Humic acid application frequency

8 years ago

Hi, how often can this be applied to the lawn. I live in Montreal Canada and I have Kentucky Bluegrass. Im not looking for short term results. Im planning on spraying this stuff yearly so its more of a longterm thing

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User

8 years ago

Mish is saying it doesn't work.

That's...not quite true, and there are circumstances where HA can be extremely useful. However, there are certainly things you can apply that will give you more bang for the buck. Any organic feeding, for example, which will go through multiple breakdown stages and encourage many types of soil life before finally becoming humic matter.

Or, for that matter, the Logan soil test, which will indicate major resources that are off. That would be the first line of improvement.

If you want to spray it yearly, go ahead, but without knowing the particulars, it's uncertain as to whether it will help at all (in most cases, not much and not noticeably).

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Comments (7)

Tom
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
It depends on the condition of your soil. Its usually used on soils low in organic matter, or sandy soils. If its sand- spring, summer and fall would be plenty. Also have a soil test done- if you haven't already.
Mario thanked Tom
mishmosh
8 years ago
snake oil, like compost tea
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Mario
Original Author
8 years ago
Sorry Mishmosh but I dont quite understand what this means
Mario
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Tom, my soil is 60% clay soil, 30% coarse sand and 10% organic soil.

PH 6.7
Tom
8 years ago
Your soil would only need it once a year.......along with organic type fertilizer in summer, quicker releasing synthetic type fertilizer in spring and fall- with lots of potassium .
dchall_san_antonio
8 years ago
I agree with mishmosh. If you are completely out of organic resources and cannot find organic fertilizer, then use the humic acid. Otherwise use organic fertilizer 3 times per year and you'll have much better bang for short and long term.

Compost tea is a similar product which promises the world and delivers a scant fraction of the world. I used to be on the compost tea bandwagon for years. As I read more about it, and tried it several times, I became more disenchanted with it. After more months of reading I figured out why. Two reasons. 1) if your water temperatures are higher than 75 degrees F, then your compost tea has exactly 0.00% of living aerobic microbes. Their is not enough oxygen in warm water to support aerobic life. This is why, at the end of summer, you see the growth of slime molds on top of small ponds and lakes. All the aerobic microbes are gone and the anaerobic microbes take over. Once the weather cools off or the pond is refreshed with cool rain, the microbe balance goes back to "normal." So if your compost tea, even actively aerated compost tea, was made in the head of a summer day, it has no microbial benefit. Make it in the winter and that's a different story. Or if you make it indoors with air conditioning down to 70 degrees F or less, it will work if you spray it immediately. And when I say it will work, again, if you have absolutely depleted all organic stuff from your garden, it will help replenish the microbes. 2) at best compost tea provides a mist of microbes. If you think it is a significant source of fertility, it isn't. Real fertilizer goes on at a general rate of pounds per 1,000 square feet. Compost tea delivers a minute fraction of an ounce per 1,000 square feet. Organic fertilizer is much better.