Great Soil

A good garden begins with great soil

In childhood, we believed that dirt, seeds, water, and sunlight would give us a garden. Experienced gardeners know better since nutrients, moisture, and pest control continue to be more challenging. For the better part of the last century, the age of agriculture had suffered the effects of chemical compounds, synthetic proteins, and wasted fertilizers. But now, by reaching well into our past, we finally understand the truth of our agricultural roots. Through intelligent farming and resurrecting practices from centuries ago, we’ve learned the most influential modern methods are the most ancient.

Truly living soil invested with every organic advantage yields bounties beyond expectation—if only we allow the soil to do precisely what it was designed to do and do well. BlueSky Biochar brings millennia of agricultural know-how to bear on the simple basics of soil vitality. Biochar is a clever combination of biological charcoal infused with energetic mycorrhizal, which sets up a crucial subsurface network of reservoirs designed by nature to store and dispense vital moisture and nutrients directly at the root level.

Combined with BlueSky’s invigorating amendments of worm castings and mineral-rich rock dust, your garden’s base becomes a powerhouse of high-octane vitality. Blended with a healthy dose of compost and topped off with moisture-enveloping mulch, you have accomplished a completely contained environment of wholly organic, truly living soil.

Energize your garden’s highest potential with BlueSky’s selection of the finest soil amendments, including biochar, worm castings, mineral rock dust, and nutrients—everything your garden requires for a rich, vibrant base. As we depend on the earth to yield our most basic needs, the earth, too, depends on us to properly utilize and make the most of those resources.

Soil enhancer vs. Fertilizer

Biochar is not a fertilizer; biochar is a soil enhancer! What is the difference? Fertilizers add nutrients to the soil… For some time, there are more nutrients in the soil, but the plants eventually take them up. After some time the nutrient concentration will decrease and you have to fertilize again. This means that fertilizers improve the soil temporarily. Soil enhancers add structure to the soil… When the soil structure changes, the soil properties also change. Examples of how structure affects soil properties are:

More airspaces – Reduces chance of water logging More surface area – Higher water holding capacity More negative charge and higher nutrient holding capacity These structural changes will remain over time. This means that soil enhancers lead to a permanent improvement of the soil. None is better. Fertilizers and soil enhancers have entirely different roles. Fertilizers and soil enhancers complement each other:

Biochar is a fixed carbon structure that improves the soil structure over hundreds of years. It is a soil enhancer and contains no nutrients by itself. One structural change when using biochar is a larger surface area and more negative charge. The soil now has the potential to store more nutrients at the time. To fulfill the nutrient storage potential, nutrients have to be added. This is where fertilizer is needed! What you know as charging is combining a soil enhancer (biochar) with a fertilizer (manure) to get the highest benefit.

Biochar: Increases potential to store nutrients by holding them so they don’t leach out downstream.

Biochar does not replace fertilizer, but its structure can hold nutrients and make fertilizing much more efficient. In the end, this lowers your fertilizer demand! The line between fertilizer and soil enhancer isn’t always this clear. Compost adds nutrients and structure to the soil. It is a fertilizer and soil enhancer. Biochar is a virtual sponge that retains water and nutrients at the root level.

Whether you irrigate a lawn, a garden, or a 50,000-acre farm, historically, the result has been the same—the act of watering actually minimizes and washes away vital nutrients from the soil while the remaining moisture quickly evaporates. Even when we constantly water and feed, our crops and plants rarely reach their full potential.

So why not develop a sort of organic “sponge” to keep nutrients from washing away and hold water just beneath the soil’s surface so that the root system can drink and feed to maximum efficiency? Why not?

Biochar, a Biological Charcoal soil supplement, sets up a naturally organic support system that retains both water and nutrients concentrated at the plant’s root level.

Even the richest soil on our planet has only so much ability to hold onto water and nutrients on its own. But the biochar process requires far less fertilizing and significantly reduced (up to 50% less) watering.