onto the surface of the humus. An active exchange is set
up between humus and roots, the plants “choosing”
which nutrients they need to balance their own inner
chemistry.
Therefore, humus is the most reliable plant food, and
plants pull o< whatever combinations of nutrients they
choose from its surface. GROW BIOINTENSIVE practices
rely on this natural, continual, slow-releasing biological
process for nutrient release to the plants, rather than
making available all the season’s nutrients chemically at
one time.
The beauty of humus is that it feeds plants with
nutrients that the plants pick up on its surface and it also
safely stores nutrients in forms that are not readily
leached. The humus contains much of the remainder of
the original nitrogen that was put in the compost pile in
the form of grass, kitchen wastes, and so on. The humus
was formed by the resynthesizing activity of numerous
species of microorganisms feeding o< that original
“garbage.”
The microorganisms in the soil then continue to feed
on the humus after the 9nished compost is spread on the
soil. As the microorganisms feed, the core nutrients in
the humus are released in forms available to plant roots.
Thus, the microorganisms are an integral part of the
humus, and one cannot be found without the other. The
only other component of the soil that holds onto and
exchanges nutrients with plant roots is clay, but humus
can hold onto and exchange a far greater amount of
brent
(Brent)
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