Importance of Humic substance as an accellerant on driving plant growth

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Frankster

Frankster

Never trust a doctor who's plants have died.
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Ok, I've tried to simplify this for understanding. If you have any questions about concepts, please feel free to ask below.


The formation of humic substances in nature is one of the least understood aspects of humus chemistry and one of the most intriguing. There are three main theories to explain it: the lignin theory of Waksman (1932), the polyphenol theory, and the sugar-amine condensation theory of Maillard (1911). Those theories are insufficient to account for observations in soil research. Humic substances are formed by the microbial degradation of dead plant matter, such as lignin and charcoal.

Humics are important. It's amazing these "coal" like substances actually fuel plant growth, but it's true. There roughly synonymous with broken down organic matter, just the "right size" for re-building what we need. They also act as the the "acid" in a battery, holding energy potential, and capable of assisting in moving ions and minerals, energy chemical exchanges along membrane gradients in solution. They are critical to transpiration, and are likely a major "pipeline' choke point in overall plant metabolism and photosynthesis. They are among the key components driving plant growth. In a nutshell, essentially these "bits of matter" combine with the things like, NPK, Ca+, Mg+, aminios, trace minerals, enzymes, sugars to create fruiting, they get "depleted" in medium or soil over time. Even if your growing hydro, humics have the potential to take your growing up to the next level.

Decomposition products of dead plant materials form intimate associations with minerals, making it difficult to isolate and characterize soil organic constituents

Humic and fulvic acids are chelators. They combine minerals to make them into organic compounds that can be produced into buds more easily. They also enable the soil to hold more water and can increase the water infiltration of the soil.

The operational distinction between humic and fulvic acids. Humin is insoluble in dilute alkali. So-called "gray humic acids" (GHA) are soluble in low-ionic-strength alkaline media; "brown humic acids" (BHA) are soluble in alkaline conditions independent of ionic strength; and fulvic acids (FA) are soluble independent of pH and ionic strength.

A sequential chemical fractionation called Humeomics can be used to isolate more homogeneous humic fractions and determine their molecular structures by advanced spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. Substances identified in humic extracts and directly in soil include mono-, di-, and tri-hydroxy acids, fatty acids, dicarboxylic acids, linear alcohols, phenolic acids, terpenoids, carbohydrates and aminoacids.

These are essentially components in "the stinky" that make buds, THCalkaloids, terpenes, phenols, flavanoids,

typical humic substance is a mixture of many molecules, some of which are based on a motif of aromatic nuclei with phenolic and carboxylic substituents, linked together; the illustration shows a typical structure. The functional groups that contribute most to surface charge and reactivity of humic substances are phenolic and carboxylic groups. Humic acids behave as mixtures of dibasic acids, with a pK1 value around 4 for protonation of carboxyl groups and around 8 for protonation of phenolate groups. There is considerable overall similarity among individual humic acids. For this reason, measured pK values for a given sample are average values relating to the constituent species. The other important characteristic is charge density. The molecules may form a supramolecular structure held together by non-covalent forces, such as van der Waals force, π-π, and CH-π bonds.

The presence of carboxylate and phenolate groups gives the humic acids the ability to form complexes with ions such as Mg2+, Ca2+, Fe2+, and Fe3+. Many humic acids have two or more of these groups arranged so as to enable the formation of chelate complexes.[26] The formation of (chelate) complexes is an important aspect of the biological role of humic acids in regulating bioavailability of metal ions.


side note:
In chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology, a dissociation constant ( K d {\displaystyle K_{d}}
K_{d}
) is a specific type of equilibrium constant that measures the propensity of a larger object to separate (dissociate) reversibly into smaller components, as when a complex falls apart into its component molecules, or when a salt splits up into its component ions. The dissociation constant is the inverse of the association constant. In the special case of salts, the dissociation constant can also be called an ionization constant


The humic extracts are composed of large numbers of different bio-organic molecules that have not yet been totally separated and identified. However, single classes of residual biomolecules have been identified by selective extractions and chemical fractionation, and are represented by alkanoic and hydroxy alkanoic acids, resins, waxes, lignin residues, sugars, and peptides.

