Charcoal in Horticulture

[Michaelangelica]

Amazing we don't have a thread for this; given it is my, and many others, major interest in TP? Agrichar (now copyrighted by BEST) Biochar etc.,

Eco Carbons Horticulture
(Strange no contact or link for this company)

Paghat's Garden: Horticultural Charcoal

Any claims that charcoal has some benefit above oxygen- & moisture-retention in the soil are unfounded.

Any claims of value above that of sphagnum, bark, or perlite are either vendor bullshit or gardener mythology. It does NOT lower the possibility of odor-causing bacteria.
It does NOT "absorb odors" or "improve drainage" when put in the bottom of pots before adding soil.
It does NOT "retain Nitrogen for future use by your potted plants."

Paghat's Garden: Horticultural Charcoal

Really? it is so good to be so positive. I love it
If you are going to be wrong do it in a loud voice, I do all the time.
[I]

Charcoal? ash or BBQ briquettes? What IS he talking about?

While Colorado gardeners concerned with the environment may be tempted to dispose of barbecue grille ashes in the garden rather than the trash, this is a poor practice because of our soil type.

Charcoal is most commonly made from burned wood. It is highly alkaline (high pH) and also rich in potassium salts. Colorado soils are already highly alkaline and rich in potassium. Adding charcoal ashes to gardens here only adds to soil characteristics already in excess, and doesn't supplement deficient elements such as nitrogen that limit plant growth in our area. Supplementing deficient elements is also known as fertilizing. Wood ash is fertilizer of the wrong type for Colorado.

Charcoal is Not a Good Soil Amendment in Colorado
The charcoal I am using has a pH of 6.
My carnations and pinks love it.

Horticulture

Charcoal is used in different grades as a top dressing for the improvement of lawns and bowling greens.
These top dressings act as mulch and also provide valuable trace elements and sweeten the soil.
Pottery mixtures used in nurseries often contain fine charcoal.

Chapter 6. Charcoal utilisation and marketing
I wonder what the "trace elements" are?
What is a"Pottery Mix"?

Uses of Charcoal in Horticulture and Gardening.
Charcoal has been used for horticultural purposes for at least two thousand years, archaeological research has come up with evidence of charcoal being used as a soil ameliorator in the Amazon basin around the time of Christ.

Green keepers of golf and bowling clubs used charcoal extensively as a top dressing but in recent years this has been substituted by sharp sand, the reason may have been that the demise of the British charcoal industry caused a shortage in supplies of the correct grades. Fine charcoal powder used on lawns (golf) absorbs and eliminates excess amounts of fertiliser and chemicals present in the soil.

Charcoal was widely available from horticultural sundries-men up until the late 1960's, for use mainly in bulb fibre where the pots do not have drainage holes. The charcoal was said to keep the compost 'sweet'.

Orchid growing employs the use of charcoal and specialist growers of carnations and pinks find charcoal to be invaluable.

Research has shown that growing mediums that have charcoal present, are able to buffer the effects of sporadic watering, by reducing the frequency of watering whilst helping to prevent 'damping off'

Charcoal also reduces the leaching of fertilise in free draining soils as the charcoal's porous carbon structure enables the nutrients to be held for slower release to the plants
.
The inclusion of charcoal in open seedbeds showed that it facilitates the uptake of nutrients. Calcium uptake almost doubles, with significant increases in potassium,magnesium and phosphorus, the pH increases slightly and there is an obvious increase in organic matter.

Charcoal has been recommended as part of the treatment for the eradication of a fungal disease, Cylindrocladium that infects Box hedges.

Charcoal has proved to be an ideal renewable substitute for perlite and vermiculite, compost additives used to increase aeration and aid drainage, but both finite resources.

*The currently favoured water retaining gels are not liked by all growers and there are doubts about how well they actually release the water they have absorbed "Petunias in hanging baskets tested in greenhouses showed no benefits when water-absorbing polymers were used. And plants grown in media containing water-absorbing polymers required watering just as often as plants grown in potting soil containing no water-absorbing polymers. Also, their usable life is limited by the amounts of salt or fertilisers in the soil
". Hence, charcoal could be used where watering may be a problem, e.g.
hanging baskets, or where it is hard to change the compost, e.g. in large tubs.
Charcoal could be incorporated into locally produced 'green compost'. No further processing, other than simply grading would be required and transport costs would be low.

We have had preliminary discussions with Scarborough Borough Council about
adding fines to their Green Compost and they hope to do some simple trials in hanging
baskets.
The full article is here
cache:I0TgdV-gQ_UJ:www.visitthemoors.co.uk/uploads/publication/978.pdf - Google Scholar

*NOTE
The same results were found in research conducted by the ANIA Australian Nursery Industry Association. A spokesman commented "They work great in distilled water in laboratories."
Still the Nurseries and Hardware shops are full of them and almost no charcoal is to be seen!

