I know this sounds dumb, Butterflyman, but what is natural charcoal? Pieces of burned wood from a fire somewhere? Do you burn your own? We have a fire area where we burn sticks, crumbling old logs, etc., but they burn down to ashes.
I just mix a few hands full of chicken manure in with the natural soil if the area where I'm planting something has good soil, like in my garden or certain areas of my property with a thick layer of good, black top soil.
There are many areas of my property where the clay layer is on the surface. When I plant something there, I dig a bigger hole, especially wider, than I need to to accommodate the plant. Then I mix "saved soil" plus chicken manure into the hole, put in the plant, and continue to back fill with "saved soil" and clay from the hole that's crumbly and can be mixed in.
My "saved soil" is soil I save after I've planted a plant in a good soil area and get leftover dirt - this happen, of course, because my plants are all in containers with plenty of soil, and all this takes up space. I keep this extra soil in containers in my garage, and it looks like heaven to me when I'm planting something in that orange clay. I move the orange clay to holes, deep indentions on the property - there are plenty of them here!
Sherry

I don't have a recipe for my hard red clay but I do have a list of 'must have' ingredients. My favorite of all are plain bark fines, often sold as soil conditioner in the big box stores. I also have a free source for aged, composted wood chips. I don't use regular fertilizers (chemical based) for my gardens.

I never use peat moss. The bark fines add the same physical properties of the charcoal, by the way. Without the hassle. I'm not aware of any other benefits; can you share your thoughts on that?

It's worth mentioning that clay soils can be wonderfully productive, without a whole lot of amending. That red color means that there's oxygen in the soil, clay or not! I never recommend amending the soil hole-by-hole, but only in preparation of an entire planting area. I was 'skeered' of the clay when I first moved here a few years ago, but have come to love it.

If I had access to manure and good compost, I would top dress my beds on an annual basis with that good stuff. But those composted wood chips are doing a pretty good job of improving the soil, once the worms and other critters get it all worked in.

I always have a 50 pound bag of Turface on hand, but not for the gardens. It's a primary component in my potting mixes, along with the bark fines, and a dash of a few other ingredients. ;-)

I would say I'm very impressed with Turface MVP as an additive for a container soil mix. I've never considered it as something to use in the ground. I would thing organics like lots and lots of compost would be much better.

randy

{{gwi:468069}}
Here's the charcoal I use - it's just wood - no additives and chemicals.

I use it because of an NPR show which talked about it's benefits. The link below not only has audio, but also has links to written articles. I even did a small test last year and the charcoal soil seemed to do better than the regular soil.

Here is a link that might be useful: NPR- Charcoal for Soil

That's interesting! Now that I've read your link, I remember seeing a program about ancient people in the Amazonian rain forest making their soil suitable for agriculture by adding charcoal.
I'll have to get some, and add it to the chicken manure after I've pulverized it.
Sherry