Biochar

What is Biochar?
First lets clear any confusion and make it really simple biochar is charcoal. Its only called
biochar because it is used for biological purposes. Therefore its not like the cooking charcoal
or briquettes you buy with all the chemicals in them, its just good clean wood-derived charcoal.
Now its true not all biochar is the same, but this is an introduction so lets just keep it simple.
You can make awesome biochar without worrying about the finer points.
Another thing to remember, while biochar has been gaining a lot of popularity in recent years
due to carbon sequestration benefits and new research on its biological benefits, using charcoal
in agriculture is an ancient practice dating back thousands of years. This is a great natural
farming technique that wise old farmers have known about forever. Therefore it has a nice place
here on The Unconventional Farmer.
What is Biochar Good For?
I like to cover the high level description and then just dive right into the good stuff. Lets discuss
benefits. Biochars benefits come from its unique physical and chemical attributes. It is insanely
porous a single gram can have over 1000 sqm of surface area. It is inert, meaning it doesnt
interact with other compounds in the water and soil. It is also indigestible to soil microbes. So
basically it doesnt break down in the soil it persists in the soil for a long time(thousands of
years!) continuing to add its benefits, and doesnt change over time. Those are the two big ones.
Lets look at the factors biochar enhances:

Incredible nutrient holding capacity (as in, biochar+fertilizer outperforms fertilizer

alone by 60%)
Aids moisture retention (micropores hold water, dry slowly)
Aids drainage (biochar is inert, so it doesnt interact with the polarity of water. Drains
excess freely)
The above two points together means that biochar soil is buffered against dramatic
changes in moisture level (floods/droughts)
Awesome microbe habitat! Bacteria, fungi, and other microbes love populating the moist
pores
Brings up the pH of acidic soils, reducing the need for Lime
Reduces fertilization requirements (since it traps and holds fertilizers in the soil)

If that list isnt enough to convince you, lets look at a few of its environmental benefits:

Carbon sequestration: Biochar traps carbon in the soil for thousands of years, that would
normally be pumped back into the air in a very short time through decomposition. This is
huge and is a big factor in biochars recent popularity
Reduces need for petroleum based fertilizers

Studies show biochar soil produces 50-80% less greenhouse gas emissions than nonbiochar inoculated soil

How to Make Biochar

First we need to look at what biochar is: charcoal. Charcoal is just a carbon source that has been
heated in the absence of oxygen. Most things in the source like oils, tar, chemicals burn off
leaving only carbon. For the Carbon to burn you need Oxygen. But the carbon is what we are
after so thats why we burn it in the absence of oxygen.
Any carbon source should work fine. Some carbon sources that you might find cheap, nearby
would be:

Wood chips
Saw dust
Rice hulls
Wheat hulls(?)
Oat hulls(?)
Horse/cow/sheep manure
Wood pellets
Down timber in the woods
Weeds and pest plants
Last years garden remnants (corn stalks, etc)
Dried grass clippings
Coconut husks

That gives you an idea what youre looking for. Any kind of carbon you can think of. Not all
carbon sources are the same though. For example, wood pellets are a nicely sized, uniform
carbon source. Wood chips would be roughly the free equivalent. Saw dust or dry grass clippings
however are very flammable. Youll have to get creative to make good biochar from those. I
havent personally made biochar from those sources I imagine it would help to pelletize them
soak with water and then compress with the heaviest weight you can manage, let dry.
Your carbon sources you are carbonizing need to be dry! Otherwise youll have to burn some to
dry the rest out to make charcoal waste.
Now that you have your carbon source you need to cook it. For this part just remember the basics
make biochar by firing a carbon source in the absence of oxygen. This confused me for a long
time. But fire doesnt burn without oxygen. How are you supposed to build an oxygen-less
fire? Well that is the common mistake of explaining biochar. It does require oxygen, but you
need to manipulate the oxygen input a particular way to make good biochar.
Here is how fire works. You have a carbon source like wood. You light it starts to burn. With
flames. Consuming oxygen. The burning starts charring the carbon, firing out all the volatiles
and leaving carbon only. Now were getting charcoal, nice good biochar. But oh no, the fire is

