How to use Carbon Bloom biochar?
Our Carbon Bloom biochar can be used in house plants, outdoor bedding plants, fruit and veg, seedlings and just about anywhere! Read on below to see how to use it for different applications.
For light soils biochar is really good for holding on to water where usually it might drain out, leaving your roots dry. For heavy soils, biochar will help with drainage and aeration due to biochar's hard but light and porous structure.
The same principles applies for nutrients too! Biochar will help retain nutrients and water in the root zone, giving the roots everything they need to develop.
House plants
For smaller house plants biochar can generally be mixed in to the whole pot at 10% of the total pot volume. This means if you have a 5L pot you can add around 0.5L of biochar.
For larger house plants you may consider only adding it to the root zone, or the bottom half of the pot at the similar 10% volume rate. Biochar works its magic around the root zone, or rhizosphere.
It's important to give your plants a water and feed when you have implemented biochar.
Outdoor plants
Outdoor plants can be bedding plants and other plants you would plant in your boarders or raised beds. Generally biochar can be applied here by adding it around the root zone of the plant. This can be done by sprinkling in a handful into the hole dug for the plant roots and adding a handful into the infilling soil. Biochar is really good for your hanging baskets, because it will reduce the amount of water and nutrients which just run straight out of the bottom of the basket.
For raised beds biochar can be added into the bottom half at a 10% volume ratio, then just top up the top half with your normal soil/ compost. As mentioned before, biochar does its work around the roots so this is where its needed.
Seedlings and Potting on
For growing from seed biochar is very good for drainage and aeration, as well as keeping the soil moist. You will only need around 7.5% by volume, this means if you have 10L of growing media you can add around 0.75L of biochar (around half of a 1.5L pouch Carbon Bloom biochar).
Important note: If there is no feed in your soil and you use plain biochar, the soil will need a good feed and water when you plant. This will saturate the biochar with nutrients. A example feed is a liquid seaweed feed which you dilute with water. We are soon releasing a preloaded seaweed nutrient packed biochar....