Initial Soil Quality Impacts the Agronomic Performance of Biochar.

The soil application of biochar has been proposed as a means to improve soil fertility, enhance moisture holding capacity, and sequester carbon, however little is known about the comparative performance of the amendment under various soils.  A synthesis of the literature suggests that biochar tends to perform better in degraded soils when compared to fertile soils, but few studies have systematically attempted to address the topic.  Herein we explore how the addition of a commercially available biochar impacts the yield of romaine lettuce as a function of initial % SOM fraction in an artificial soil medium in a greenhouse trial.   Individual 1%, 2%, 4%, 8% and 16% SOM soils were tested with biochar application of 5% and 10%.  The results of the trial will help researchers and land managers better determine the economic return on biochar investment given initial soil conditions.