Humate Fertilizers in general
The use of humate fertilizers is expected to revolutionize the horticultural industry by enabling to tackle the main challenges the sector is currently facing, including stagnant efficiency, environmental unsustainability and constantly increasing costs. In addition to faster growth of the plants, the advantages of using humate fertilizers in agricultural industry include reduced labor costs, reduced waste (contaminated water) generation, reduced health and safety risks, and environmental friendliness, providing opportunities for more sustainable and affordable farming.
The use of humate fertilizers allow to increase the productivity of crop averagely 20-40%. Humate fertilizers can be especially useful for agricultural use in extreme conditions, i.e. areas with high temperature and low moisture level. We are able to introduce special fertilizers or substrates for any plant group.
Efficiency of Humate Fertilizers
Soluble humates are the most important component of fertile soil. Humates are naturally produced by bacteria, but intensive farming results in soil erosion, accompanied with the decrease of soil humus and subsequently need for extra organic fertilizers. In case of lack of humates the soil loses its ability to bind water and plant nutrients that causes disability to provide the plants their essential growth medium.
In presence of soluble humates in soil, the root system develops more rapidly, and special ferments form to improve the plants’ resistance to unfavorable conditions, such as drought and frost. These ferments also assist the process of nitrogen assimilability that does not lead to the formation of nitrates. At the same time, the synthesis of chlorophyll, sugars, vitamins, essential amino-acids, and oils accelerates. The second process is the increase in nutrient penetrability across the cell membrane, which accelerates the respiration of the plants. It is important to point out that this process is rather selective. For example, the penetration of potassium ions increases by hundred times.
A particularly large number of processes can be observed in system humate-soil. The humic acids are a natural complexing agent. All essential microelements, being the variable-valence metals, form chelate complexes with the humates. This is a determinant for plants’ nourishment. Another important feature of the humates is their ability to bond Fe2+/3+ and Al3+ ions into complexes, since excess amount of those in soil results in poor phosphorus uptake by the plants. Iron forms soluble humate complexes, which ensure its transportation to the plants, while Al3+ creates insoluble compounds with the humates, which prevents aluminum from forming insoluble phosphates. Humates likewise neutralize the negative effects of the residual amounts of pesticides. It ensures the product’s good agricultural productivity and ecological purity.
When humic acids interact with multivalent metals, such as iron, zinc, copper and others, they form new type of compounds, called chelates. Additionally to usual valent connections they form coordination bonds. The chelates of polyvalent metals can under particular circumstances be soluble in water, whilst in their usual condition they are insoluble. On one hand we can provide plants necessary metals: iron, copper, zinc, boron, magnesium, molybdenum and cobalt in their soluble forms, on the other we can simultaneously protect plants against harmful elements like mercury, lead, cadmium, radionuclides and etc. by converting them into insoluble forms.
The colloidal structure of the humic acid and the high level of hydrophilicity of terminal functional groups give them the ability to gelatinize. That is how many researchers explain the increase in soil water retention after the humate treatment. This is particularly important for drought-afflicted regions. Another important feature of humates is their ability to decrease the level of nitrate nitrogen in produce. It was proven by tests on a variety of crops (oats, corn, potatoes, root-crops, lettuce, cucumbers) that the use of humate decreases the nitrate content by 50% on an average.
In Conclusion
Although the concept of the importance of humates has been hovering around for some time now, the actual use of humate fertilizers and its adaption into the horticultural industry has started to become a reality only recently. In addition to faster plant growth, the advantages of using humate fertilizers in agricultural industry include also reduced labor costs, reduced waste (contaminated water) generation, reduced health and safety risks, and environmental friendliness, providing opportunities for more sustainable and affordable farming.
Nowadays the humates are mainly produced chemically from different coal types, and the process creates large amount of residues. The humates are quite expensive and therefore the use of them is currently limited. Our products are produced of peat, using special technology and only natural products as the raw material. The conversion of natural humic acids into their salts is provides using ammonia present in poultry manure what sharply increases (over hundred times) their biological activity. The process has zero residues.
Thus, using TURPS gives You a faster growth of plants, increase of crop yield and a reliable protection for plants and crops against harmful admixtures from our environment (soil, subsoil waters, rain-water, and the atmosphere), that gets more and more polluted each day. It also protects crops against unfavorable environmental factors (drought, etc.).