[7DSUSYstrings]

It makes a lot of sense. Plants, like us are carbon based. Consider this:

A green tree, once hopelessly ignited, will burn longer and hotter than a tree in Autumn with little sap and the leaves are dried and brown. This is because there are more plant porphyrins available and, unlike those in our mammalian blood, these are built around Mg. In theory, if you coated a summer maple tree with mammalian blood, it would burn even hotter because magnesium and iron oxide are very similar to thermite. (Aluminum and Iron Oxide).

Even at 3000degF, the carbon compounds merely decompose and partial combustion takes place. If we also coated our burning tree with SiO3, we might end up with a high carbon ceramic amongst the millieu...


Dr. C.

[Michaelangelica]

A few fighting words on charcoal
What do you think?
FROM
Gardening on Cloud 9 Myths of Horticultural Charcoal in Gardening

Myths of Horticultural Charcoal in Gardening
January 14, 2009 in Garden Essentials | No comments

Myth #5 Insects and Disease Fighter

Charcoal has been recommended as part of the treatment for the eradication of a fungal disease, Cylindrocladium, which infects Box hedges. However, horticultural charcoal per se doesn’t ward off plant diseases, parasites, insects, or slugs. In addition, it isn’t an anti-fungal agent equivalent to sulfur or copper.

I just had a friend try this on some stubbornly sick box in another wise healthy hedge i wonder how it is going?
He did add a lot of fertiliser too.

[Michaelangelica]

I have found it difficult using char in pots. The huge variation in pH is one problem (from 6.5 to 9.5). Nursery plant pots are such artificial things, it is hard to duplicate the processes of the soil. Yet I note, from our indoor plant threads, that it seems the potting mix biota is what actually cleans the air in offices. (?- I'm still not convinced of this).
Here, a product that could reduce fertiliser and water costs, would be embraced by the Nursery/horticulture Industry like a Messiah

This is a paper just posted at the BioEnergy List site
BioEnergy Lists: Biochar (Terra Preta) | Information on the intentional use of Biochar (charcoal) to improve soils.

Gasifier Charcoal as a Substitute for Vermiculite in Container Growing Media
Tom Miles, August 22, 2009
P Pine Seedlings in 25% BiocharP Pine Seedlings in 25% Biochar
Our second trial of biochar as a substitute for vermiculite in container media for growing tree seedling has proved successful.
These tests are by a private nursery to determine if charcoal from a gasifier heating system can be used in container growing media.

[7DSUSYstrings]

It might be interesting to try variations with a charcoal substrate rather than as a direct fertilizer. I've found a variety of mosses that love charcoal, but nothing that would sprout from a seed.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I have found it difficult using char in pots.

I've had problems adding char to already established pots, but I've had good luck so far growing basil from seed in pots with about a 10% char/potting soil ratio. I did use "lump charcoal" which is probably close to activated charcoal grade, which might not influence the pH much. I'll test the soil tomorrow to see if I can get a reading on it.

[7DSUSYstrings]

It's ironic, but I posted about charcoal a couple days ago, then yesterday our star craftess "Martha Stewart" had a demonstration about growing Orchids and lo and behold one of the potting mixture constituents was charcoal. I'm almost at a point where I can start experimenting with the development of a green thumb, so I'll probably keep an eye on this thread. It sounds like some of you may have a wealth of knowledge in this area.

[maikeru]

Several things can retard seedling germination, whether in biochar or not. Even in normal potting soil sometimes I can't get stuff to come up. I've sometimes thought this is because I'm not matching the proper soil environment the seedling would like (like maybe more sandy or clay soil, proper humidity, more organic matter, or a particular kind of organic matter), buried too deeply or not enough, or pest or disease problems, like fungus gnats (which seem to kill seedlings or more likely to die) or fuzzy fungus that kills seedlings.

Some things that I've found help:

1. Watering with a dilute solution of black tea (which reduces fungal/bacterial attacks on seedlings and seems to make the seedlings happy...have had good success with this, but use cheap/terrible black tea, which you wouldn't drink anyway). Black tea has tannins which fungi and bacteria usually don't like, and gives the seedlings more time to sprout and dig in. I'm not sure if black tea has an effect on mycorrhizae or not, so you may want to discontinue the treatment after your seedlings look strong enough. I usually do it for only a few days and let them fend for themselves.

2. Make sure the biochar is loaded with nitrogen and other essential nutrients beforehand. First time I made char from lump charcoal I didn't load it, so my seedlings were "running on empty" and often were small and sickly or never came up at all.

