As we travel the country lecturing about Biological Soil Management one of the most common questions asked at our meetings is on the topic of humic acids. When classes are asked “what are humic acids,” one of the most common carbon inputs in turf fertility products today, few can give much detail as to why they are so common and what they do for our soil programs. In an early EarthWorks Podcast we interviewed our chemist, Mr. Lawrence Mayhew, who is a world renowned expert about what he refers to as humic substances. Humic acids were the original “snake oil” when we started EarthWorks back in the late 1980’s but today there are few fertilizer companies that are not incorporating some form of humate in their products. In this podcast Lawrence helps explain what a humic substance really is, and talks about the many materials that are not humic substances at all but are being sold as humic acids. A good example is a manufacturer that describes their humic acids as being derived from humus! You would need a mountain of humus to get a few drops of humic acid. They are not food sources for microbes, but instead a complete finished carbon material. They are structural in nature and provide soil microbes a housing environment, protection from soil elements, and are a very important part of the Biological Soil Management process.

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