What do humic substances do for the soil?
Humic substances perform at least five critical functions: • They increase adsorption of minerals and bring into solution mineral materials that would otherwise be inert and convert them into forms that can be taken up by the plants as nutrients; • They increase adsorption of organic compounds which aids in plant nutrition, plant physiology, and in the cleanup of polluting or toxic materials in the soil; • They increase the water holding capacities of the soil which makes water more available to the plants for greater plant production; • They increase the soil’s buffering capacity helping to stabilize the soil’s pH to help the plants to take up mineral nutrients; and • They darken the soil color which increases the soil’s adsorption of solar energy. Fulvic acids are more chemically reactive than humic acids and are mostly involved in the chemical reactions that influence plant’s growth and nutrition while the humic acids are mostly involved in altering the physical characteristics of t