still sucking in oxygen, the charcoal is continuing to burn with oxygen! Now its turning to ash,
no more nice biochar.
So we need to arrest that burning before it turns everything to ash. So we build the fire, and this
time it starts charring but we quickly put it out before it becomes ash. But now just the outside is
charred and there are still lots of volatiles in the wood, lots of not really ideal biochar there.
So round 3. We start the fire, and it starts charring the carbon source. But this time we dont put
it out and we dont allow air in. We put high walls all around the fire so that it doesnt pull
oxygen in, but the smoke still has somewhere to go. We allow oxygen to come into the fire, but
only from a single point. This way, the oxygen comes in, the carbon source starts to burn. It gets
very hot and uses up all the oxygen. The flames start chasing the oxygen back towards the
source, so now its not combusting anymore, but it is so hot still because all the volatile, hot gases
are passing over it and out the top. Now it is undergoing pyrolysis burning in the absense of
oxygen.
Now that you know the principles, you can create your own method to make this awesome soil
amendment for the garden. But in case you would like some inspiration, check out these different
methods to produce biochar:
Fire barrel: take a metal oil drum, turn it over, and cut a 10 hole in the bottom. Build a fire,
then upend the drum on top of it so the hole is in the top. This will be where the smoke exits.
Leave 1/4 gap in the bottom to allow just a little oxygen to feed the fire from below. Now feed
your carbon source through the top hole. The whole middle section of the drum will be making
charcoal as it burns without oxygen. This would be good for the loose things like loose grass
clippings, dry manure, weeds, brush, etc
Philippine chimney: This is how carbonized rice hulls are made in the Philippines. Start with a
cylindrical medal bucket like a metal coffee can. Perforate the sides of the bucket with small
holes about 1 inch apart. Cut a hole in the bottom and attach a chimney long cylinder that fits
flush to the hole. Build a small fire and put this chimney on top of it so the fire is inside the
bucket. Now pile your carbon source all around the bucket+chimney that is sitting on top of the
fire. It will slowly char as it burns from within. I suppose the carbon source here is charring due
to heat but not combusting because of the lack of open flame.This method is how the small
farmer produces this valuable soil amendment here in the Philippines:

Great infographic on the Philippine method of making biochar (carbonized rice hulls)

Thanks to pinoyecofarmer.com for the picture

Earth pit method: This method is useful when you have a ton of wood to make into biochar.
There are a myriad different styles of earth pit biochar production. The simplest involves digging
a hole, putting a bunch of wood in it, starting the fire, then covering it with soil. From there it
gets much more complicated. The method Ill describe here is pretty simple and hopefully a little
more efficient than just digging a hole and starting a fire in it. Dig a trench pit, a rectangular
shaped pit. Give it a slope lengthwise so it slopes up to the ground surface. Lay the first layer of
logs down lengthwise in the pit, the whole length of the pit. Stack the the second layer horizontal
to the first. This creates channels that run the length of the pit on the bottom. Now fill up the pit
with the rest of the wood. Once filled, cover the pit with a layer of leaves, then a nice thick layer
of dirt. At several places in the pile, youll want to install stove pipes through the dirt, to allow
the smoke to exit. One way to do this is dig out little channels, about 6in wide, at several places
in the side of the pit. Then install pipe where the channel meets the surface (to keep oxygen from
getting in). These vents are needed for an efficient burn. Where the sloped pit meets the surface,

