10/14/2026
Biochar is a pure form of charcoal usually made from wood. It’s created by baking wood at a very high temperature, in a closed container, with little or almost no oxygen. This process is call pyrolysis. A pure carbon substrate is created transforming the carbon(wood) Into hollow carbon nano tubes, becoming a highly porous, sponge-like matrix that traps moisture, air, and essential nutrients in its structure. It can greatly improve soil health by enhancing microbial habitats, improving water retention, and reducing nutrient leaching in agricultural soils. The hollow structures of the carbon basically provide a home for microbes, nutrients, water and fungal life. My friend Mike Nelson picked up three 800 pound bags of biochar from Blackgold biochar in Willow Springs, Missouri. This one was mine and the cost was $500. It can level up your organic garden by improving overall soil health. I am a no-till farm , so I am currently adding it to the top of my beds with my organic amendments and over time it will gradually incorporate into the soil and be ready for the spring garden. Indigenous communities across the world, from the Amazon Basin to sub-Saharan Africa, have historically used biochar as a soil amendment to improve fertility and crop yields for thousands of years. The modern term "biochar" began gaining traction around the year 2000 and took center stage at academic and soil science conferences by 2006. European and agricultural scientists studied charcoal and soil organic matter nutrient retention as early as the late 1800’s, but a book in 1966 by Dutch scientist Wim Sombroek called Amazon Soils, sparking formal scientific inquiry into the origins, chemical makeup, and fertility secrets of dark Amazonian soils and pyrogenic carbon.
