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Gardeners are continually seeking to improve their soil and their produce. One easy material that has been used in to garden for many years is charcoal. You hear of two principal varieties—horticultural charcoal and activated charcoal. Though they sound like they must be the same, they each have unique characteristics to make your garden thrive. Horticultural charcoal functions extremely well to enhance soil texture, while activated charcoal for gardens has some powerful other advantages that can be useful, particularly if your soil has already been chemically treated.

Let's begin with horticultural charcoal. This one is made when wood is burned at low heat, and it's not altered after that. It will be soft to the touch and lacks lots of open pores like activated charcoal. While it's in no way porous, horticultural charcoal still provides space for roots to breathe and expand. It aids drainage and air circulation, and those two are two very significant things to consider when your plants stay healthy. Some gardeners believe it even inhibits fungi in soil. But keep in mind that it makes soil alkaline. That's okay when you're cultivating plants that prefer alkaline soil, but when your plants prefer neutral or acidic soil, horticultural charcoal may not be such a good idea.

Now let's discuss activated charcoal in the garden. You may be familiar with this as something that they use in medicine for poisoning or stomach issues. But did you know that it can be beneficial to your garden too? Activated charcoal is created by heating charcoal to very high temperatures with the addition of oxygen. It makes it develop millions of tiny holes, so it is extremely porous. This is wonderful for absorbing things—such as toxins or excess water in your soil. For gardeners, this is wonderful because it can be used for drainage, particularly in pots, and can even trap and slowly release fertilizers, extending their shelf-life.

There's more. Activated charcoal in gardening can improve the soil if it's been treated with pesticides or nasty chemicals. If you move into a new house and don't know what type of treatments the previous owner used in the garden, it can be a worry if you want to plant your own vegetables or herbs. This is where activated charcoal comes in. Because of its strong ability to absorb, it can actually draw chemicals like pesticides out of the soil. It holds on to them and stops them from traveling deeper into the soil or local water sources. It does this much the same way it does when it's used to cure poisoning in the human body.

Activated charcoal is best beneficial for gardening since it's negatively charged. This allows it to attract positively charged toxins and retain them. When you put it into the ground, it serves to create a cleaner environment for plants to develop, free from the previous chemicals that may be left behind. If you believe your soil was previously treated, activated charcoal may be able to flush it out and provide your garden with a fresh start.

So, how do you apply it? For tiny garden beds, you can combine one pound of activated charcoal soil powder with one gallon of water. This treatment will cover roughly 150 square feet. You can sprinkle it onto your garden from a watering can and then rake or shovel it into the top six inches of soil. If you have to treat a big area, you may use a sprayer rather than a watering can. Either method can help the soil and minimize the damage caused by past pesticide use.

Both horticultural charcoal and activated charcoal are wonderful, but it depends on what your garden requires. If you want to increase water and air movement through the soil and root growth, horticultural charcoal may be perfect. But if you want something more potent to pull out toxins or more drainage and nutrient management in containers or beds, activated charcoal is the way to go. It provides your plants with a second line of defense and healing that can benefit them in the long run. Ultimately, understanding the difference between these two forms of charcoal can be a huge distinction in your garden. Choosing the right one for what your soil requires can make your plants grow healthier, your flowers bloom more vibrantly, and your vegetables taste better. Whether you're gardening in your yard, cultivating herbs in pots on your balcony, or planting a new garden from seeds, charcoal—particularly activated charcoal—could be the magic ingredient you're missing.

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