dont cover with dirt. Thats where you start the fire. Start a nice bonfire there. It will burn down
into the pit, the channel will allow air to come in, and the vents will allow the smoke to escape.
ATTN: Dont be an idiot and walk on top of the soil while the burn is underway. It could
collapse and youll fall into a pit of burning coals suddenly exposed to oxygen! Bad bad bad bad
bad bad bad
The keys to efficiency in this system are: try to have uniform sized wood, try to distribute it
fairly uniformly with a nice matrix so there is airflow underground as it burns, and dont skimp
on vent number and distribution (just make sure the vents are enclosed where they meet the pile,
you dont want oxygen getting in, just smoke coming out).
Modern barrel method: There are many modern methods but Ill discuss the TLUD method :
Top-Lit Up-Draft. Take a metal can can be a paint can or an oil barrel, whatever size you need.
Punch a lot of holes in the bottom, smaller than whatever you are using as your carbon source.
Enclose the top of the barrel in a chimney, but punch some holes in the chimney to help increase
the airflow through it. Now prop up the barrel so air can come in through the holes in the bottom.
Fill the can with your carbon source right up to the top. Light the material at the top of the barrel.
Once you have a little fire going, put the chimney on. The chimney helps keep the top of the
barrel low oxygen, and gets the air moving in one direction. The fire will pull oxygen from the
bottom, and as it burns, all the area above the flame will be oxygen depleted. The hot gases will
continue cooking the char as the burn line continues down to the bottom of the barrel. Ill include
a link to an excellent video demonstrating this method in action. It comes from one of our
unconventional farmers, Bryan McGrath. It is one of the best videos Ive seen explaining how to
make biochar.
Watch Bryan McGraths Video on Biochar here.
Make your biochar infinitely more effective:
Phew, youve finally made some awesome biochar. If you add it to the soil right now though, its
not going to do much. In fact, it might even leach nutrients from the soil because it is so effective
at trapping molecules in all its nooks and crannies. Then over time it will get progressively more
effective. Studies have shown dramatic results become apparent on soils that were inoculated
with biochar 2 years prior. But we dont want to wait 2 years! Jeez.
So well give our biochar an amazing head start, and make it effective from day 1. Once youve
made your biochar, brew up a really nice compost tea. At the very least, youll want to pour the
compost tea over the biochar. For example say you have an earth pit where you just burned a few
cords worth of wood to make a cord or more of biochar. Youd make a batch of compost tea and
pour that over the whole thing before doing anything else. Id make the tea strong then dilute it
to make sure you get all the biochar soaked. If youre working with smaller amounts, Id get all
the biochar in a very fine-mesh bag. Then suspend that bag in the compost tea while its brewing.
An alternative to compost tea would be BIM. Soak the biochar in a diluted BIM mixture.
Another way to charge the biochar is to add the nutrients while it is still hot. Have your nutrient
bath ready. It should have BIM along with some fermented extracts for their nutrient value. For
example a nutrient bath might contain fish hydrolysate, grow fertilizer, bloom fertilizer, and
BIM. Have this bath ready, and when your biochar is finished but still hot, throw it in the

nutrient bath. The initial sizzle seals nutrients onto the biochar, making it an excellent slowrelease fertilizer. Meanwhile it cools to a point that allows microbes to start populating. Good
stuff.
Once we inoculate the biochar with our nutrient/microbe mix, it can be referred to as bioactivated biochar. In the Philippines the common form of this is BCRH Bio-activated
Carbonized Rice Hull. It is incredible stuff!
Biochar Summary
What a great product for the garden and for the environment. Like most natural farming
techniques, this has been around for thousands of years. Its success is proven in the legendary
terra preta soils of the amazon basin, where biochar created thousands of years ago is still
adding tremendous fertility to otherwise nutrient-poor soils. So try this out, have fun, grow some
monster veggies and save the planet. Job well done.

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Leonie Stubbs
March 27, 2014 at 11:45 pm - Reply...
My only concern with the production of biochar is the amount of greenhouse gases we
are producing in the process. If making the biochar happened to be ancillary to some
other process eg for heating purposes then its probably okay but otherwise it may be
defeating the purpose as a sustainable form of soil amendment.
o

Patrick
April 9, 2014 at 11:47 pm - Reply...
Hi Leonie, thats a legitimate concern. However the significant portion of carbon
remains in the wood, it is not released during pyrolysis. So I think in the end it is
still very advantageous from an environmental standpoint.

Rodney Galarneau
April 7, 2014 at 7:57 pm - Reply...

