Humus

A single square metre of healthy forest soil can contain thousands of springtails, tiny six-legged arthropods that are among the most abundant animals on Earth.

The transformation of fresh, colourful autumn leaves into dark, crumbly humus takes anywhere from several months to several years, depending on the climate and the species of tree.

Humus is the stable organic component of soil that gives it its dark colour and spongy texture.

It improves soil structure, retains moisture and provides a slow-release source of nutrients.

The process of humus formation from fallen leaves is called humification and it involves complex chemical reactions that are not yet fully understood at the molecular level.

This is where the underworld kisses the world of air, the dead feeding the living and the living returning to the dead.

Humus is the place where everything becomes something else.

This is eternal return, especially when we get to the mysteries and other rights.

So as above, so below.

You are nothing more than soil.

Humus, the ancients were saying this.

You are from the soil of the earth, right? Literally, Adam and Eve, you are scooped out of the earth and you shall return to that dust.

That's the only things that we know.

Why? Organic matter.

Humus has a large surface area with really large variable charge, meaning that the strength of that charge itself shifts depending on the pH.

And at high pH, it has a cation exchange capacity greater than most clays.

So a sand with a lot of organic matter in it has built itself a nice warehouse, which is a really cool thought to hold onto.

Now, the second is storage, and this is where organic matter earns its keep.

And organic matter is one of the strongest levers you have on water holding capacity, aggregate stability, and bulk density all at once.

Humus has a very large water holding capacity as well.

So on an acid, poorly buffered, low organic matter sand, you're fighting on three fronts at once.

Aber sie sind sehr geschickt.

Ihr seht es jetzt, ich sag immer, ich bin die Stra-Strafe von Humus.

[lacht] Wenn ich, äh, auch mit auf Tour bin, bin ja auf Tour immer, und da sag ich immer: „Wenn ihr meine Familie unterstützen wollt, geht einfach tanken." Dann immer so Raunen im Saal.

Ja, äh, s-- und sie sind, äh, neugierig und, ähm, ich weiß nicht, natürlich sind nicht alle so.

Using humus to increase soil moisture.

Maintaining topsoil humus content in the 4-5% range is vital to plant health, vital to growing more nutritious food, and essential to bringing the soil into that state of easy workability and cooperation known as good tilth.

Humus is a spongy substance capable of holding several times more available moisture than clay.

There are also new synthetic long-lasting soil amendments that hold and release even more moisture than humus.

Garden books frequently recommend tilling in extraordinarily large amounts of organic matter to increase a soil's water-holding capacity in the top few inches.

Humus can improve many aspects of soil, but will not reduce a garden's overall need for irrigation, because it is simply not practical to maintain sufficient humus deeply enough.

Rotary tilling only blends amendments into the top six or seven inches of soil.

Rigorous double digging by actually trenching out 12 inches and then spading up the next foot theoretically allows one to mix in sufficient amounts of organic matter to nearly 24 inches.

I try to remember where I come from.

Humus and humility.

We are people of the land, something about being tied to the land that keeps us humble, that gives me a sense of identity.

That's who I am.

But there's another very important aspect of carbon that no one's talking about.

Carbon is what we can turn into what we call humus.

Humus is just digested organic matter by soil microbes, whether it's worms or myceliums or whatever it may be.

So the more carbon we've got in the soil, the better that can transfer or happen.

once we've converted carbon into humus the stats on that are staggering you know it's it's four or five percent um pure organic nitrogen it's two or three percent phosphate it's got magnesium calcium sulfurs everything a plant needs is in that humus and it's in a totally steady bioavailable form there for the plant 365 days of the year we don't have to go and buy it out of a bag somewhere and put it on and it never runs out