Improving crop productivity in central Labrador's sandy soil with charcoal

Most people associate charcoal with cooking food over a barbecue not growing it.

But for the past five years, Memorial University'sLabrador Institute has been experimenting with a special type of charcoal.

Biocharis being tested to see if it can improve crop productivity in the sandy soil of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Sofar, the tests at a local experimentalfield have shown good results.

"In our case, I have seen that it improves the soil pH, reduces the acidity of the soil. In Goose Bay soil, it is mostly acidic," soil scientistJoinalAbedin toldCBCRadio'sLabrador Morning.

"So biochar can improve or increase the soil pHso that you might not need extra lime. And another thing, it improves the soil physical conditions or the holding capacity,because sandy soil can't hold water much."

What exactly is biochar?

In collaboration with local farmers, Abedinhas been testing biocharin Labrador since 2012to determine whether adding charcoal tosandy soil couldmake it more productive.

Albedinsays biochar iscloser to charcoal in its formulation. 'Bio' is from the word biomass, and 'char' from the word charcoal, combiningtogether to create theword. Ash and charcoal have been used for millennia to improve fields and gardens.

This year,Abedindecided to test the growth of wheat with and without biochar.

In one field, he used traditional fertilizers such as fish meal in one section, and in another, biochar with standard fertilizer.

It improves the soil physical conditions or the holding capacity,because sandy soil can't hold water much.- JoinalAbedin

The results were considerably different.

"Visually you can see that this plot is better than this plot that means that biochar helped," he said."The plants are greener here. They're taller."

Abedinhad previously grown beets with biochar for several years, with similarly positive results.

"Biochar helped in increasing productivity with the wheat crop, and it was the same thing with the beet," Albedin said.

"I had five years of data that also shows biochar helped in increasing with the production ofbeet. And also in terms of nutrients; I have seen calcium, magnesium, potassium content in the soil increased with biochar treatment."

With files from Jonny Hodder and Labrador Morning

Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador