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  • From: Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: humic acids
  • Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 12:58:30 -0500


Victoria,

Sorry not to get back to you sooner- the Southern SAWG conference was held
here
(Chattanooga area) this weekend and I was busy. (Understatement!)

Your question about compost being humic substances or particulate organic
matter:
The answer is yes, depending. (Don't you just hate qualified statements?!!)
"Finished"
compost contains both. The darker it is, the more stable humates. However,
you don't
want to leave it until it is completely black. The idea is to add "hot"
compost
products after a certain amount of thermophilic decomposition, leaving some
food for the
soil micro-organisms.

By "fast" & "slow" I assume you mean hot & cold composting. Hot (bacterial)
composting
makes food for bacteria and encourages a bacterially dominated soil ecosystem
when
added. Cold composting uses less N in the mix and is a fungal decomposition,
encouraging a fungally dominated soil ecosystem. The hot or bacterial
decomposition
produces more humates faster than cold.

To get back to your question, humates can be added from local plant sources
after
decomposition- free and readily available. Purchased humates get us into the
same
mindset as buying nitrogen fertilizers when the atmosphere over our farms,
lawns and
gardens is over 70% nitrogen- free and readily available. Though these
humates may feed
the soil life and may be a short term answer, we need to start cycling local
materials
for true sustainability and plant/soil/land/animal/human health.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm


"Victoria M. Bhavsar" wrote:

> Hi Alex,
> Thanks for your info...I had not thought to look at Foodweb. There are
> products on the market that come from Leonardite shale; you spray them on
> and they are supposed to be miraculous. That sort of thing was what I was
> curious about, I should have been more specific. Now, is compost
> considered humic substances or would it be more considered particulate
> organic matter? Obviously it's a mixture but is the main proportion HS or
> POM? Or would it actually depend upon the composting process (e.g.,
> fast=POM slow=HS because of the microbial colonies available?)
> Thanks,
> Victoria
>
> At 11:51 AM 01/18/2001 -0500, you wrote:
> >Victoria,
> >
> >I don't buy humic acids, I "make" them through composting. But Here's
> some info on them
> >from Elaine Ingham's Soil Foodweb web site:
> *************************************
> Victoria M. Bhavsar
> Dept. of Agronomy
> N106R Ag. Sci. North, UK
> Lexington, KY 40546-0091
> 606/257-2103
> ...But other seed fell into good soil and brought
> forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
> some thirtyfold... St. Matthew 13:8
> *************************************
>
> ---
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  • humic acids, Victoria M. Bhavsar, 01/17/2001
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: humic acids, Alex McGregor, 01/18/2001
    • Re: humic acids, Victoria M. Bhavsar, 01/18/2001
    • Re: humic acids, Alex McGregor, 01/23/2001

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