Dr. Earth Acid Lovers Fertilizer

[CAP]

What exactly is in this product that makes it acid lover plant specific? All of the ingredients and NPK are comparable to regular vegetable organic fertilizers that i use. Is this more of a marketing ploy or might this affect my soils PH?
I bought 32lbs of this stuff for very cheap and plan to mix it 50/50 with a regular all purpose organic fertilizer.

 

[Chuck]

What exactly is in this product that makes it acid lover plant specific? All of the ingredients and NPK are comparable to regular vegetable organic fertilizers that i use. Is this more of a marketing ploy or might this affect my soils PH?
I bought 32lbs of this stuff for very cheap and plan to mix it 50/50 with a regular all purpose organic fertilizer.

This is a very good organic fertilizer. It has 11% humic acid added. The humic acid is derived from Leonaidornite and is not a marketing ploy. If it affects your soils Ph at all it will only be for a very short time. I have used this product in my alkaline soil vegetable garden and found it to be excellent

 

[CAP]

This is a very good organic fertilizer. It has 11% humic acid added. The humic acid is derived from Leonaidornite and is not a marketing ploy. If it affects your soils Ph at all it will only be for a very short time. I have used this product in my alkaline soil vegetable garden and found it to be excellent

Ok thanks, glad to hear it. I just get nervous when it comes to my tomatoes!! I seen that 11% humic acid which is 5% higher than my regular so not a big deal. I also looked into what humic acid does and it sounds all good! I suggested the marketing ploy because i read something about how this product helps to "maintain" a lower PH but nothing about lowering it. It just seems odd to me since regular fertilizer doesn't raise my PH. Happy New Year!

 

[Marck]

I think you mean Leonardite, not Leonaidornite. Leonardite is an organic substance found in coal deposits.

Whether a by-product of coal is mining should be preferred source of organic matter is one question.
But in any case, if you are pay a premium for Leonardite over any other organic matter... that is likely hype and marketing.
Especially since (drum roll).... Humus does not exist in soil! Instead, humic compounds are artifacts created by the alkaline extraction methods used to study them.

Here is an article about it in Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16069

...and here is the take home quote from the abstract:
"available evidence does not support the formation of large-molecular-size and persistent ‘humic substances’ in soils. Instead, soil organic matter is a continuum of progressively decomposing organic compounds".

 

[Marck]

Whether a by-product of coal mining should be a preferred source of organic matter is one question.
But in any case, if you pay a premium for Leonardite over any other organic matter... that is likely hype and marketing.

I had to correct those sentences. It was bugging me. I will try to proof-read better going forward.

 

[DirtMechanic]

As much as you put out there it is bound to happen. Maybe I will try to read slower so I can complain about your spelling occasionally.