[7DSUSYstrings]

I imagine most would think if you put, in a flower pot, the "right stuff" for a plant then it should take hold immediately. Botanical science and biochemistry would tend to say otherwise. I'm a general scientific practitioner, so no specialist in horticulture especially, but have done some reading in botany and chemistry is one of my specialized areas. Let's look at the botanical perspective first.

Plants first need to develop their vascular system, just like animals and this begins with the chemistry that forms "procambrium" compounds. Like our blood, these involve "porphyrins." The difference between red blood and "green (actually grayish)" plant "blood" is red blood has an iron atom at its center and green blood has magnesium. From there unfolds a very symmetrical structure of methyl and hydrogen groups that form a reasonably flat chemical structure with a slight "pucker" where the metal bond is a bit stronger. That pucker makes a temporary, weaker bond with oxygen to carry it through the vascular system to the walls of cells. In that, the seed needs a liquid diet that it can develop its system, just like a neonatal animal. Let's look at the chemistry of what is "milk" for plants.

Your black tea will have anti-oxidants and that is good, because too much oxygen will want to bond with the metal. The nitrates are forming another shield against the oxygen radicals that want to bond with the metals. Ammonia would not be good because it wants to form strong acids. Charcoal just gives the plant something to acquire its minerals for the carbon for the methyl groups, so, to a seed it's like a Big Mac is to a new-born. The water offers the hydrogen, but also can create more oxygen radicals, hungry for the metal. A little oxygen goes a long way till the plant has enough of its "little nuclear reactors" (cells) built to strip the minerals as a process.

How can we get rid of that darned oxygen? Copper (or aluminum and iron create electrolytic reactions. (Just ask an aluminum boat maker...) That is good for separating the water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen. What we need is that perfect Ph level for the individual plant and that, I've read, is where the art of horticulture meets the science of botany. Miracle Grow has all those constituents, but as of now, even with that, I still tend toward a "brown thumb" if I'm trying to grow anything besides "scum bags." "Ascomycetae." It certainly doesn't hurt to have a compound that will reduce oxygen while converting it into a stored food for later life. Remember also that a seed will be growing through osmosis in lieu of a vascular system, so larger molecules will be excluded, where the smaller nutrient molecules will seep through at first. Now if I can just get that all to work for ME!

I imagine that with enough time, I'll grow some interesting chemical gardens and moss then onward to the big stuff. Mushrooms still confound me, but I suppose that all keeps my nose in a textbook or two, so eventually some of it all will sink in. (Right now I'm working on adapting a theory of 9 dimensional structural time to Einstein's gravitational equation that balances the cosmological constant with the expansion of the universe, so botany is taking a real back seat on the train...)

I know what Martha Stewart was showing involved well developed plants with roots that actually would look scary to a GI Joe doll. Of course Martha wields one of those gargantuan butcher knives that make us dudes a little nervous, so those roots are not a problem for her... I'll bet in secret she cuts up GI Joe dolls, too, in some little shack behind her glorious house... Poor Joe...

[Essay]

Originally Posted by 7DSUSYstrings

Charcoal just gives the plant something to acquire its minerals for the carbon for the methyl groups, so, to a seed it's like a Big Mac is to a new-born.

I'm a chemist myself, but I studied physiology (& plant phys. too) and I thought all those methyl groups came from sugar being "eaten" or cleaved to produce the carbon that is used for building biomass. I think it's only some bacteria that can directly "eat" mineral (graphitic) carbon like charcoal (but I'm no microbiologist...). Other (I think) bacteria can eat the functional groups hanging off of charbonized material and gain energy (and carbon biomass) but this is a rare and slow process. More common is the "eating" of oils and acids and volatiles--as well as other elemental metals/minerals (salts, ash)--that come with the char.

But I think char's main effect is to promote a healthy microbiome which then itself is what nourishes the roots.

Do you think roots can directly assimilate mineral carbon?
Seedlings use the stored starch to begin growth and development, and then use photosynthesis to grow; but I don't know if seedlings use stored nitrogen, or get that only from fertilizer. ...Sorry, I'm wandering.
===

One thing I learned recently is that (depending on the source material) chars created by using lower temperatures are more acidic (more oils/acids/other functional groups remaining), and the higher temperature chars are more alkaline (due to fewer residual oils/acidic side-chains & a lower carbon to ash ratio).

...So you can tune your soil with different pH chars.
===

But char can "suck up" available nutrients (through various routes) until after a healthy microbiome is established, so seedlings may be competing with the char unless the char is pre-loaded, as Maikeru suggested, with a nitrogen source. I'm sure it's more complicated than just nitrogen, but....

What were we talking about?

methyl groups to build biomass?
E8 supersymmetry?

...ummmmm. Catch you later....

~Cheers