Influence of biochar in seed germination and growth rate (part 1)
Biochars affects seed germination and fast growth of seedlings Biochar has been reported to both increase (Chan et al. 2008; Yamato et al. 2006) and decrease (Deenik et al. 2010) plant growth and yield but there have been few studies reporting the influence of biochar on early stages of plant growth such as on seed germination and seedling growth. The stimulation or inhibition of seed germination due to biochar application has mostly been investigated for forest plants (Choi et al. 2009; Pierce and Moll 1994; Reyes and Casal 2006; Tian et al. 2007). For agricultural plants,activated charcoal (steam treated) enhanced seed germination of potato (Bamberg et al. 1986) while Van Zwieten et al. (2010) showed that wheat seed germination was increased with a single dose (10 t/ha) of paper mill biochar. In contrast, Free et al. (2010) reported that maize seed germination and early growth were not significantly affected by biochars made from a range of o...