Humate use in agriculture combines scientific knowledge with traditional farming practices.

Soil is a living organism because it contains micro-flora (i.e. live and dead microscopic bacteria and fungi) that are dependent on available carbon for food, growth and replication. Micro-flora uses carbon, as a primary source of food nutrient and when micro-flora dies it rapidly decomposes becoming highly available as nutrients to plants. Enhancing soil carbon content is essential for high micro-flora growth that eventually is assimilated as nutrients by plant roots. The better development of the plant root system, the healthier the plant.

Humates provides a ‘highly available’ source of carbon units for soil micro-flora as well as other unique chemical properties. Live soil is vital for crop production and a valuable natural resource for sustainable agriculture. Soils possessing greater microbial life produces healthier crops and making more nutritious food for man.

Humates used in soil lowers the overall affect of ‘greenhouse gas’ via enhancing plant growth through decreasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and manufacturing of oxygen.

Humate may be used directly on cropland for plant production through finely ground mined rock material commonly mixed with dry fertilizer. These humate acids (humic & fulvic) are slowly released over time (years) in soil, assisting micro-flora provide highly absorbable nutrients to plant roots. These are best applied before planting and followed by subsequent applications with liquid extracts during plant growth.

Liquid extracts of humate compounds differ in that they are immediately available to soil micro-flora, providing highly available nutrients to plant root system. Also liquid extracts are compatible with many other liquid products used on the farm and can be applied via sprinkler or spray irrigation. The extraction method into a liquid for humic and fulvic acid removes a majority of contaminates that remain in the solid residue of humin (i.e. remaining product post extraction).

Fulvic acid is commonly used on plant leaf material (foliar spray). It assists in leaf respiration through intake of atmospheric carbon dioxide and leaf release of oxygen. Fulvic acid high leaf absorption rate is similar to surfactants used for foliar application of plant herbicides and pesticides, except that it is naturally compatible plant tissues and environmentally friendly.