Quote:
Originally Posted by DFINITLYDISTRUBD
Basically my point is that we may be eagerly rushing to char as a curative a little prematurely and it seems our lack of the complete picture may come back to bite us in the bottom if we over do it. We may find it is counter productive using a pound when an ounce is all the soil can stand...Of course I find most methods for producing char questionable at best as to how much benefit for the additional co2 released in the process as well....but that's probably another thread.
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When a material is 'carbonized' (ie charred), it loses all, or most, of its constituents. The carbon becomes basically inert (does not react easily with outside chemicals). Char is such a good bed material for micro-biological growth because it is porous and protective.
The benefit of locking char in the soil is that you are taking once-breathing biomass out of circulation and recycling it as a negative CO2 feedback loop. All of the Appalachian states (and indeed, most of the US) was historically and naturally managed by fire. Evidence for this is abundant, both in plant associations and soil assays.
So, char is still great. But, as always, too much of a good thing is bad.
