Even a novice gardener knows that it is impossible to get a rich harvest without fertilizers. Especially when it comes to long-cultivated soil, which can no longer live without constant nutrition.
There are many proponents of both organic and mineral fertilizers. You can be an adherent of any method, but many still agree that natural plant supplements are most often more beneficial. At least due to the fact that they completely decompose in the soil. One such fertilizer is potassium humate. In this article, we will look at how to use it.
What is all this?
Humate has been loved by our gardeners and gardeners for a very long time. It is easy to use, and the effect of using this natural supplement is extremely good and noticeable even to the naked eye.
Get it from completely natural natural ingredients. Potassium humate is produced from the remains of vegetation; extracts from peat, manure or even lake silt are also used for this. In some cases, lignite is used as raw material. The natural components of humate have a pronouncedstimulating action. So, with the preliminary soaking of seeds, the degree of their germination sharply increases. If cuttings are processed with it, then the chances of their rooting increase significantly.
Fertilizer is equally useful for flowers and vegetables, fruit trees and potted plants. Simply put, it is universal. Contains a lot of potassium, phosphorus and other trace elements. But potassium humate is richest in humic acids. It is their action that helps to get really clean products in the face of ever-increasing environmental pollution.
Does it suit all crops so well?
Experienced gardeners know that truly universal fertilizers do not exist. So is this remedy as good as we have just talked about it? We will assure you right away: today there are no such crops that would react negatively to humate. Almost always, the effect of its use is closely related to the characteristics of the soil on which your garden stands.
Note that fertilizers of this type are extremely useful on soils that contain very little iron. In addition, feeding with potassium humate is useful on alkaline (especially on them), saline and podzolic soils. But pouring a solution of the product on black soil is pointless, since you still won’t notice a special effect. In addition, agronomists have identified several crops that are particularly responsive to the introduction of this substance into the soil:
- All nightshades (including potatoes andtomatoes), as well as beets (and fodder too).
- Virtually all cereals show a significant increase in yields.
- Legumes have almost no effect on performance.
- Sunflower and pumpkin under normal conditions do not react to potassium humate, its use is impractical.
It was no coincidence that we emphasized that the latest plant species do not grow under “normal” conditions. If the year was bad, or if you planted them in poor quality soil, then humic acids can work wonders! In a word, you should experiment yourself, making sure of the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of this tool in your garden.
Thus, potassium humate is universal. Its use can be recommended in almost all cases. You can read about when not to use it at the end of our article.
What is the effect of using it?
Plants acquire a he althier and stronger appearance, the growth and development of their leaves and root system improves. In vegetable and fruit crops, the taste qualities of fruits are sharply improved. In addition, humic acids can significantly reduce the content of nitrites and nitrates in fruits. They largely restore soil fertility, promote the development of beneficial soil microflora.
How to use it for soaking?
How to use potassium humate correctly? For soaking seeds, it should be taken at the rate of 0.5 grams per 1 liter of water. It's simple, but how can you measure such an insignificant amount in domestic conditions?
Toto make your work easier, let's say right away that approximately three grams of humate fit in an ordinary teaspoon. Thus, we take a third of a spoon to dilute its contents in two liters of water. The easiest way is to use ordinary plastic bottles to prepare the solution.
Flower bulbs can be kept in it for about eight hours, and it is better to increase the exposure time of seeds to a day. If it comes to carrot seeds, then they can be kept for two days at all. The cuttings are soaked for approximately 12-14 hours, dropping them into the fertilizer solution for 2/3 of their length.
We use humate as a fertilizer
We continue to study potassium humate. Instructions for using it as a "classic" fertilizer will be somewhat different. First, you need to take a much lower concentration. Despite its natural origin, you should definitely not forget about the sense of proportion. Excellent humate is suitable for foliar application, which is carried out by conventional spraying of horticultural or horticultural crops. This method is extremely good, because through the leaf blades of plants, the fertilizer almost instantly reaches the “addressee”.
Spraying and watering
This method is good because you do not have to rush around with a bucket among the beds, and the consumption of the solution is reduced. You only need to walk around the garden with a sprayer. For ten liters of water in this case, no more than three grams of fertilizer is required. Important! Carefully filter the water, as it may contain many small particles of peat, which at timesclog the spray nozzles of the same Beetle.
As for watering, they are carried out three times with an interval of two weeks. The treatment period should coincide with the time of intensive growth. First, at least half a liter of solution should fall on one plant, and then the volume is adjusted to a liter (for the third treatment).
