Biochar for Home Gardeners: A Guide to Producing, Charging, and Applying Biochar to Dramatically Improve Soil and Plant Health

by Jeff Fry

Building healthy soil to produce the most nutritious and most richly flavored food in our gardens is no small accomplishment, especially if gardens have challenging soil conditions to begin with. One powerful agricultural tool that can propel our soil health forwards in a hurry is biochar – a type of char used for agricultural purposes. This deceptively simple substance has unique structural and electrical properties that produce incredible benefits in our gardens. These include as much as doubling water-retention while improving water flow in sandy and clayey soils; swelling soil biology and activating its many functions; and improving nutrient holding-capacity by an eye-watering 20 times that of already healthy, loamy soil. If that were not enough, biochar is also essentially permanent, lasting thousands of years in the soil. Biochar for Home Gardeners details how to make biochar of excellent quality at home with rudimentary equipment; “charge” biochar with nutrients, including how to use it to upgrade compost and make biochar bokashi (a ferment made with various household wastes); crush biochar and apply it to soils for maximum benefit; and, additionally, how to use biochar in animal shelters and feed to improve hygiene and animal health. Biochar is perhaps best known as the magic ingredient that an ancient South American civilization used to transform their hopeless clay ground into one of the richest soils on the planet. If it can do this, properly made and applied biochar is sure to improve gardeners’ yields and the nutritional content of their crops together with heightening the beloved garden-grown aroma and flavor.

Genres: Gardening

57 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 12, 2017

Reviews

[Don Gerstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book poses an interesting topic, though I found it lacking in some areas.

The book presents a discussion on why gardeners should consider using biochar to enrich their soils, then moves on to making, readying, and applying this organic material. “Biochar for Home Gardeners” ends with a very short history of biochar and a list of references.

I believe Mr. Fry’s intentions were to publish a helpful book (as opposed to the thousands of books created with the goal of making money first and foremost). He does make some good points and the text is professionally written. Unfortunately, there are other areas where this book is found to be lacking.

Most of the pictures do not add value to the book, some appearing only to be added as filler. The picture of the top-lit updraft gasifier, for example, won’t help much when combined with the short description. This is one of the most important sections in the book, and it would be extremely difficult for a lay person to successfully create what would be needed.

I was concerned with the inoculation section of the book. While I have studied human manure (humanure) and believe it can be useful, one must be cautious in this area and I felt the author should have gone to greater lengths to warn people about manure from meat eaters (us, our dogs and cats, etc.) as well as the use of kitchen wastes (the author encourages us to use “meats, dairy, oil, bones”).

Bottom line: While the book is professionally written, there are missing aspects important in a book like this, such as complete descriptions on how to create biochar (with adequate pictures). The successful percentages are much higher than I have seen elsewhere, and while I can appreciate the author’s excitement, the incredible numbers come off more as hype than anything else (Example: “The results are oftentimes dramatic with productivity in many crops increasing by an average of 20% and sometimes much more…” needs a reference, and words like “many crops” and “much more” do not encourage a feeling of factual reporting). This book is a starting point for those interested in searching for more information, but not much else. Three stars.

[Vinoth Kumar Kannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise, no-nonsense book. Straight to the point, then over and out. Although it'd have been great if there were process diagrams for biochar production and possible setups (non-industrial ones), for better understanding - all I could see was some images of real world double-cylinder setup and some plants which grew out of biochar application. Good introductory reference material, overall.

[Jim Ehle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed numerous pages missing

Great information, but numerous pages missing. I am sure it is a formatting issue but it is so maddening not being able to follow the authors information because of the missing pages

[Renee Niemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consise and to the point.

Consise and to the point. Very useful information. I am anxious to put this knowledge to use. Very good source of information on biochar.

[Linda Spears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and easy to understand

This is a great explanation of what biochar is, how to create it, and how to use it. Good tool for nutrient dense gardeners.

[Derald Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer to understand the basice uses and benefits of biochar.