What is boils down to, is someone smart enough, can figure out exactly what ratio's of humic extracts (with mass spetrometer) most benefical to bud production, and how to maintain a "loaded amount" or the "maximum feed" of humic substance into the solution at any given time. It's not just about having the right minerals, but also matching up the right ionic charges, or "states" most productive, or in a form that's readily "available" for any chemical reactions to occur. Humics "populate" that ionization on a mass scale. Lining up "charged states" has major advantages (and risks) associated with them.

As you can imagine, lighting your gas tank on fire in your car comes with risk. Same with doing it in a live cell of an organism. But I really believe humics are likely a big driver (and bottleneck) in plant metabolism.
 
1920px humic acid
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Frankster

Frankster

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I use several sources of humic, but getting the mixture right, while boosting it, and also having the other chemical ratios balanced is challenging issue, no doubt.

Currently I'm using a mix of of 70% amino acids, 10% fluvic powder, 10% humic and 10% kelp.
 
Frankster

Frankster

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Do you follow a routine EC schedule? As in are you aiming to maintain a constant EC throughout your grows or do you gradually change?

Yes, that's what I'm stating, correct. I want to maintain a certain level of "humic" substances, and the correct level of carbonates and other organically active molecules to effectively "drive" oil and and plant metabolism.

The key's appear to be in the correct overall mixture, but also maintaining and replacing the components that get absorbed, and need replenishment, and keeping your reservoir (dumping area) large and efficient, at least in proportion to the available needs at any given time.

Humic's kind of "side-step" that pipeline and add another layer of efficiency to the puzzle. Essentially, what you have is like 100 jigsaw puzzles dumped together, all in a state of various levels of completion. If you can take some of those "bigger" chunks, and line them up with the components you've identified by say "color", or "end pieces" then you can effectively make things go along faster, and complete the puzzle or even join the puzzles together into a larger bigger mosaic "master puzzle".

It all boils down to feeding them pipelines, and keep everything moving along efficiently as possible, but using the "biggest" chunks, so that the least amount of energy is expended doing the work. Even borrowing from multiple puzzles is acceptable, they don't need to go together with the same pieces, just the ones that "fit". Then, when you've got needs, dump a few more puzzles in, but try to preclude the "pieces" you don't really need, so your not sorting though a bunch of crap choices...

All while optimizing sunlight, so you can see the puzzle, plenty of drink so nobody get's tired, and adjusting things like synergy, where you've got multiple sources complimenting each others contributions. It's not going to matter a hill of beans, if your doing all this in the dark, or you don't have use of your hands, or all the other various "environmental" components are not all really, really optimized as well.
 
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Gingz

Gingz

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Yes, that's what I'm stating, correct. I want to maintain a certain level of "humic" substances, and the correct level of carbonates and other organically active molecules to effectively "drive" oil and and plant metabolism.

The key's appear to be in the correct overall mixture, but also maintaining and replacing the components that get absorbed, and need replenishment, and keeping your reservoir (dumping area) large and efficient, at least in proportion to the available needs at any given time.

Humic's kind of "side-step" that pipeline and add another layer of efficiency to the puzzle. Essentially, what you have is like 100 jigsaw puzzles dumped together, all in a state of various levels of completion. If you can take some of those "bigger" chunks, and line them up with the components you've identified by say "color", or "end pieces" then you can effectively make things go along faster, and complete the puzzle or even join the puzzles together into a larger bigger mosaic "master puzzle".

It all boils down to feeding them pipelines, and keep everything moving along efficiently as possible, but using the "biggest" chunks, so that the least amount of energy is expended doing the work. Even borrowing from multiple puzzles is acceptable, they don't need to go together with the same pieces, just the ones that "fit". Then, when you've got needs, dump a few more puzzles in, but try to preclude the "pieces" you don't really need, so your not sorting though a bunch of crap choices...

All while optimizing sunlight, so you can see the puzzle, plenty of drink so nobody get's tired, and adjusting things like synergy, where you've got multiple sources complimenting each others contributions. It's not going to matter a hill of beans, if your doing all this in the dark, or you don't have use of your hands, or all the other various "environmental" components are not all really, really optimized as well.
Beautifully put! Understanding your feeding ratios, ingredients, & how your plants absorb/process those elements are key in understanding growing.
 
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