Cool Planet: can biochar fertilize soil and help fight climate change?

Napa Valley grower Eckhard Kaesekamp is very pleased with a certain group of around 20,000 grapevines he has been nurturing. Their yield has been 5% better than what he’d expected. Their root mass is greater than his other vines as well – which means they’ll hold water better. In drought-hit California, that’s gold.

Kaesekamp, whose Knights Grapevine Nursery supplies vines and rootstocks to the region’s wineries, believes these vines did especially well thanks to a soil treatment called CoolTerra – a product made from a carbon-rich substance called “biochar” that is supposed to improve soil fertility and increase water and nutrient retention.