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RES: [compost_tea] Humic Acid



Yes. Growing and making your own Humic and Fulvic acids is ideal.

Raw Leonardite ( Oxidized Lignite ) is rather cheap and

can be composted to make that two group of acids soluble

and therefore available. That could be a cheap alternative. To

add a few hundred of Lbs ( depending on your compost pile

size ) of raw lignite to your compost pile can actually release

those two group of acids from the carbonaceous matrix.

You will get also the benefit of having lots of Ulmin in that material

which works better in the soil.

And, yes we need the Humic acid industry regardless the hype.

I believe that they do more good than harm to the agriculture.

 

jose

 

 

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Hi Jose -

I agree with your assessment about the hype involved with the humic acid industry.  But they provide a service to people who want to buy their humic acid material, or need to build up their fungal biomass so they can start making their own humics.  So, test several products and see which one works best for you. 

Ultimately, I would like to see folks extracting their own humic acid from their own compost.  Fungi in thermal compost or worm compost make fulvic and humic materials, and these can be extracted and applied easily.  However, no fungi, no decent humic material produced.

Simply moving water (simple water extraction or leaching) through compost or worm compost fails to extract THE ORGANISMS and only pulls out SOME of the soluble nutrients. 

To do a good job of pulling out the whole range of humics, fulvics, and soluble nutrients requires the mixing action in a GOOD compost tea machine.  You have to get the bubbles moving through the compost.  The Soil Soup or Growing Solutions machines, for example, do not provide this mixing action, especially given the directions they provide to people who buy their machines. 

Aerobic compost tea gives you a high percentage of the soluble nutrients AND the organisms.  That's why the aeration has to be pretty serious, to get the organisms and the soluble nutrients into solution,  Tea then increases the populations of beneficial organisms by maintaining conditions that allows many of the BENEFICIAL organisms to grow to high numbers. 

For example, LASE and Blend, made by Huma-Gro (dealers I have worked with for a long time, but not particularly much recently in Pascoe, WA), have a base of leonardite, but then they basically compost the material, extract the humics, concentrate them, and bottle it.  These products can be very beneficial, if you have at least a minimal fungal inoculum in the soil.    

So, grow your own humics in your compost, whatever kind of compost you want to use.  Then use a good compost tea machine to extract the organisms and the nutrients.  Applied to your plants in appropriate amounts, at appropriate times, without killing the life you have in your soil, you should be able to grow great, not-stressed plants.

Elaine

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