Gardening with Biochar: Supercharge Your Soil with Bioactivated Charcoal: Grow Healthier Plants, Create Nutrient-Rich Soil, and Increase Your Harvest

Jeff Cox has a string of good gardening books to his credit, and this one is no exception. It is a balanced and fair appraisal of how biochar may be used by the home gardener. While biochar seems to benefit some vegetables more than others, it clearly is an exciting, new tool for the home gardener who wants to increase the fertility of his or her soil. While the book discusses biochar ovens (devices that a home gardener can use to make biochar), I would have preferred a more detailed discussion of how these devices may be used. I would have also liked my detail about the process for making biochar. Despite these qualms, I thought the boo overall was an excellent introduction to biochar.

Short book but great info. Checked it out at a library before I bought. I wanted to info on hand .

Author Jeff Cox takes an old technique and updates it for use in today’s world. Biochar is a method designed to increase the soil efficiency through the carbonized cellular structure of charcoaled organic matter. Basically, charred wood.Mr. Cox takes us on a detailed history of how ancient cultures seem to have inadvertently stumbled across this technique, which has left a soil history we can still examine. He gives a few examples in the book of larger farms and their success in using the biochar method, then details how backyard gardeners could employ biochar to increase their own yields. The book is loaded with pictures and the layout of pictures and text is professional. A glossary of biochar definitions, a bibliography, and a list of organizations and manufacturers round out the book.The directions on how to dig a conical pit and burn materials to successfully create biochar are detailed, as are the instructions on how to build a TLUD (Top-Lift Up-Draft) stove (I’ve also seen this referred to elsewhere as Top-Lift Updraft gasifiers). Mr. Cox has supplied the most comprehensive steps to building this yourself, and the accompanying pictures are very helpful. The author also supplies different methods to inoculate your homemade biochar, making it ready for your garden.Mr. Cox is cautious with his examples of proof that adding biochar works, notably citing one test that indicated a modest 7% increase in food production. While this eliminated the hype associated with some other books on this topic, it also dampened my enthusiasm. Ultimately, it seems like a lot of work for a single-digit increase in veggies. The book is also much smaller (content-wise) than its listed number of pages. That professional layout with full-color pictures, at the very least, doubles this book in size.Like everything else, though, incorporating homemade biochar into your composting and garden-feeding routines could have a positive impact on the quality of your garden. I personally split enough wood and create enough wood chips each year to give this idea a try. The detailed instructions and helpful pictures are the best I’ve experienced. Four-and-a-half stars.My thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for an advance complimentary ebook.

An excellent book on the subject

I already knew a lot about bio-char before I bought this book, but was pleasantly pleased to find new things to learn in this book. Also glad they covered the pit cook method, as that is my favored method so far, but I scale it up a bit from what is in the book, so you can too!Great little Bio-char book, would recommend for those interested in learning more.

The book is visually great, with lots of interesting information written in a simple yet engaging style. I hope to produce my first batch of biochar in the next month or so!!!

Like I said good book for tool shed, rebuilding carbon content in our gardens soils.

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