leached out from pots and there is a constant need of re-fertilizing them during growing season. Looking forward to your feedback.

I do like the idea of not having to use as much fertilizer, though. The terra preta they found in the Amazon rain forest is still fertile from thousands of years ago… so it holds onto those nutrients for a very long time.

One of the major claims of biochar is water management for out of ideal water conditions. I would be interested if this was a factor taken into account too. Have a number of biochar beds that recieve different levels of water, one with drought conditions and one with heavy rain conditions. Also, are you charging your biochar before putting it in the soil? I've seen a number of sources who steep in compost teas or similar to prime it with concentrated nutrients. I would also be interested if this made a difference as well.

Was there any significant yield difference? Between the beds? I'm thinking holding certain nutrients could help improve yield or even perhaps lower it by holding it in a manner where it cannot be accessed by the roots.

Are your grow beds next to one another, if so mycelium could have “balanced” organic compounds by moving them from richer to depleted areas.

Thanks for that Stephen. I am looking forward to your test with poor soil. It's all very interesting.

I make my own charcoal, to give an insulated home, through the winter, for bacteria that already exists in the soil. This way less die in the cold. Come spring the soil is more active quicker. Since I don't buy biochar from a company, I was unaware of the claims they were making to sell their product. Maybe biochar is more effective in harsh climates, because of its insulating properties. And since it just helps bacteria survive, the population should grow over the years. And would need to be tested after a winter. If you wanted to do a test for that ;) This is a good informative video. I had no idea that biochar helps to retain some minerals and nitrogen! Pretty cool!

a (new ? )and enlightened perspective--plants only use what they need,do we really need all these item purchases? but still is showing they have what they need.i will keep watching its very interesting.

I use biochar to reduce waterlogging and compaction.

Can you please mention selenium and perhaps iodine levels in your experiments they are known to help prevent cancer, obesity, intelligence for iodine, and selenium is needed to prevent neuro muscular disease as well as heart disease and cancer, according to Joel Wallach N.D. of the "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" videos and books. As an organic gardener I'm trying to grow food with all the nutrients I need for total health. Thanks, I appreciate all the work you do. Also, I thought biochar is supposed to hold in moisture, which is important where I live.

I heard your produce won't be any differnent, but it speeds up time until fruiting and so get going earlier in season.

I'm quite curious, how much did you paid for those lab tests? Would you be intereted in testing humics and comparing them to bio-char?

I'll follow this. Thanks.

My understanding of the benefits of biochar is that, in soil that is depleted and needs regular infusions of good compost and organic matter to help produce healthy plants, Biochar will reduce the amounts of compost and fertilizer needed as it provides an environment where the necessary microbes can grow and thrive, (which if it isn't there will get used up or dissipate). ?

I'm starting to think of plant nutrition the same as I do about food science. For every study elevating one supplement, or nutrition fad, there's a study to suggest the opposite. I suppose each gardener should garden as he pleases without worry, and to use all things moderately. I look forward to your future trials! -Eric

The best would be the poor soil test since using worm castings in the soil will overpower the test on the vegetation since its the best slow-release fertilizer, so a test on poor soil would be very interesting with only biochar as the additive.

Can you pls help to clarify usage of well cleaned wood char ( washing machine), in aquaponics grow beds as media(flood and drain). People suggest that wood char results in denitrification (only in anerobic conditions ). Sighting woodchar ability to consume nitrogen does innoculation of woodchar in compost work? And later use it in aquaponics GB. Reason I want to do it because its cheap ,light weight and most importantly its available.

I think it could help to innoculate biochar with liquid fertilizer jadam methods

thanx you

Hello i added charged biochar to my pear tree but after few days the leaves turned yellow and brown . What possibly Could have gone wrong ?

I find it nice that you and Patric take the time to do these test and triles BUT as you showed in your vidio thes beds were all filled with new soil that was the first mistake work your normal soils by just adding to the top NO TILL that would be scientific ,but not in one year it takes time What is with the water retension with the Biochar ? its the same as your test with rock dust it doesn't work over night I have been working my garden for over 30 year's I don't dig or till I only put on the top natur does the rest or do I know more than the natur this works for me my plants and soil show me the results as I said I find your test very intereting but as I see you are makeing all the mistakes as most scientist do go and have a look in the woods and observe natur. but keep up the good work

Excellent video. It is widely known that good soil won't benefit from biochar and poor soil devoid of nutrients will benefit from biochar. Your test does show an improvement is good soil which is very interesting. Did you test pH throughout the growing season? Nutrient availability is very dependent upon pH. Isn't nature awesome! I can't wait to learn more on your trials in poor soil.

