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According to Wikipedia, in classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Latin word for "earth" or "ground".
Humus has a characteristic black or dark brown color and is an accumulation of organic carbon. Besides the three major soil horizons of (A) surface/topsoil, (B) subsoil, and(C) substratum, some soils have an organic horizon (O) on the very surface. Hard bedrock (R) is not in a strict sense soil.
In agriculture , "humus" sometimes also is used to describe mature or natural compost extracted from a woodland or other spontaneous source for use as a soil conditioner. It is also used to describe a topsoil horizon that contains organic matter (humus type, humus form, or humus profile).
Humus has many nutrients that improve the health of soil, nitrogen being the most important. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C:N) of humus commonly ranges between 8:1 and 15:1 with the median being about 12:1. It also significantly affects the bulk density of soil. Humus is amorphous and lacks the cellular structure characteristic of plants, microorganisms or animals.
Our team has developed an innovative process for producing our clean, regenerative, ultra-pure, highly-concentrated, humus-based soil conditioner utilizing oxidized lignite coal. SoilPoint Soil Booster provides:
The importance of chemically stable humus is thought by some to be the fertility it provides to soils in both a physical and chemical sense, though some agricultural experts put a greater focus on other features, such as its ability to suppress disease. It helps the soil retain moisture by increasing microporosity and encourages the formation of good soil structure. The incorporation of oxygen into large organic molecular assemblages generates many active, negatively charged sites that bind to positively charged ions (cations) of plant nutrients , making them more available to the plant by way of ion exchange. Humus allows soil organisms to feed and reproduce and is often described as the "life-force" of the soil.
Our soil booster is a humus-based, effective
substitute for traditional chemical components. It restores and conditions depleted soils, and is
approved by OMRI and the UK Soil Association for use in organic farming. Humic and fulvic also optimize soil conditions for greater root mass, and the conversion of applied nutrients to plant available forms, thereby allowing use of soil that would otherwise be low-producing or non-arable.
SoilPoint has a concentration of up to 50-70%
humic and up to 5% fulvic. Our production
process grinds the particles down to a microscopic dust particle, allowing it to retain all
the natural minerals and vitamins contained in
the raw material. The particles are small enough
to effectively flow through irrigation systems,
trailered drums, or backpack sprayers. We also
produce a granular type adequate for hand or machine broadcast.
Soil Restoring Ingredients
Humic acid.........................................50-70%
Fulvic acid......................................................5%
Other Natural Ingredients.................25%
TOTAL.....................................................100%
Typical nutrient and micronutrient content may contain up to:
Total Nitrogen (N) 0.7%, Available Phosphate (P2O5) 0.1%, Soluble
Potash (K2O) 5.3%, Calcium (CaO) 0.5%, Magnesium (NgO) 0.2%,
Sodium (NaO) 0.7%, Sulfur (SO3) 0.2%, Iron (Fe) 0.8%, Copper (Cu) 0.1%,
Boron (B) 0.1%.
May contain up to 1% of the following: Calcium (CaO) 0.5%, Magnesium
(NgO) 0.2%, Sodium (NaO) 0.7%, Sulfur (SO3) 0.2%, Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn),
Manganese (Mn), Copper (Cu), Boron (B).
For U.K.: Also with Boron (B), Copper (Cu), and Iron (Fe).
The primary materials needed for the process of humification are plant materials. The composition of humus varies dependent on the composition of the primary materials and the secondary microbial and animal products. The decomposition rate of the different compounds will affect the composition of the humus.
It is difficult to define humus precisely because it is a very complex substance which is not fully understood. Humus is different from decomposing soil organic matter. The latter looks rough and has visible remains of the original plant or animal matter. Fully humified humus, on the contrary, has a uniformly dark, spongy, and jelly-like appearance, and is
amorphous; it may gradually decay over several years or persist for millennia. It has no determinate shape, structure, or quality. However, when examined under a microscope, humus may reveal tiny plant, animal, or microbial remains that have been mechanically, but not chemically, degraded. This suggests an ambiguous boundary between humus and soil organic matter. While distinct, humus is an integral part of soil organic matter.
Microorganisms decompose a large portion of the soil organic matter into inorganic minerals that the roots of plants canabsorb as nutrients. This process is termed "mineralization". In this process, nitrogen (nitrogen cycle) and the other
nutrients (nutrient cycle) in the decomposed organic matter are recycled. Depending on the conditions in which the decomposition occurs, a fraction of the organic matter does not mineralize and instead is transformed by a process called "humification". Prior to modern analytical methods, early evidence led scientists to believe that humification resulted in concatenations of organic polymer resistant to the action of microorganisms, however recent research has demonstrated that microorganisms are capable of digesting humus.
Humification can occur naturally in soil or artificially in the production of compost. Organic matter is humified by a combination of saprotrophic fungi, bacteria, microbes and animals such as earthworms, nematodes, protozoa, and arthropods. Plant remains, including those that animals digested and excreted, contain organic compounds: sugars,
starches, proteins, carbohydrates, lignins, waxes, resins, and organic acids. Decay in the soil begins with the decomposition of sugars and starches from carbohydrates, which decompose easily as detritivores initially invade the
dead plant organs, while the remaining cellulose and lignin decompose more slowly. Simple proteins, organic acids, starches, and sugars decompose rapidly, while crude proteins, fats, waxes, and resins remain relatively unchanged for longer periods of time.
Lignin, which is quickly transformed by white-rot fungi, is one of the primary precursors of humus, together with by-products of microbial and animal activity. The humus produced by humification is thus a mixture of compounds and complex biological chemicals of plant, animal, or microbial origin that has many functions and benefits in soil. Some judge earthworm humus (vermicompost) to be the optimal organic manure.
Humus has a characteristic black or dark
brown color and is organic due to an
accumulation of organic carbon. Soil
scientists use the capital letters O, A, B, C,
and E to identify the master horizons, and
lowercase letters for distinctions of these
horizons. Most soils have three major
horizons: the surface horizon (A), the
subsoil (B), and the substratum (C). Some
soils have an organic horizon (O) on the
surface, but this horizon can also be
buried. The master horizon (E) is used for
subsurface horizons that have significantly
lost minerals (eluviation). Bedrock, which
is not soil, uses the letter R.
Much of the humus in most soils has persisted for more than 100 years, rather than having been decomposed into CO2, and can be regarded as stable; this organic matter has been protected from decomposition by microbial or enzyme action because it is hidden (occluded) inside small aggregates of soil particles, or tightly sorbed or complexed to clays. Most humus that is not protected in this way is decomposed within 10 years and can be regarded as less stable or more labile.
A very stable form of humus is formed from the slow oxidation (redox) of soil carbon after the incorporation of finely powdered charcoal into the topsoil. This process is speculated to have been important in the formation of the unusually fertile Amazonian “terra preta do Indio”. However, recent work suggests that complex soil organic molecules may be much less stable than previously thought: “the available evidence does not support the formation of large-molecular-size and persistent ‘humic substances’ in soils. Instead, soil organic matter is a continuum of progressively decomposing organic compounds.′′
SoilPoint's Soil Booster enhances carbon sequestration both in the soil and above ground biomass, effectively reversing the trend of rising atmospheric greenhouse gases.
By adopting SoilPoint's innovative farm management practices, farmers can generate carbon credits while improving soil health and sustainability.