Humates offer so many benefits for soil and lawn health! They are an important building block in soils. Listed below are some of them.
*Excellent source of concentrated organic matter for soils
*Readily available source of carbon for microbes in the soil (feed them and create sustainable microbiome)
*Help balance calcium imbalances by increasing CEC of soil
*Creat acidic reaction in soil increasing availability of nutrients in high pH soils
*Improve soil drainage and help increase soil oxygen content
*Improve soil tilth through formation of stable soil aggregates
*Aid in neutralization of toxins and tie up heave metals in soils (natural chelator)
*Help soil retain water more than soils low in Humates
*Stimulate root development and growth
In other words, Humates are a power house for soil and lawn health for the above reasons and many more! Every year at EcoTurf we offer soil testing which we send to a certified lab for analysis. Through this metadata we know that Colorado soils are high in calcium which takes up the all important Cations. Learn more about Cation Exchange Capacity here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmEyymGXOfI Because calcium blocks other nutrients from being plant available – the plants cannot access them even if they are present. The trend in our soils is to have a good amount of primary and secondary nutrients which are inaccessible to the plant because of the high calcium content in the soil and high pH. Humates can help make these all important nutrients be more plant available by increasing the CEC of the soil and creating an acidic reaction in high pH soils.
Sources: http://www.bioflora.com/what-are-humates/