Patrick in my limited opinion biochar and charcoal are two distinct things. Check out the
Peter Hirst Video on youtube. Biochar reputedly needs 600 to 700 degrees F. When
produced properly is like sponge candy extremely porous and will crumble between your
fingers with little pressure. Ive produced a large amount of charcoal for a backyard
gardener but little biochar. Ime still trying to perfect a TLUD to burn solid wood to
make biochar.
o

Patrick
April 10, 2014 at 1:53 am - Reply...
Hi Rodney, I didnt want to scare people away with too complex a recipe initially.
It is true that the best biochar is produced at those temperatures. Higher porosity,
less ash and other waste material. But the truth is you can make effective biochar
at home without getting into that much detail of temperature measurements and
such. Just use good clean wood and try not waste too much of it in the process,
thats my advice. Will follow up with a more technical article for the pros, later.

jim triplett
April 16, 2014 at 10:59 am - Reply...
whats an easy way to break up large chunks of hardwood char, without making to much
powder? what size pieces of char is best to soak in a natural fertilizer mix, then
transferring in the soil.
o

Patrick
May 6, 2014 at 9:47 pm - Reply...
Hi Jim,
Not sure what would be best, but maybe axe first then wood chipper. Size of
chunks you want really depends on your application, but will range from nearpowder, up to gravel size pieces. Depends how much soil aeration vs fertilizer
efficacy, you want from your char. If you already have a nice aerated soil, you
might go with powder size, soaked in fertilizer+microbes, to make a nice slowrelease fertilizer and microbe habitat. If your soil needs more aeration, go with
larger pieces.
Hope this helps. Cheers Patrick.

zahra
May 18, 2014 at 8:46 am - Reply...

I am glad to be on your website. I was wondering how and when do you apply bio char to
your vegetable patch/containers? I find it hard to make my soil acidic enough for my
tomatoes to grow but will this not make it difficult to maintain ph?
thanks
o

Patrick
May 20, 2014 at 3:11 am - Reply...
Hey Zahra,
Add biochar to the soil mix as a soil amendment. It shouldnt affect pH if done
properly it is very inert. It will pick up fertilizers though so if you treat it with
those before mixing, it will likely lower the pH. Try treating it with some organic
fertilizer plus microbes then mixing with your soil in spring/summer/fall or
whenever you are mixing fresh soil for you pots.
Cheers,
Patrick

James & Amy

May 30, 2014 at 6:52 am - Reply...
Hi Patrick,
Thank you so much for all the valuable information you have shared, you will certainly
be a major contributor to restoring our tired little farm here in Australia.
Will the charcoal cleaned out from our woodfire and separated from the ash work as
biochar?
Thanks and king regards,
Amy & James
o

Patrick
July 2, 2014 at 10:35 pm - Reply...
Good question guys, generally you are advised against that as its a way less
controlled process of producing the char. However I dont see a problem with it,
as long as you use clean wood, and dont add weird things to your fire. Note it
wont be as nice as normally made biochar. not as even a burn, etc. But I dont
think itd be a problem.

Cheers,
Patrick

rodney galarneau
June 7, 2014 at 11:33 am - Reply...
Hi Patrick I feel like a real dunce I just came across your response to my initial biochar
post. thank you. As a matter of fact your response was right on the money I have
approached this in a much too complicated manner and in the process Ive destroyed
delaminated a 85 gallon barrel along with a lot of high heat insulation. In the process Ive
produced 20 5 gallon pails of biochar actually crumbly and porous. Ive made a beginning
mixing my biochar into my bokashi. when you are ready to go to print please let us know
so that we can suooort you efforts. best wishes rodney
o

Patrick
July 2, 2014 at 11:13 pm - Reply...
Yeah, Ive been so busy the last few months I havent been able to reply to
comments in a timely fashion so its partly my fault. Glad the info worked for
you. Yeah I try to keep things as simple as possible and go from there. Always
room for improvement, its nice to start basic then dig in with all the technical
stuff.
awesome to see you made so much nice biochar though! mixing with bokashi is a
good practice, or mix with compost will work well also. Also soak with a diluted
BIM mixture will do wonders. Best of all brew a nice big batch of compost tea
using very good quality compost/worm castings, add some more sugar to it and
then soak all your biochar in that. Awesome stuff!