What is humus compost

Thanks for your comments. I have nutrient deficient beach sand in South Australia. What do suggest is the best compost Composition to eventually create Humus. My rule of thumb is to use what ever you can get locally. Local means it is not transported very far, which means it is much more environmentally friendly.

Leaf mold is a living organism—a fungi. It lives on leaves and in soil and helps degrade organic material. The term is also incorrectly used to describe the resulting material after fungi digest the leaves. It is best to think of this type of leaf mold as a form of compost.

Organic material that has been broken down to a certain extent, but which still contains lots of nutrients for plants. I was talking about the finished product that comes from rotting down leaves, like what is found on the forest floor. This will take you to the definition of Humus.

This was the main point of my post. The word humus is used incorrectly in a lot of places. Even though some people refer to leaf mold as humus—it is not the correct definition. If you collect leaf mold from the forest then it is not yet completely broken down. It is basically compost. If you are talking about the soil in the forest, then it will contain leaf mold from the current year and humus that is a result of decomposing organic matter from past years.

The former might be useful in the garden. The later would also be good for the garden, but it should not be removed from the forest for environmental reasons. Secondly, it would be better for the garden to use compost or your leaf mold that you are making. This adds nutrients to soil in the short term, and humus in the long term. With a view to preserving soil aggregation, low till or no till gardening has been suggested.

I would loosen the top inch or so of the soil before planting seed. They have difficulty sending their initial root into compacted soil. It is interesting to learn that humus is basically some form of carbon. I vaguely remember reading an article in one issue of the Rhodo Society publication which described the research on some large areas in Argentina with very fertile soil right next to extremely poor soil area, and the only difference they found was the presence of carbon in the fertile area.

Keep in mind that carbon is not nutritious to plants. Sugar and starch also consists mostly of carbon, but they are not forms of carbon. The real value of the humus is in conditioning the soil and holding on to nutrients. Carbon also has a holding property for nutrients — it is used in aquarium filters to remove toxins from the water, and it can be used in home water filters for the same reason.

Adding crushed charcoal to soil may help a bit to hold nutrients, but I doubt that it would have the same soil conditioning affect as humus. It also does not add nutrients. It is better to add organics. Is there any reason to believe that there is much humus as part of these crumbs? On the other hand, the stuff looks just like what I imagine plants have in mind when they daydream about what they want their roots to growth in. Find out how to add more of it to your garden…. Press here to subscribe.

Garden Myths - Learn the truth about gardening. What is Humus? By on You have probably heard that humus is an important part of your soil, but few people know what it is and why it is important. We are talking about humus, not hummus! If you like this post, please share This entry is filed under Fertilizer , Soil and tagged humus , Soil , soil structure.

February 25, at am. Robert Pavlis says:. February 26, at pm. Sheila says:. February 18, at am. Maryann Lopata says:. July 10, at pm. July 19, at pm. Joe smith says:. January 15, at am. Dan says:. June 12, at am. The break down of manure from many animals creates methane as does carbon matter in anerobic decomp. I challenege you to find a acredited source of definition of humus that does not use the example of decomposted matter on the forest floor which completely refutes your stated claim its from swamps or bogs which is well known to be the source of peat moss.

Compost is organic matter at any state of aerobic decompostion as well as the action of this process in the plural.. Humus is the end or final product of this action composting.

Now whether some manf may label things as humus which are not is irrelavent to what is ot is not by definition. Someone misusing a term does not change the term despite what groups in our current society may wish or desire.

Wanting elephant to mean or be a mouse does not make it so. Deep Humus forms from anaerobic conditions from the complex interaction of root tip exudates of various plants with various strains of bacteria and fungi. The strains of bacteria may be different depending on the plant species used. This is why I mix many different seed types together to insure a match. No one person has a handle on the complexity of the multitude of the microorganisms and multitude of root exudates to create deep humus formation.

Fifty years of farming and science. Table of Contents. Pin Share Compost vs. Can use a Combination? How Often to Turn Compost? How Does a Compost Bin Work? Thank for your experience! Dan Reply. Thank you. Such misinformed ideas about humus are still common. Researchers apparently failed to notice that manure is a rot product that contains poisonous substances like indole, skatole, putrescine, and toxic phenols, and that the quality of manured soil is bound to be toxic.

A German layman, if asked, would probably check the Brockhaus Encyclopedia for an answer. Humus is rich in carbon and is generally acidic as a result of its humic acid content.

It increases the water storage potential of the soil and produces carbonic acid, which disintegrates minerals. Even though this statement is quite basic, one can glean from it some important functions of humus. We know today that plant remains decompose down to their most basic components and plasma residues. Only after the total disintegration of all substances into the elements carbon, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium can construction begin on what today is generally called humus.

Researchers have proven that plants can receive the final forms of plasma matter that is not decomposed to the state of mineralization up to a certain molecular weight. This plasma is then included in their systems. This brings us back to the cycle of living substances, which we have already mentioned above.

Humus cannot be regarded as a real substance but rather as a process — a formation — built from a multitude of constantly changing factors. In order to define humus, the living substance factor has to be taken into consideration.

The law of harmony — that is, the law of balance — reigns over all living things. We know all too well the consequences of a disturbed harmony in the soil, this harmony being the precondition for a normal soil life. Humus and soil are subject to the same laws as all other living things. But modern agriculture refuses to work in the same way, and the results of ignoring these laws can be seen in our ailing fields with their depleted soils and damaged structures, and in our disease-prone cultivated plants.

Dead soils eventually become barren desert land. Until recently, humus could not be analyzed using the usual chemical methods. Acids, bases, and salts had to be used for chemical investigations, but those substances destroy life and its functions. Incineration did not reveal anything about the structure or the capillary system of the former humus. Seal your container securely and shake vigorously for at least 30 seconds. Again, we recommend doing this in the great outdoors.

If testing multiple soil samples like we did in the video find some friends to shake each jar at the same time and rate. This will give you a more accurate visual of how quickly each soil type settles. Let the mixture settle and separate for at least 5 minutes and observe the results. After five minutes your soil sample will begin to settle.

Choosing the Healthiest Humus Compost As you can see in the video and photos, Soil3 reigns supreme over mushroom compost and our red Georgia clay. Related Posts. Published May 25, Published Nov 7,