"Hi William...

? What proportion of char did you add to the soil, and what's the soil
like? I'm experimenting with tomatoes (30%char 70% sandy loam), my
controls look like they're catching up, but the ones with char got off
to a better start."


Not having a large, precise scale, I went with volumetric measurements.

For example, the Bintje Potatoes are going like gangbusters with one
scoop of biochar to 27 scoops of compost, mixed in as a layer 6 inches
deep.


That's only 3.7% biochar.


On some of the corn plots I added the biochar as mulch rather than
digging it in. In theory this would take longer to be colonized with
bacteria, but should have also had less nitrogen deficit effects.

Doesn't look that way.


For the Square Foot garden boxes, I used 5 inches of good quality
compost. I may add peat moss next season, as the compost doesn't
retain water as well as I expected.


I have another Biochar plot from last year, that's sandy loam
(emphasis on SAND) mixed with biochar. That was an in-place burn, so
I have no idea of the percentage.


Growth in the sand is definitely slower than in the SFG.

I have Biochar+controls in the sand plots too, but it's too soon to be
sure of anything. The Yukon Gold potatoes, for example, are only
finally coming up.

Crazy weather here. Hot as blazes for a week in June, and now it's
Spring again. It's about 73 degrees Fahrenheit on the 3rd of July !

At least the Snap Peas seem to like it.

The summation is odd: Tomatoes don't mind, Potatoes don't mind,
Peppers were somewhat stunted.

And they're all the same family. Go Figure.

My only conclusion is that I need to add the biochar to a compost
pile before using: presoaking in Compost Tea didn't help much.