CropChar
Our Fully Loaded Biochar
CropChar is a biochar that that improves the structure, aeration, water-holding capacity and nutrient retention of soils and substrates while providing permanent refuge for beneficial microbiology.
CropChar as a high carbon form of charcoal contains beneficial fungi, trace nutrients and beneficial bacteria. It is a pure organic, 100% chemical-free and proven product that supercharges your soil. By adding CropChar the health of your plants and vitality of your soil will be boosted.
Information
CropChar is specially blended to build the health of your plants and the vitality of your soil. It is an ancient technology that we have refined for modern day use. Several years ago, we made an important discovery. Through its interaction with soil microbes and plant roots, biochar creates unique growing conditions that produce lush and abundant crops. After 6 years of university trials, we believe it will totally change the way crops are grown in the future.
Plants use CO2 during photosynthesis and their structure is rich in carbon. When they die they decompose or burn, releasing methane or carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.
We can stop the process and keep the carbon in the ground by transforming waste wood into charcoal or Biochar. Added to your kitchen scraps in a compost bin a “super-compost” is obtained for regenerative agriculture and carbon farming. Wherever plants grow worldwide this method can be easily applied.
With this innovative process waste wood is no longer hauled off to the landfills. Renewable electricity and heat are also generated in the process. The natural carbon cycle releases 99% of the carbon back into the air but with Biochar production we can store in the ground 50% of plant carbon.
CropChar is the ultimate charged Biochar for your farm – works for all soils and plants.
CropChar helps make plants grow faster, stronger, healthier, and bigger
Professional growers have been using enriched biochar for years.
Described as “organic rocketfuel” for your fields and crops, CropChar blend contains biochar, a carbon-rich planting aid that helps to create stronger, healthier plant roots. This high quality biochar also “locks” away carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – making it not only good for the garden, but great for the environment too.
The blend also contains the highest concentrations of plant-boosting, soil-enriching goodies that CropChar has ever produced. These include mycorrhizal and trichoderma fungi, wormcasts and seaweed – giving your plants even more of the nutrients they need for a professional flourish.
Benefits
Benefits of CropChar biochar
Improves plant strength and root health
Increases immune response in plants
Locks in moisture and reduces the need for watering
Increased mycorrhization in soil
Increased nitrate retention
Reduces need for fertilizer use
Permanently stores carbon from the atmosphere
Creates a healthy living soil perfect for the long term soil management
Benefits for composting activities and agriculture
Biochar causes compost to reach higher decomposition temperatures, causing it to mature faster; higher composting temperatures kill pathogens and weed seeds, and result in a more stable, higher quality product.
Biochar suppresses the emission of odors from compost, especially ammonia, and makes composting much more forgiving.
Biochar matures in the compost by adsorbing a functional coating from compost which give it much greater water holding capacity and nutrient exchange capacity, behaving like permanent compost, since biochar itself is extremely long-lived in the soil.
Biochar stimulates the production of plant exudates and fungal mycelia which increases the soil aggregate stability, making the soil more resilient, more water permeable, and resistant to compaction.
Biochar captures and retains a tremendous amount of water soluble nitrates which would otherwise be lost during composting, and stimulates plant growth by providing the plant access to abundant nitrogen.
Plants exhibit a stronger immune response against pathogens due to the support and soil services of the soil microbiome fostered by co-composted biochar.
The enhanced nutrient exchange capacity afforded by co-composted biochar reduces the loss of water soluble nutrients, reducing the pressure to use fertilizer. Any fertilizer that is applied ends up being used more efficiently.
Benefits for the environment
For every kg of composted Biochar produced in conjunction with electricity generation by gasification of biomass waste, we have up to 40kg of climate impact.
BECCS—Bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration, and PyCCS—pyrolysis carbon capture and sequestration, are scientifically recognized methods for drawing down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil for the long term, leveraging plants to capture carbon dioxide, which is already happening worldwide.
Nitrous oxide and methane emissions can be reduced by up to 90% in the compost pile with the addition of biochar. (Nitrous oxide, N2O, is 300x more potent than CO2, and methane is about 80-100x worse than CO2 in the first 20 years after it is emitted.)
Biochar continues to abate nitrous oxide emissions from the soil.
Biochar binds and immobilizes many pollutants, including pesticides and heavy metals, making it a useful tool for remediating contaminated soils.
