Humus, also known as the “black gold” of gardening, is an organic component of soil that forms as plant and animal matter decompose over time. It is rich in nutrients and plays a crucial role in soil fertility, water retention, CEC (cation exchange capacity), nutrient availability, and soil health. Humus is essential for plant growth as it is partially decomposed and derived from leaves. It is rich in nutrients and increases the water holding capacity of the soil. It supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms like mycorrhizal fungi and stabilizes the pH in the soil by acting as a buffer for compounds that can greatly change its acidity.
Humus is important because it plays a critical role in cycling nutrients within natural systems, especially to plants and fungus. It contains important nutrients needed for plant growth, including nitrogen, and provides them in a form that is highly usable for plants. It makes soil porous, increasing its air and water holding capacity. Humus is rich in nutrients (e.g., minerals) that promote plant growth. Being black or brown, humus greatly increases soil fertility and overall health, and thus plant growth, thanks to the presence of beneficial nutrients like nitrogen.
In conclusion, humus is a valuable addition to garden soil, contributing to soil fertility, water retention, CEC (cation exchange capacity), nutrient availability, and soil health. Its classification helps highlight fundamental matters such as function, biological diversity, ecological services, and land use management.
📹 The Importance of Humus In The Soil & Protecting Your Soil Life
Humus in the soil is a key component to soil health and structure. It aerates the soil, holds moisture, gives bacteria and fungi a …
Which soil is richest in humus?
Soils with a high clay content typically exhibit the highest levels of humus. Please refer to our articles for further information. Once you have done so, you will be granted full access. To be eligible for a scholarship of $100 for BYJUS courses, applicants are required to take the BNAT examination. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in BYJU’s complimentary courses at your earliest convenience.
Is humus harmful for plant growth?
Humus, a partially decomposed organic matter, is crucial for terrestrial life dependent on soil. It is formed by the continuous weathering of rocks and is rich in organic matter, including about 60% carbon and 6% nitrogen. It is essential for plant growth, as it makes soil porous, maintains soil fertility, increases water-holding capacity, and supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms like mycorrhizal fungi. Soil is a reservoir for minerals and nutrients necessary for living organisms and is formed by the continuous weathering of rocks.
Leaf litter, formed when plants drop their leaves and branches, and animal remains, is added to the litter. Over time, this litter decomposes through the action of microorganisms, forming essential nutrients and organic matter for the soil and organisms dependent on it. This process, known as Humification, is essential for the growth and flourishing of terrestrial life.
What happens when you add humus to soil?
Humus is a vital component in the life support system of soil, transforming sterile dirt into fertile soil. It is derived from organic matter and forms a loose structure that holds moisture and drains well. Humus also supports living organisms that convert soil nutrients into plant roots, building soil fertility. In nature, humus is introduced into soil through plant debris, dead animals, and other organic matter that decomposes on the ground. Through the alchemy of bacteria, fungi, and other resident micro-life activity, this organic material is reduced to its soft, spongy essence, called humus.
Humus permeates the top few inches of the soil through rains and the good offices of earthworms and other macro-organisms, revitalizing the soil around plant roots. This natural cycle is repeated over the seasons in the wild, sustaining forests and other natural areas.
In developed areas, such as residential yards and gardens, the natural decay cycle is disrupted by the removal of organic matter such as leaves, dried plant parts, prunings, animal remains, manures, and other debris. Intensive planting of crops, turf grasses, and ornamental plants rapidly depletes soil of its existing humus content. Bare soil in garden beds is exposed to the harsh effects of sun, wind, and hard rains, further reducing its humus content and destroying its structure and fertility. To grow plants successfully, gardeners must constantly renew the soil by adding the depleted ingredient, humus.
What is the function of the hummus?
Hummus has gained popularity in the last decade due to its versatility, nutrient composition, and acceptability. Its ingredients, primarily chickpeas and tahini, have been shown to improve postprandial glycemic control, fasting lipids, appetite control, and daily food intake compared to other commonly consumed foods. Hummus can also improve diet quality by replacing foods higher in saturated fats, sodium, or added sugars. These findings support the addition of hummus and/or hummus ingredients as an important component of a healthy dietary pattern.
The surge in hummus popularity in the United States can be attributed to the desire to purchase and consume foods that taste good, promote health and well-being, meet plant-based dietary recommendations, and are easy to include with other healthy foods. Hummus fits into various healthy eating patterns, including the Mediterranean dietary pattern, and is used as part of the protein foods and vegetable categories within the United States Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate. Given its versatility, palatability, and potential health benefits, hummus can play a unique role when included in the American diet to promote health and diet quality.
How does humus in soil help plants grow?
