Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[BT Benjaminson <btbenj@netvision.net.il>]

Patricia
Besides what you see in finished compost, I think humus in the soil is the 
stuff that makes soil a little sticky even if the soil is made larger grain 
sizes than clay.

Here's my question to the list
I think that stickiness is one of the properties that keep nutrients from 
leaching out but still makes them chemically available to plant roots. My 
limited understanding of this process is that the plant nutrients are in the 
form of ions that carry electrical charges. These ions are weakly bonded to 
the surface of a microscopic clump of humus. Plant roots capture and take in 
the nutrients they need from the humus surface. The plant root hair puts out 
an ion that bonds more strongly to the nutrient than the bond it had onto 
the humus clump. The root hair ion captures the heart of the nutrient ion, 
if you will, and somehow (mysteriously to me) draws it in to the root like a 
bride going to her new home.

Please, anyone out there, can you correct and amplify on this? I've been 
carrying around this (almost certainly flawed) understanding for years and 
I'd just love to know more about it at a level I can understand.

Bat-Tzion
Negev, Israel


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patricia Ruggiero" <ruggierop@earthlink.net>
To: "'Healthy soil and sustainable growing'" 
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 8:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Humus - Understanding the Soil Processes


> Marty wrote:
> > How can I visually identify humus in my garden, compost piles or wooded
> area? I thought it was that rich black looking stuff after compost breaks
> down. I'm not so sure now.
>
>
> That's what I think it is.  I will be interested to learn more.
>
> Pat