Where are your other videos about these beds?

Stands to reason, biochar can’t hurt but sure can help.

I’m interested how that would help my lawn. I’m going from chemical fertilizers to organic. I tested a small area with humic acid and kelp and it made quite a difference in drainage as well as made the grass a dark green.

Use of biochar was wide spread in tropical soil studies of historic pre columbian amazon. In regions with poor soils(sandy soils) or high leaching(tropical rain forests), biochar makes sense. I don't thin you need it in rich temperate soils. This nutrient analysis is just one study topic for biochar, because it also has the ability to sequester carbon.

Was there a yield difference? I can't imagine higher npk wouldn't increase growth?

How and why did you decide to use half a pound of biochar per square foot of soil surface? That could be quite a lot in a shallow bed or very little in a deep bed. Why not use a measurement of comparative volume or mass?

The info I want to send is on a disk and I don't have access to a computer until tomorrow. But for now. Does rock dust cause a rise in ph and if so, would precipitation reactions (nutrient lock up) explain why there are less nutrients available in the rock dust trials? Just a though

Have you tried charging it with a high nitrogen substance, like manure?

is it ok to use 50% biochar and the other 50% will be wormcast and compost?....pls advise, newbie here...

Very intersting results! I wonder if biochar would be especially effective in sandy soils since this soil type is prone to leaching? In my opinion, anything that reduces nutrient leaching is good, even if there is a surplus, because it reduces potential contamination of water supplies and it retains those nutrients for future growing seasons.

Very interesting results! I'm starting to think that the most meaningful test could be on amending soil know to be nutrient poor. I think that you're on to something in saying that a plant won't generally be taking up more nutrients than it needs to.

I knew the Amazonians had it right. Terra Preta is an incredible phenomena. Interesting that the peppers did not stock up nutrients in the surplus. I guess hoarding resources when there is abundance is not the natural way of things.

I wonder if the soil nutrients would have tested even higher if you added azomite into the biochar inoculation

Sounds like a big win for gardeners that only use there compost on the garden.

WHOA, AT 3:20,I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PYRAMID AND THE GEOMETRY OF THE STIRINGS AND PATHS YOU HAVE LAID OUT.

Hi, I live in Edmonton, Ab and was wondering if you have a local source for biochar that I could purchase from. Thank you

Hmm... So, if the plant only uptakes what it needs, is there something that causes more absorption by the plant to produce more nutrient dense fruit? On to more research...

It gets confusing with all the hype over the internet about organic growing. I'm confused as what to use now, I was set on Rock Dust but watching your other video has changed my mind. Any ideas on a good selection to use in beds? What's really needed to get a good organic crop without wasting money on useless products?

Best I could do was mix in some chopped fall leaves and pour urine on the mix every week or so. Had no compost and stores not selling it right now. Only compost I would use is cotton burr or Black Kow if I could buy it locally. Others I cannot trust. Ground right now is basically frozen.

What you can say about the biochar trials for certain based on the analysis is 1) biochar has more trace elements than rockdust (most likely) or 2) biochar remains closer to the surface compared to rockdust and hence the higher reading 2) biochar trace elements are less available to the plants based on the fact the amount of nutrition that remains on the pepper plant( less likely) Then this beggars the question can biochar overdose plants and kill them, as too much of a good thing can be detrimental

Can I use the coals from my fire pit? If the chat material has ash with it would it effect the nutrient content? At baseline the soil here in Denver Colorado is nutrient poor and mostly clay. This sounds like it would work great just wondering if I can use a free resource vs buying it.

isn't 10x increase setting the bar rather high?

Having more nutes in soil doesn't mean more nute dense food, but it DOES mean you can save money on nutes.

A common claim I don't think you covered more than obliquely is that biochar causes the soil to retain more water, hedging against drought. I suppose that's a more appropriate test for the poor soil samples, but I'd be interested to know anything you figure out about that.