Epic pie cherry harvest with biochar

We couldn't believe how full the tree was with cherries.  It had also grown every year since I put biochar in the dripline of the tree. Earlier, it had plateaued at a standard size.  This year, all the new growth grew lots of beautiful cherries!  I couldn't believe how long I was out there in different ladders.  Now the tree extends all the way above the shed roof and extends most of the way up it.   I save some to eat with pits in, but we save some that are pitted for desserts, like, say, pies.  When my wife got super tired of pitting the cherries, and I did too, we gave some to the neighbors.  When they tasted them, many said, "But I thought that pie cherries were sour.  These are really good!" I have grown pie cherries for decades, but nothing has made a difference like properly made biochar.  Some people have noted elsewhere in the biochar forum that when produce is grown in a soil that is more rich with minerals, the flavor improves.  I think that is what is going on.

John S
PDX OR

That's awesome! Making the world better with pie. I believe it.

Interesting, thanks John.  

Can you tell us how you did it?  Just spread it on the surface or worked it into the soil?

How much did you use?  

What is the theory/mechanism as to how bio char stimulated cherry production?

It's pretty much all through the biochar forum, but I can summarize.

After I burn the biochar, I crush it by driving over it between two panels of plywood.  Then I inoculate it with nutritious stuff, which is required if you want it to work for the next two years.  There are many possible nutrients to use, but I mix in whole wheat flour, rotten wood mycelium, worm castings, compost, rotten fruit, crushed oyster shells and urine. I drench it every day with the mixture for two weeks.  It doesn't smell that great, but the trees love it!

I dig it in one spade deep, or 9 inches or so, jimmying it back and forth to make a crevasse, which I fill with biochar at the drip line of each tree.  

John S
PDX OR

I guess I didn't answer the theory/mechanism.

Biochar is hotels for microbes. Here in the PNWet, we get steady drizzle from November through April. High amounts of rain wash out minerals from the soil, which therefore stops a lot of the crucial biochemical reactions that are supposed to be happening in the soil. I think that's why most of the places on earth where biochar-like formations have been discovered have been in high rainfall areas.   After the discovery of Terra Preta, many scientists, such as our very own Dr. Bryant Redhawk, have discovered a pattern of burning organic material intentionally in indigenous communities worldwide.  The idea is that the biochar is a place where minerals, microbes, mycelium and all the necessary elements of high quality soil can come together with the tree exudates to foster the kind of soil food web that generates true natural nutrition and resilience in the top soil.  All of the elements of the ecology can work together harmoniously when no one is spraying pesticides, tilling, or doing other things that stop nature from providing nourishing nutrients to the life forms.

John S
PDX OR