Biochar Sales - Landscapeecology-hawaii.com

Photo by bdiscoe
See also: http://www.biochar-international.org/groups/hawaii and http://web.me.com/josiahhunt/Site/Services_Gallery.html
Current prices Hawaii:
- Wholesale: $350 per yard (27 cubic feet/~200 gallons)
$300 per yard for orders beyond 5 yards
- Retail: $14 per cubic foot bagged and labeled (for retail stores only)
All biochar comes with FREE inoculation of compost tea and/or fish hydrolysate upon request.
Deliveries available on Big Island. Shipments available statewide.
Biochar,
as defined by the International Biochar Initiative, is a fine grained highly porous charcoal substance.
Biochar enhances soils, and has shown amazing results in field trials.. When added to soils, biochar's impressive capacity to retain nutrients and water can reduce fertilizer requirements and increase crop yields. It can also be used with commercial potting mixtures. Unlike most other soil amendments, biochar can persist with very little decay for thousands of years.
“Soil improvements attributed to the addition of biochar include increased moisture retention, improved air permeability, elevated cation exchange capacity, increased buffering of soluble organic carbon, and synergistic interactions with soil microbial populations. “ Hugh Mclaughlin et al. 2009
Some benefits of using biochar include:
- Increased fertilizer efficiency
- Increased microbial activity
- Increased water holding capacity
- Increased cation-exchange capacity
- Moderating of soil acidity
- Greater crop yields
- Effective Carbon sequestration
!!Crop yield increases of 800% have been achieved using biochar in tropical soils that are similar to many found in Hawaii!! (Steiner et. al. 2007)
Terra Preta
Thousands of years ago, in the Amazon Basin, large civilizations did something incredible to their soils that still remains today. These soils are fertile, dark and drastically outcompete their surrounding soils in plant growth trials. The key difference is the presence of charred organic material (biochar). Exactly how it was made and used is still a mystery but it is apparent that these civilizations put large amounts of charred organic material into the soils now known as Terra Preta. To this day Terra Preta soils are valued for their fertility by farmers and sold in stores by the bag.
Global Climate Change
Release of Carbon from fossil fuels into our atmosphere has altered the balance of our planet. In an attempt to avoid disaster, effective and drastic measures may need to be taken. Energy production and agriculture account for a substantial portion of Carbon emissions worldwide, this is where biochar shines. With modern technology, production of biochar can also produce energy, when the biochar is then applied to soil the net effect is carbon negative energy production. Considering the amount of organic material waste streams in agriculture, forestry, and municipal green waste there is a lot that can be done.
Biochar Websites
International Biochar Initiative (IBI) - http://www.biochar-international.org/
Japan Biochar Association - http://www.geocities.jp/yasizato/JBA
biochar-hawaii | Google Groups - http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-hawaii?hl=en
Hawai'i Biochar Notes - http://ahualoa.net/ag/notes_biochar.html
Cornell University | Soil Fertility Management and Soil Biogeochemistry - http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/index.html
Biochar | NSW Department of Primary Industries - http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/topics/biochar

Recommended Biochar Research Articles
(Copy and paste title onto search engine such as Google to find articles)

- Bio-Char Soil Management on Highly Weathered
Soils in the Humid Tropics
Johannes Lehmann1 and Marco Rondon2

- Bio-energy in the black
Johannes Lehmann

- Black Carbon Increases Cation Exchange Capacity in Soils
B. Liang, J. Lehmann,* D. Solomon, J. Kinyangi, J. Grossman, B. O’Neill, J. O. Skjemstad, J. Thies, F. J. Luiza˜o,
J.Petersen, and E. G. Neves

- Long term effects of manure, charcoal and mineral
fertilization on crop production and fertility on a highly
weathered Central Amazonian upland soil
Christoph Steiner · Wenceslau G. Teixeira · Johannes Lehmann ·
Thomas Nehls · Jeferson Luis Vasconcelos de Macêdo ·
Winfried E. H. Blum · Wolfgang Zech

- Mycorrhizal responses to biochar in soil – concepts
and mechanisms
Daniel D. Warnock & Johannes Lehmann &
Thomas W. Kuyper & Matthias C. Rillig

- Bruno Glaser · Johannes Lehmann · Wolfgang Zech
Ameliorating physical and chemical properties
of highly weathered soils in the tropics with charcoal – a review

- All Biochars are Not Created Equal,
and How to Tell Them Apart
Hugh McLaughlin, PhD, PE(1), Paul S. Anderson, PhD(2),
Frank E. Shields(3) and Thomas B. Reed, PhD(4)

- Utilization of symbiotic microorganisms and charcoal for desert greening
Dr. Makoto Ogawa Director Biological Environment Institute
Kansai Environment Engineering Center

- Proliferation effect of aerobic microorganisms during
composting of rice bran by addition of biomass
charcoal
Shuji Yoshizawa, Satoko Tanaka, Michio Ohata,
Meisei University
Shigeru Mineki, Tokyo University of Science