Biochar (BC) is a carbon rich product resulting
from the biomass pyrolysis process and there have been no
reports until now on BC effects in tissue cultures as a
suitable substitute for activated charcoal (AC). The results
of an experiment on two clones of white poplar (Populus
alba L.) grown in culture media with different amounts of
BC (0, 0.5 and 1.5 g/dm3
) showed that its addition did not
damage the plants and there were no significant differences
comparing the data obtained for the same concentrations
of AC. Both BC and AC addition was shown to increase
root dry biomass and number of roots per shoot and these
effects appeared to be independent of genotype and concentrations
of the added products. A greater elongation was
also recorded for shoots grown on a substrate containing
BC than those grown on media without BC. These effects
did not seem to be caused by darkening due to the addition
of BC as there are no significant differences between
the temperatures of the different culture media, but are