11 Hot Tips to Profit from Humates
Humates are the most exciting yield building, profit boosting tool available in crop production and if you have yet to discover their multiple benefits, it’s time to realise their potential. Trial a small area and you will become a humate convert. We are yet to experience a grower who has not been impressed with the humate response. Often the level of success is based upon how this tool is utilised. Here are some tips to help maximise humate benefits:
1) Young plants are more responsive to both humic and fulvic acid.
Younger tissues have more active transport mechanisms to move nutrients to sites of metabolic activity. Foliar application is most successful is this context.
2) Humates are excellent brix-builders.
Enhanced carbohydrate production can be detected with a refractometer within 24 – 48 hours (increased quality and yield).
3) A combination of humic and fulvic acid
has been shown to be most effective for promoting root growth.
4) It may take up to three applications of soluble humates
to achieve sufficient concentration in the roots to allow 20 – 30% of the humic acid to be transported up to the shoots and leaves i.e. you will always see root growth before shoot growth when top dressing humates.
5) Humic acid in small amounts has been shown to “structure water”.
The water molecules become more organised and arranged like fragments of ice structure. The water gains the desirable properties of “melted water” improving plant nutrition (Masaru Emoto).
6) Humates can be used to lower nitrate levels or prevent the accumulation of nitrate in plants with obvious stock health benefits.
In this situation humates also increase potassium uptake which is normally inhibited by excess nitrates.
Recipe for Nitrate Reduction
- 2% Magnesium sufate (2 kg per 100 L)
- 150 grams of Sodium Molybdate
- 150 grams NTS Fulvic Acid Powder™
7) If carbon sequestration is to be a new income stream in agriculture, then humates are a major tool.
Humates are the most profound promotant of the creatures that build stable carbon in the soil (cellulose digesting fungi).
8) Don’t discard the insoluble sludge.
When dissolving NTS Soluble Humate Granules™, don't discard the insoluble sludge (15%), as it is the sponge-like, mineral-dense humin fraction which is an excellent fertility builder.
9) Humic acid is a powerhouse tool for drought resistance.
The large surface area and internal electrical charges help hold water in the root zone. Humates serve as sponges which can hold 7 times their volume in water. That stored water also facilitates nutrient transfer.
10) The combination of humic acid
with liquid lime, dolomite or guano, liberates CO2 from calcium carbonate boosting photosynthesis.
11) Fulvic acid is proving a potent input
to seriously stimulate clover growth in pasture to improve the legume to grass ratio.