What is Humic Acid
Humic acid is a mixture of natural organic macromolecular compounds, it exists in all soils, plants, and animals. Humic acid ranges in molecular size from 10,000 to 100,000 and contains combinations of carbon chains and carbon rings. (In addition to carbon, they also contain oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and phosphorus.)
Source
One source of the humic acids is the sedimentation layers referred to as Leonardite.
Leonardite is an organic matter, that has not reached the state of coal and differs from soft brown coal by its high oxidation degree, a result of the process of coal formation (bog > peat > coal), and high humic acid content as well as higher carboxyl groups.
Humic Acid Products in the Market
There are various types of humic acid products for sale in the market, including granules, powder, liquid, and formula (Mix with npk, amino acid, seaweed).
From the data on Amazon, we can see that humic acid is contained in many lawn fertilizers.
How Does Humic Acid Work
The application is normally divided into Foliar Spray and Soil Amendment.
For soil amendments: Humic acids can reach the best effect in the soil, they can readily unlock nutrients and bind to them, making them available for uptake into plants. It also can chelate with toxic metals preventing harmful material from entering the plant.
For foliar applications: Humic acids increase the cell wall permeability of plants, which in turn increases the uptake of nutrients. Besides, the respiration, photosynthesis, and cell elongation of the plant can be enhanced.
Humic acid Benefits for Plants
1. Improve the structure of the soil, and prevent high water and nutrient losses in light or sandy soils.
2. Regulates the pH-value of soils.
3. Promote the conversion of nutrient elements into available forms to plants.
4. Stimulate root growth, and enhances better uptake of nutrients.
5. Increases crop quality & yields.
What's more, In addition to these above benefits, its role in plant stress resistance has also received increasing attention. So what is humic acid used for?
1. Plant Drought Stress
Under drought conditions, applying the humic acid fertilizer can promote the increase of proline content in plant leaves thus improving the drought resistance of crops.
2. Plant Salt And Alkali Stress
Humic acid can regulate the change of fructose concentration and alleviate the damage of material membranes under salt stress thus enhancing the salt resistance of the plants.
3. Plant Temperature Stress
Under the tolerance of low-temperature, humic acid can promote the content of the crop's proline and abscisic acid, and reduce the spread of transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, and net photosynthetic rate of plants.
Under the tolerance of high-temperature, humic acid can increase the activities of crop superoxide dismutase and peroxidase to enhance the heat resistance of crops.
4. Plant Diseases Resistance
Humic acid can promote growth by increasing the sugar content and chlorophyll content of leaves, which indirectly improves the disease resistance of crops.
1. Molecular Weight
The molecular weight of Fulvic acid (100-10,000) is much smaller than humic acid (50,000-500,000)
2. Solubility
Humic acids are slightly soluble in water and easily soluble in acetone and benzene-alcohol. Fulvic acids are soluble in water under all pH conditions.
3. Functions
Compared with Humic acid, the most significant advantages of Fulvic acid are:
Fulvic acid has a higher biological activity.
Fulvic acid is a high-efficiency chelating agent. It combines with nutrients in the soil to be absorbed by plants together.
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