Humus is a crucial nutrient for soil health and fertility, with approximately 60% carbon content. It contains six essential nutrients for plants: phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, and nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential for most plants. When leaf litter decays into organic matter, it breaks down into these chemical nutrients, which remain in humus. These nutrients are essential for the soil and the organisms that rely on it. Humus also plays a significant role in soil structure, with ideal soil having a granular, crumbly structure that allows oxygen and carbon to move throughout and feed plant roots.
Is humus a fertilizer?
Humus, a byproduct of organic materials such as leaves and animal waste, functions as a fertilizer by retaining nutrients that are available to plants over time, thereby improving soil quality in a number of ways.
What is in hummus that is good for plants?
Humus soil, which is composed of decomposed organic matter, is of great importance for the creation of fertile garden soil, as it aids plant growth. Topsoil, a mixture of humus, sand, silt, and clay, is also a vital component for plant growth.
What is humus main function?
Humus plays a crucial role in improving soil structure, particularly when associated with cations like calcium, and providing a large surface area for nutrient elements. It also plays a significant role in soil carbon sequestration, which is considered an ecosystem service. When stable and able to interact with the soil matrix, molecular soil humus can help remove the atmosphere’s current carbon dioxide overload. However, there is limited data on the composition of humus due to its complex mixture, making it challenging for researchers to analyze.
In the 1940s and 1960s, chemical separation was attempted to analyze plant and humic compounds in forest and agricultural soils, but this proved impossible due to extractant interaction. Further research is ongoing, but humus remains an active field of study.
Is too much humus bad for soil?
Humus, a byproduct of the decomposition of dead plant matter and animals, is a valuable nutrient that can represent up to 1 to 5 of the dry weight of soil. Its rich content makes it a “sink” for moisture retention and can be beneficial for plants. However, excessive humus can lead to unhealthy soil conditions. The breakdown of humus is carried out by bacteria, fungi, and earthworms, who excrete nitrogen when consuming it.
Some farmers or growers create compost to create rich humus or organic matter, providing fertile ground for plant growth. Some humus is never degraded, as it is bound to soil aggregates or clay particles. Graeme Sait, a lifelong human and soil health educator, discusses the role of humus in environmental sustainability.
How does humus make the soil fertile?
The formation of humus, a substance derived from the decomposition of plant matter by soil microorganisms, serves to enhance soil fertility. This is achieved by increasing the porosity of the soil, which allows for greater penetration of water and air, thereby promoting the overall health of the soil.
What is the role of the humus?
Humus is a vital plant food that provides nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur for plants, improves structure, drainage, and aeration, increases water-holding, buffering, and exchange capacity, enhances silicate mineral dissolution, and provides energy for microorganism growth. Access to content on Oxford Academic is typically provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. Members of an institution can access content through IP-based access, which is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses, and through signing in through their institution, which uses Shibboleth/Open Athens technology to provide single sign-on between their institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
📹 Understanding Our Soil: The Nitrogen Cycle, Fixers, and Fertilizer
What are nitrogen fixing plants, and why use them over nitrogen fertilizer? This video answers this question through an …
Thank you for your encouragement of creating more interconnected healthy environs! Humus is exciting – as soil structure, but not skeletal lignin parts of remaining leaves, etc. I comment on humus as soil structure and also when a compost pile is ‘ready’ for integrating into the larger environment. Humus is different from the decomposing organic soil matter you describe. Fully humified humus has a uniformly dark, spongy, jelly-like appearance, and is amorphous. Microorganisms decompose much of organic soil matter into inorganic minerals absorbable by plant roots as nutrients. This process is termed “mineralization”. Therein, nitrogen and other nutrients in decomposed organic matter are recycled. Depending on the conditions in which decomposition occurs, a fraction of the organic matter does not mineralize. Instead, it is transformed by a process called “humification” into concatenations of organic polymers. Because these organic polymers are resistant to the action of microorganisms, they are stable, and constitute humus. This implies that humus integrates into the permanent structure of the soil, to stabilize it. Humus does not have a determinate shape or quality, but is an amorphous structure. Humus is created through anaerobic fermentation, while compost is the result of aerobic decomposition. It is a complex substance which is not fully understood. It may gradually decay over several years or persist for millennia. Much of the humus in most soils has persisted for more than 100 years, rather than having been decomposed into CO2, due to its being hidden (occluded) inside small aggregates of soil particles, or tightly sorbed or complexed to clays.
MIgardener a question for you, is it best to just put the compost ontop of the soil or to actually dig it in. Ive been composting for around 4 months now, and have a garden that Ive just started, it is bare, which as this article suggests is not the best as the suns rays can cause problems, Im in new zealand and we’re now in spring so ive just planted out the last couple weeks, i’m a newbie to gardening yet loving it so far
Kinesthetic learners: learn through actions (writing, movement, just doing it). I put all my fall leaves on my garden, then put my chickens in there in the late fall or very early spring. That way I add both carbon and nitrogen to the soil, the chickens start helping beak down the leaves scratching for bugs, and they take down the bug population. I also use chicken compost (bedding and manure from the run) and have a group of chickens working on a compost bin for most of the year. Or local soil is super sandy, so we are doing everything we can to build it up with material from our own property.
