I am doing it first time. I have the same charcoal as MI gardener . So, why not since i have a bag store 2 yrs ago and it is my 3rd day soaking in compost and seaweed.

https://youtu.be/5ZEGCFAEj3o 

This is my first trial so i wont able to answer any of your questions but hopefully someone will 😊

Let me retry the link again. Hopefully, it works

https://youtu.be/5ZEGCFAEj3o

It works 😁

I’m also using it. I think it does help. Especially if your soil is lacking OM, it provides a quick way to boost life. 😊

I posted last spring on this the Roses forum about new products by Miracle Grow and Scotts but I can't get the link to post here. Wish I could because I quoted from the Biochar national symposium and many people chimed in with their comments. Go up to the search advice, photos, etc and put in biochar. The post 'New Products - Miracle Grow Organics and Scotts Soil Improver'- should come up. It's the second or third post down. It was very informative, but the consensus was that it is too expensive and still took a long time to become available to plants.

Thank you! I did search but had not come up with the link from last year.

I'm actually going to try this amendment on a few acres of horse pasture to test it out, hopefully in a few weeks. The product I'm looking at is specifically designed for turf management. My farm was phosphate mined 40-50 years ago--a process that destroys the topsoil and brings subsoil up to the top, so it makes sense that if Im trying to improve my grass stands and adding NKP per soil tests isn't working over time that I've got to look to addressing nutrient availability instead.

The more I read the more I thought this would be interesting to try on my roses.

Sub, have you look into green manure ? I try to grow some clovers from seeds but i must be doing something wrong so it was unsuccessful last yr . I totally forgot that i have a huge bag so i will try that again this weekend.. Adding horse manure and biochar just sealed the deal in my opinion. I am so much into soil. I try to enriched my soil every year or twice bec it erodes so fast since it is all sand. Last year i know i did seaweeds that i gathered from the beach. I try to get more but the red tide came in.

I am so happy that i got 4inches of my soil loam black but underneath is all sand colour. It took 3 yrs of amendments and many more to go.

Thanks , Vap !!

You are a life saver bec i could not find either .

Plumeria Girl.... I have tried several times to grow clover here in Florida as a green crop..... must be the mid west farmer's daughter in me.... However, I got a load of horse manure for a tomato garden.... and the other day I swore I saw white sweet clover growing.... Yep it must have been 35 years since I have seen it in person.... but I was pretty sure.... so I came in and googled it.... and yes it was.... so if you want a green manure that grows in Florida try white sweet clover.... I am hoping my one little plant goes to seed.... it just might if it doesn't die .... but the honeybees were all over it ..... and it was just one little plant among the tomatoes.

Thanks, Sharon ! I will try white clover and order it :)

Plumeria - I have wondered if we are allowed to pick up the seaweed and take it home. You have to rinse it though, right? How long do you have to rinse it?

I looked up the two products mentioned in the previous thread. The Miracle Grow Performance Organics ($9 FOR 26lbs) looks like an organic compost blend with some organic NKP added as well, but I couldn't find any mention of biochar in any of the literature I dug around for. The Scotts Foundation ($30lbs for 14lbs) product shows to be 60% volcanic ash, 30% Coconut Biochar and 10% Attapulgite Clay.

The product that I'm looking at for turf maintenance is 47% compost 47% biochar 2% bacillus & mycorrhizal. (40lb bagged and I'm still waiting on an exact price as I'm buying a whole pallet, but hopefully around $25.) Seemingly to my eye quite different--or more focused on the biochar and the "soil food web." The stuff I've read about biochar indicates that you need to "inoculate" or "charge" the biochar with compost or it will suck that OM from the soil and tie it up until things get balanced out. That creates a delay or "worse before it gets better" situation.

I'm definitely going to pull some bags to be tried out in the garden, so we will see.

About green manure: I've looked into it, but I'm not willing to risk pastures being offline for so long. I do throw some clover seeds in when we over seed with fescue, but not a lot. The clover I get only germinates well in the better areas of soil. My pastures are usable and I don't want to take one offline for not just the time to grow the crop but then to regrow the grass. Regrowing grass for pasture can be a year before it's really up to grazing and if you have a bad growing season after planting you can lose another year. Another thing I do is mow and leave the clippings instead of allowing it to be hayed which probably helps a little too.

Subk3, this is a very interesting project you’ve got going! Definitely keep us posted on how it goes.

It sounds like your soil amendment has microbial & fungal charges already, but when I get straight biochar I charge it with worm tea. They make great castings that fill up all the biochar spaces, and so far my beds are doing well. :-)

Flowers, I just rinse it a few times to get salt off but i read from other post most do . I believe some of rosarians on Antique forum has been doing that for years . I remembered Melissa said that is an old farmers trick and Romans also used to do that. It has dated back for a long time and I only did that once. I can't remember what thread it was. Yes, you are basically cleaning your beach .

Sub, you did your researched and I hope you grow your grass beautifully for grazing.

I hope you share your experience with us in near future as i am also trying it out. You are right, Biochar needs to be inoculate . I read about the same thing if not it will take it from ground first .

I think I read that is why the Japanese grow such beautiful roses.

Until the red tide algae, which I can’t find out much about as a fertilizer, I used to harvest seaweed, in 5 gal buckets every time we took the kids to beach. Now it’s just me & DH going, but I still get a couple bucketfuls. The first time I did ask a lifeguard if I could take it. (This was right after my dad got a citation for using his metal detector on the beach, so I knew times were changing, lol.)

The lifeguard said I had to ask the beach policeman. He said, “sure, why not, everyone complains when it’s lying around, so you’re helping get it cleaned up.”

I did as Plumeria said, rinsed then threw in my compost. It’s a great fertilizer, and you can get it bottled, too, if you don’t have access to raw seaweed. :-)

PnP, wouldn't that be wonderful if the red tide algae were useful for our roses! Researcher should get on that! : ))

Yes indeed!! 😊

Plumeria Girl, I just wanted to let you know there are two kinds of white clover..... white clover and white sweet clover..... they do not look anything alike.... they are both N back into the soil.... I have not had any luck with regular white clover.... only the white sweet clover has grown here.