Field application of pelletized biochar: Short term effect on the hydrological properties of a silty clay loam soil

The field application of pelletized biochar is seldom employed and its effect on soil hydrological behavior scarcely investigated. Biochar is usually added in powdered or granular form to improve the homogeneity of distribution, meanwhile favoring its interaction with soil matrix. In this paper we evaluated the possibility of applying pelletized biochar as soil conditioner during a single cropping season of a tomato cultivation. For that purpose, the water retention curves (WRCs) were determined three months after the addition of two differently pyrolysed biochars (B1 and B2), at the rate of 14Mgha−1, to a silty clay loam soil prone to compaction. Starting from the WRCs the pore size distribution was determined. The gravimetric water content at both field capacity (FC) and wilting point (WP) was also measured on biochar samples to assess their available water capacity (AWC).