Dr. Deborah Aller, Agricultural Stewardship & Biochar Specialist

Dr. Aller has been engaged in unique and relevant work in Suffolk County, Long Island examining if biochar can contribute to increasing nutrient availability and soil water retention, and decreasing leaching losses in field and container nursery production. The field experiments were conducted at a privet nursery and a Christmas tree farm in 2019 with another privet nursery to be added in 2020. The hardwood biochar was provided by ARTiChar. The California Privet and Douglas Fir Christmas trees were chosen as they are prone to nutrient management concerns that have yet to be fully addressed by conventional methods. Dr. Aller, her colleague Mina Vescera, and their partnering nursery growers will be monitoring treatment differences via soil moisture and water potential sensors, lysimeter collected leachate samples, and soil, foliar, and roots samples. The project is ongoing, with funding until 2022, and we are looking forward to hearing about the progress. Deborah and us at ARTi are excited to see how the biochar addition contributes to nutrient availability, uptake and soil water retention in nursery crop production.