For convenience, it is better to water the seedlings immediately after planting them in open ground, then repeat the treatment during the setting of buds, and the third time the plants should be watered during their flowering. In this case, the concentration should be increased: a tablespoon of the substance is taken per bucket of water (ten liters). Here's how to apply potassium humate.
How to properly dissolve?
Dissolve it better in warm liquid. First, it is better to pour some water with a temperature of about 50 ˚С into a bucket, pour the required amount of humate into it, and then stir thoroughly. When there are no clearly visible lumps left in the solution, the volume of liquid can be brought up to ten liters.
Helpful tips
Everything would be fine, but it is not very convenient to dilute significant amounts of fertilizer in an ordinary bucket all the time. And if you have a large garden that requires several hundred liters of humate solution? Therefore, it is better to immediately prepare its concentrate. To do this, take a dozen tablespoons of fertilizer, after which it is dissolved in a liter of warm water. If you pour the resulting solution into an ordinary plastic bottle, it can be used for a whole month.
How easy it isunderstand, 100 ml of such a mixture is equivalent to a tablespoon in which fertilizer is located. Potassium humate in this form is extremely convenient to use. Half a glass of solution is enough for a bucket of water. This is the dose for root dressing. If you want to spray your plantings, then for the same ten liters you will need to measure 50 milliliters already. Attention! Do not forget about filtering: we already wrote above that the smallest lumps can be in the water. During storage, humic acids often precipitate, so the likelihood of sprayer nozzle clogging increases dramatically.
Issue price
By the way, how much does potassium humate cost? The price per liter of liquid is about 130 rubles (but it is better to cook it yourself). The cost of dry powder does not exceed 30 rubles for 25-30 g.
Improve the structure of the soil
If you want to improve the characteristics of the soil on your site, then simply scatter 50 grams of this wonderful fertilizer on ten square meters. To ensure uniform distribution over the area, the powder should be mixed in advance with ordinary river sand. Then all this should be thoroughly mixed by walking around the place with a rake. If you mix humate with ash, it is better to scatter it in early spring. This will not only speed up the melting of snow, but also ensure excellent soil fertility before planting.
Composts are our everything
Surely every more or less experienced gardener knows how good organic compost is as a fertilizer. That's just thereproblem: the hard parts of perennial plants, as well as weed seeds, rot for an extremely long time, sometimes “pleasing” garden owners even after a few years. A feature of humic acids is their ability to destroy the rigid cellulose of dead plants. We offer you to use this property of theirs.
Besides, humates dramatically increase the activity of saprophytic microflora, which also accelerates the maturation of compost and significantly improves its quality. To obtain a high-quality fertilizer, it is useful to irrigate the humus with a solution of humates about three months before it is applied to the soil (at the end of spring, for autumn plowing), and the dose of fertilizer is calculated based on the need for approximately 10 grams of humic acids to decompose ten kilograms of compost.
Reviews of gardeners
As practice shows, almost always people's reviews will be ambiguous. So in this case: someone considers this remedy an excellent fertilizer, while others doubt its effectiveness. Remember what we said about potassium humate? Instructions for use provide the best effect from it when applied to alkaline and podzolic soil. Have you forgotten what was said about black soil?
But it is the inhabitants of the southern regions of our country that often speak of humate not in the best way. Say, there is no benefit from it! There is nothing strange here - there are not many fertilizers in the world that could seriously improve the fertility of unique black soil.
Error numbertwo. Not all soils should generally use potassium humate. Reviews indicate that on acidic soils, feeding these products leads to exactly the opposite results: plants begin to get sick, sometimes shed their leaves and die. What, people bought a fake remedy? Or is it just not as good as we talked about here?
To answer this question, read again what is included in the humate. Wait a minute, but it contains humic acids. If they are used on soils with a lower pH value, then the results will not really be too outstanding. By the way, for the same reason, you should not feed with this remedy those soils to which you added peat to improve their characteristics.
Other delusions
Some garden lovers for some reason think that this tool is a real panacea that can turn a lifeless sandstone into a blooming oasis. Miracles do not happen in nature. You will not water the asph alt with humate, hoping to grow a flower meadow on it?
Any fertilizer is just a means of increasing soil fertility! If the soil in your area is dry and rocky, then you will first need to improve it by adding loosening and rubble additives, adding compost and humus there. Only after that it makes sense to use a solution of humic acids, which otherwise simply will not be able to show their full effectiveness.
Thus, potassium humate is a universal natural complex of trace elements that will help you get fromyour site as much as possible!
