Get to Know ARBORChar™
Biochar is an interesting product, whose basic idea has been around for centuries. Lately, biochar has come into a new light and is increasing in popularity as people are becoming more aware of it. Kristin Nikodemski, Arborjet’s Product Marketing Manager, shared her thoughts on the exciting new ARBORChar™ product.
Recycling Trees
Kristin Nikodemski stated, “With ARBORChar™ we are using recycled trees that have already been cut down for various reasons like insect pressure. One of the reasons we are using recycled trees as our carbon material is because it creates a more porous biochar versus other organic materials.
Biochar is made by a process called pyrolysis, a type of thermolysis, which means it burns organic material in an environment with limited or no oxygen. This creates a very porous and negatively charged carbon material. When that is put into the soil what happens is an exchange of nutrients due to the negative charge of the biochar and positive charge of the nutrients. With this enhanced exchange and porosity it is able to hold onto nutrients, microbiology and up to ten times its weight in water. It’s a pretty dynamic material!”
Arborjet’s Original & Highly Beneficial ARBORChar™
This new formula feeds microbe and reduces compaction aiding in root development while improving water retention and reducing nutrient leaching. ARBORChar™ provides complete plant nutrition with a fertilizer for both ornamental and edible plants.
“Biochar by itself can be negatively charged and hold onto nutrients. There needs to be a balance of nitrogen and carbon in the soil, with an imbalance, the char will hold onto everything which prevents the plant from being able to access those nutrients. Our ARBORChar™ has been blended and amended with a balance of nutrients to ensure an exchange where the soil will fully release the nutrients to the plant.” said Nikodemski.
Neutral PH & Minimal Dust
Nikodemski stated, “Biochar on its own can have a very high PH and a high PH in the soil can actually block out nutrients like iron from being available to the plant. Depending on your conditions you might want to add something with a high PH to your soil but generally we wanted to prevent that from being an issue. So what we have done is modified our char to have a neutral PH. That is a nice feature because it can be a big concern for many areas across the country. Unlike most ash or burned material, ARBORChar™ has minimal dust, so it doesn’t have that ashy poufy effect. It is actually very nice in terms of keeping the granular form.”
Do you have any questions about ARBORChar™ or the Horticulture line? Contact us!