The production of biochar in the course of gasification prevents particulate matter from being released into the atmosphere compared to open combustion.
The production of biochar in the course of gasification for power generation and heating offsets fossil fuel use.
How To?
How to Use Biochar: Where It Should and Should Not Be Placed
There’s no doubt biochar can benefit many different types of soil. Due to its high adsorption and nutrient holding capacity, biochar can prevent both water and nutrients from leaching while still allowing them to be readily available to plants. These properties, which can significantly improve your soil’s fertility, also make biochar useful in reducing water erosion and fertilizer runoff.
Still, you may be wondering how exactly you should use and store biochar for your specific application. The answer depends on a few things, like how fertile your soil is before applying biochar, or whether you intend to use biochar to grow crops.
Using biochar in near-term applications
Charging up your soil with biochar
In the rare case that your soil is already very fertile, biochar can be directly added to the soil. Biochar, however, brings the most benefits to soil when it is “charged” or inoculated with nutrients and soil microorganisms to help prime your soil for improved fertility.
Though many different methods for charging biochar exist, most procedures follow several basic principles, which include:
- Containing enough moisture for nutrients to dissolve and adsorb to the pores of the biochar
- Introducing a wide variety of nutrients
- Inoculating soil-borne microbes through compost or other methods
- Letting the charge progress at least 14 days, to allow beneficial soil biology to inoculate
Charging should be tailored to your situation. For most near-term applications, it is best to blend the biochar with a high-quality compost containing the biology that would most benefit your plants.
If you are not sure about the quality of your compost, you can try one of CropChar proprietary products, CropChar Source or CropGranules Both are charged, or inoculated, biochar that have already been loaded with beneficial microbiology and microbial food and have proven growing results. Field trials on growing media and soils in the United States have demonstrated that bio granules enhances biological activity and plant performance when it is added at 2 to 3 percent by volume in growing mixes or 15 to 20 pounds per acre in row crops.
Compost can be mixed with biochar before being added to the soil or it can be worked into the field when it is being applied. In the latter case, the biochar would be laid on top of the soil first, then the compost, before they are mixed into the soil through tilling or other methods. The ratio between compost and biochar can be as high as 1:1 and the biochar is left to inoculate for at least a couple of weeks.
In some cases, the biochar and compost are partially mixed while they are being transported to a field. Here, biochar and compost is loaded into a truck in alternating layers before it travels to the field.
Alternatives to compost inoculation
Biochar can be mixed into a field intended for cover crops. Cover crops are plants that are grown to improve soil health and other aspects of soil for the crop that will follow (for example alfalfa that is grown prior to planting sweet corn). After mixing in biochar, the native microorganisms already present in the field move into the biochar over several months. This method of charging has been especially successful when the cover crops are nitrogen-fixing legumes such as clover.
Biochar can also be charged with other materials such as liquid fertilizer
The best place to put biochar
The best location for biochar depends on your application.
If biochar is used as a soil amendment, you should work the biochar into the plant’s root zone – the part of the soil surrounding a plant’s roots – incorporating the biochar into 4 to 6 inches of soil depth if possible. This way, you will make full use of biochar’s remarkable capability to hold water, retain nutrients, and host beneficial soil biology. Working the biochar into the soil also minimizes the chance that the biochar will be disturbed, dried out, or blown away.
If biochar is used to purify storm water, filter contaminants, or reduce erosion, you do not necessarily need to work biochar into the soil. In these situations, biochar is used in locations that are optimal for the specific needs of the project and often placed within containers specialized for each use case, such as landscape socks and filtration systems. For example, you can place the biochar where water is running off land, roofs, roads, or other contaminated sites – including those that are aboveground.
Best management practices when applying and storing biochar
Most biochar products have fine, dust-like particles that can be swept away by wind or water if proper precautions are not taken.
Wind
The best way to prevent your biochar from being lost to wind is to moisten it. This helps weigh down the biochar dust.
Whether or not you moisten the biochar yourself, you should always consider its moisture content when determining your application rate, as you may over- or underestimate the amount of biochar you require for your situation. You should always apply biochar in the right weather conditions and when winds are mild.
Water
Water can sweep biochar away, especially at sites with steep slopes or high rainfall. To prevent your biochar from being lost to water, you should properly incorporate the biochar into the soil or apply biochar with wetter materials such as compost or mulch, depending on the types of plants you are growing.
CropPerfection … Nature’s own Solutions
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