One Yard Revolution: Indoor Biochar Trial: Kale and Collard Results!

I’m now 6 weeks into my indoor biochar trial, and the grow room is bursting at the seams. It’s getting to the point where the plants are too crowded for their own good. Fortunately, it’s warming up enough outside that I can begin the process of transplanting the kale and collard greens into the garden, which will give the tomatoes and peppers the extra room they need.

But before transplanting, I first needed to close out the indoor biochar trial for the kale and collards. We already concluded that biochar had no impact on their germination rates, but I still needed to assess their size. So, this weekend I took a variety of measurements to determine if the data support the hypothesis that adding biochar to a potting mix at a rate of 5 to 10% will result in larger plant growth.

OYR is all about growing a lot of food on a little land using sustainable organic methods, while keeping costs and labor at a minimum. Emphasis is placed on improving soil quality with compost, mulch, and compost tea. No store-bought fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticides, compost activators, etc. are used.