Study Shows Soil Amendment Improves Soil Health

Study Shows Soil Amendment Improves Soil Health CROPS New Techniques Humalite an organic soil amendment is produced from the decomposition and oxidation of plants and other vegetative tissues When formed in a freshwater environment at a shallow depth it easily oxidizes to contain up to 90% humic acid which makes it low in heavy metal concentrations compared to humalite from saltwater environments Many farmers mix humalite with their synthetic fertilizers and claim increased crop yields but it’s never been scientifically proven whether it benefits crop production Producers aren’t sure whether to use it how much to apply or what it’s doing WestMet Ag an Alberta manufacturer and the Canadian provincial and federal governments are supplying research funding to identify and calibrate precisely what the material is and how it works Dr Malinda Thilakarathna an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta heads a team researching and studying the material They’re adding humalite to different fertilizers and growing wheat canola and green pea plants under greenhouse conditions “Using different mixing rates in the soils we brought from the fields we found the humalite increased plant growth and protein levels ” Thilakarathna says “Something surprising was that it also enhanced root growth adding a lot of root biomass and dense and long root hairs ” They confirmed that applications combined with urea resulted in 14 to 19% higher grain yields     The team completed gene expression work and found the substance also changed the internal hormone production of plants An analysis of soil nitrogen availability discovered that when mixed with urea it helped reduce leaching during heavy rains Nitrogen phosphorus and potassium added to humalite remained available in the soil longer This increased their efficiency and reduced the amounts of synthetic fertilizer required Nitrogen use efficiency rose between 14 and 60% Some companies have already commercialized the commodity in granular or liquid form and are importing it to the U S for use in orchards and vegetable fields “We’re continuing to trial the soil amendment to determine how and why it works ” Thilakarathna says “It’s already on the market and being used but we expect more appetite for humalite once we can provide more scientific evidence ” The freshwater product is found exclusively in large deposits near the small town of Hanna Alberta Larger-scale humalite field trials for wheat canola and peas are also ongoing Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Malinda Thilakarathna Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2P5 thilakar@ualberta ca

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