Guide to Making and Using Biochar for Gardens in Southern Arizona

Abstract

Biochar is actually just charcoal or black carbon, made from the incomplete combustion of wood or other biomass products. With growing interests in “green” and “carbon-negative” materials, biochar commonly refers to charcoal made from organic wastes such as tree trimmings, scrap wood, and plant material left from agricultural harvests. Like a campfire, wood biomass will burn without any other external fuels or energy. Since burning wood does not add fossil carbon to the atmosphere, burning wood or making biochar is a carbon-negative process.