Fall Is Fertil Humus® Time: 25% Discount

The best thing you can do to improve next year’s crop is to prep your soil before winter sets in. Your best tool for fall soil prep is Huma Gro^® Fertil Humus^®, which we’re offering at a 25% discount through the end of October .

It’s a well-accepted premise that keeping crop stubble in the field over winter helps prevent soil erosion and builds the healthy soil biology you’ll need for your next crop. In the past farmers have tilled the stubble in, which we now know disrupts soil structure and the essential microbiome. A much better solution is to leave the soil intact but help the stubble break down naturally with a boost from Huma Gro^® Fertil Humus^®.

Spencer Miller states the case for the concept of a No-Till November in a USDA blog: “Repeated tillage undermines the soil structure and reduces aggregate stability. It breaks down organic matter and drains carbon from the soil.” He quotes Neil Sass, a USDA agronomist, who described the dramatic effect tillage has on soil microbiology as “akin to an earthquake, tornado, and fire happening all at the same time.” And by not inflicting that kind of devastation on the microbiome, “when you have the support of trillions of microbes, you can grow more with less.”

Also, according to Sass, no-till allows the soil to absorb much more water and handle heavy rain, which keeps soil on the field and out of the watershed. He continues, “No-till will save you time and money. You’ll spend less time on your tractor. You’ll use less fuel. You’ll have less wear and tear on your equipment. No-till is a win-win for your soil and for your pocketbook.”

Which is not to say that there is nothing you can do in the fall to help prepare your soil for spring planting and fortify the microbiome. Our Huma Gro^® Fertil Humus^® product, when applied in the fall, can help degrade any crop residue or crop field trash that’s left behind and convert it to humus over the winter. It also stimulates microbial activity, especially mycorrhizal fungi that have a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. These fungi play a key role in freeing nutrients that are tied up in soil organic matter.

Fertil Humus^® will buffer the toxicities of left-over pesticides, breaking their hydrocarbon chains to render them ineffective. It will also decrease phosphorus toxicity (e.g., from over-applied chicken manure) that can lead to zinc-manganese tie-up/deficiency. For fall after-harvest field application, we recommend Fertil Humus^® at 1–2 quarts/acre (2.5–5.0 liters/hectare) as a broadcast spray or flood or furrow irrigated. This will set up your soil for spring planting with better tilth, microbial activity, and nutrient availability.

For more information on Huma Gro^® Fertil Humus^® and our Fall discount, contact a Huma Gro^® representative by clicking the button below. For more about our Huma Gro^® soil products, click here.