>>Biochar is just biomass that has been burned at a high heat with low oxygen.

When that takes place, you're capturing pure carbon, and that carbon is what allows us to hold different types of microbacteria, fertilizers, and even help remediate soil by taking heavy metals out of it.

>>Could you show me how that process works?

>>Absolutely.

What you would need is a piece of charcoal.

>>Okay.

>>This piece of charcoal's too big.

So, the size that you want, if you put this into your soil, this is just gonna take up a lot of space.

What we really want is a size about this size, something that can be spread into the soil and that is gonna create drainage for poor soils.

So if I have clay, I can put this in there.

And even if I want to split this in half, I can split this in half, make more surface area, because this size of biochar has surface area the size of a tennis court.

Because although we cannot see this, if you put a microscope on here, there's gonna be pores all through here, it's a very porous material.

And in those different openings, you'll have the microbiology that finds its way in there, and it's able to stay in there and won't actually be washed away in the soil.

>>Okay.

>>So sometimes in the soil, if you get a heavy rain, you'll have leaching of nutrients and fertilizers.

Well, this will actually help stabilize that and keep those nutrients and fertilizers and microbiology in your soil and not be washed away.

>>And make it readily available for the plants- >>And make- >>To take it up.

Perfect.

>>Exactly, correct.

>>Perfect.

>>Correct, correct.

>>So we have the burnt char.

Now what do we need?

What's the next steps to charge it up?

>>The next step is to put biology- >>Okay.

>>Put life into here.

Because right now it's just pure carbon, that's it.

What I have here is leaf mold.

This is the easiest way and really the most accessible way for everyone to make biochar.

All they need to do is go out into their backyard, and if you don't have a backyard, go to a local park.

Find a secluded spot where there's a tree.

When you pull back that initial layer of leaves, you'll see a white sponginess.

That white sponginess will be mycorrhiza.

That's microbiology in the soil.

What we do is we put that into water.

And when you're putting this in, you don't need much.

There is a lot of microbiology in just a pin drop of the substance we have here, the media we have here.

>>Hmm.

>>So, just putting a handful in a five-gallon bucket like this, microbiology has already been added to the water.

>>Okay.

>>Really, this is all that you need.

But there are other things that you can use, of course.

Here we have dairy cow manure, but you can also use chicken manure, you can use rabbit manure.

>>Okay.

>>All of these items are gonna have microbiology in it, which are full of fungi, protozoa, bacteria, archaea, you know, some of the things I was mentioning earlier.

So, again, you don't need a lot.

For a five-gallon bucket, I just take a handful, sprinkle it in, you've added biology.

>>Perfect.

>>If you wanna supercharge your biochar, a great thing to use is worm castings.

This is some of the best and highest quality manure that you can find.

So now that we have all of our microbial life in a suspended solution such as water, when I add the char, I like to use a strainer.

>>Okay.

>>So you can use cheese cloth, you can use tea bags if you have a big enough tea bag.

But this is just a brew bag.

>>Okay, I can almost use almost any type of bag that allows the liquid to- >>Exactly.

>>Permeate the bag.

>>A sock, even, you can use.

>>Okay.

>>Anything that's permeable.

Now, you can add as much or little of the char as you want.

It's all specifically on what you need.

So we add the charcoal to the water here.

You can just place the bag over top of the bin like this.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>Mush it down.

>>Press it down in there.

>>Stir it in.

>>Okay.

How often do you need to stir it?

>>You need to stir this once a day.

>>For how long?

>>Optimally, you wanna do it for 30 days, minimum seven days.

>>Okay.

>>But the longer that you let it sit and get to that 30 days, the stronger it's gonna be, the more microbial life that's gonna be in the char.

>>So once I've created and then charged my biochar, how long does it last after I've applied it to the soil?

>>That microbial life will be there for hundreds of years.

>>Hundreds of years.

>>Hundreds of years.

>>Wow.

>>Because it's pure carbon, that carbon captures everything and keeps it in there.

>>Okay.

How would I apply it?

Can you show me?

>>Absolutely.

I have some that's been strained off here.

I will take it and spread it on the ground like this.

>>Okay.

So I don't have to think about it has to be an inch thick or whatever- >>Nope.

>>I just really need it to cover the surface of the soil.

>>That's correct, all you need to do is let it cover the surface of the soil right here.

>>Okay.

>>And now, you can do this by dumping a whole bunch in one area and then spreading it out with a rake or you can just, as I am, hand sowing it- >>Okay.

>>By just sprinkling it over top of the soil.

>>What if I just wanna replenish my five-gallon buckets or plant it?

Do I still just layer a light layer of it on top and then just lightly mix it in?

>>If you wanted to add it to just, like, a container, my suggestion would be to mix the soil with the biochar.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>And I wouldn't lay a top layer.

I'd just mix everything in.

Laying this on top here is just if you already have something established.

>>Okay.

>>If you have the ability to till it into the soil so that it's directly in there, that's the best way of doing it.

But for no-till purposes, which I know is very popular these days, would just be adding compost to the top of it.

So that way, your soil is getting the microbiology, and your compost, which already has microbiology in it, will have more microbiology.

>>Can you buy biochar already made?

>>You can.

There are people who produce biochar already made.

The only thing about that biochar is, for the most part, they aren't gonna tell you what they charged it with or even if they did charge it with anything.

It could be just charcoal that you're buying.

>>So, I could just simply go to the store and buy some hardwood charcoal and then charge it myself at home?

>>Absolutely.

What you want is 100% hardwood lump charcoal.

Take that charcoal and crush it.

And that needs to be broken down into quarter- to dollar-size pieces.

>>Okay.

>>Silver dollar-size pieces, yes.

>>Perfect.

Now, biochar is alkaline.

So if we add too much biochar to our soil, basically too much of anything can make it bad for you.

>>Absolutely.

Everything in moderation.

And I would even suggesting before adding biochar to your soil, getting a soil test done- >>Perfect, yes.

>>You getting a soil analysis done to see where the organic content in your soil is.

Because if your organic content is high enough, you might not even need biochar.

>>Okay.

>>But if it's too low and you have minimal organic matter, biochar is gonna help with that.

>>You teach classes or workshops here at Virginia State?

>>Yes, I have workshops here at Virginia State.

At least once a quarter, I do a biochar workshop.

Those are free to the public.

Even if you aren't a farmer, you can come and check out some of our workshops and some of the other cool things that we do.

>>This is good information.

>>Yeah.

>>Thank you for sharing.

>>Absolutely.

>>You know, and I'm looking- >>It was my pleasure.

>>Forward to trying this out and hey, making my soil even healthier.

>>Absolutely.

And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Virginia State University Small Farm Outreach Program.

We're here to help.