Gorgeous looking kale! We have pill bug rolly Polly problems in our garden beds and they’re chewing young seedlings and roots. I’m learning that we should remove debris in gardens and moist around plants to deter those bugs. But, those broken down debris are humus ! We’re keeping them. Any tips on removing pil bugs?
Brilliant as always, thanks Luke! I’m really loving this series! It would be awesome if you did a similar series on organic fertilising-how to understand it, what to look out for, maybe even identifying nutrient deficiencies/what to do about it/use. Also, substitutes for certain fertilisers not available internationally, (such as bone mealand blood meal etc (we have blood and bone together here, not seperate)
those big chunks of wood in his “finished compost” are not humus. Those are just pieces of partially decayed wood, where the cellulose has not fully decayed. Finished compost is completely broken down to a very fine clay particle sized consistency. And to make humified compost you must add actual soil to the compost heap. Humus is the fraction of organic matter that does not break down into minerals and plant nutrients during the decay process. it is the left over particles from complete break down. Not big chunks of water logged wood chips.
Man I think I may have ruined my latest compost pile. I was doing pruning and pulled some pumpkin plants that got powdery mildew. I tossed everything in the compost. Have I ruined it because I do not want to spread it next year and don’t want to spread powdery mildew to all my beds. What would you suggest?
The biochemical process to create humus is anaerobic fermentation, which takes place without the presence of oxygen, normally in nature. It gives off carbon in the form of methane gas, so it smells bad. This is different than compost which is created in an aerobic environment in the presence of oxygen. So the anaerobic fermentation has different bacteria which live without oxygen, having different chemical pathways to breakdown organic material, and so humus also involves breakdown of animals and insects in its formation. Compost always just involves aerobic bacteria, so it’s important to aerate compost piles to make it break down and you avoid animal organic material. This biochemical basis for the creation of each is the main difference between the 2, so they with contain different microbes. In humans, we can also get infected with anaerobic bacteria, such as Clostridium perfringens which causes gangrene. So it happens where there is no blood supply, no oxygen, and the toxins created can kill.
Great article. A simple explanation, on everyone’s understanding of what humus means. I will use your article 🙂 on my new project where I am involved #savesoil Movement launched by Conscious Planet. We will bring awareness to every person on this planet that it is time to save our soil. Our soil is the next generation future. Thank you.
Luke, I think that I have humus in my indoor flats after growing a cut and come again green pea’s greens. i do not have a problem of growing them to kind of maturity indoors, like i was worring about the cut and come again. but the coco coir may have risen higher n higher, may suspect to the growing root stubs of the pea shoots and transferring it to a humus effect growing conditions for this pea. maybe it’s not design for more than just max two cuttings. then to compost and replant other things outdoors using the root and green base.
I have been gardening for year. Even tho my veggie garden has been small. I always had good soil. Now im moving and already mapped out a garden 45×30. Very bad veggie output this year.Plus a 3×30 strawberry and asparagus bed. Plus a 3×30 bed with different herbs and figs and one or two other things. Than off to the side 14 fruit trees. What i figured out the soil is clay. It was wooded and its been cleared. I figured it be good soil since it was wooded. I added alot of grass clippings this fall. In the spring ill add more plus some peat, cow manure. I do plan on tilling it this fall plus in the spring. Any other ideas? Thanks
My problem with this is whenever I leave a lot of debris on the ground, the weeds just go crazy. I know a lot of them that like loose soil are edible, but like my whole backyard was filled will Chenopodium and pigweed and henbit and horseherb. Oh, and there is even a patch of what I think is rough cinquefoil that is just impossible to get rid of, but that’s in a much dryer, less mulchy area of the yard. But in some areas of my yard, the leaves just literally bury the grass. It really is a weed war that I am not winning. I’m not really trying to garden much, but I don’t want to destroy my soil. I just want some bermuda, and the weeds are so very competitive. The reason I was looking up humus articles is that I bought some duchess de parma violets, which I have been cultivating in a plastic pot for about 7 months. They seem healthy, but I want to transplant them to a larger container before it gets too cold. Everything I have read suggests they really like humus soil. So maybe if I get them going, I can experiment with propagating them with the runners. Then I can see if they will grow in these areas of my yard that collect all the leaves and debris every year. But the plant I bought was over $20, so I don’t want to put any out in the yard unless they are new plants from runners. There’s particularly an area under my crape myrtles that collect leaves and the grass just won’t grow there at all. Just horseherb. 🙁
I enjoyed the article but the bits you pull out are compost. Compost is created with oxygen or aerobic breakdown of material. Humus is created without oxygen or anaerobic breakdown. It is common to use humus and compost in an interchangeable way but it is not accurate. This is the end of my nerdy compost comment.