Humus that contains supramolecular humic molecules (generically called Humic Acids) and plants that are mycorrhizal are the key to successful agriculture. So implementing the use of humics that are guaranteed to be supramolecular and inoculating the crop with the mycorrhizal species Glomus intraradices will play a significant role in producing the maximum yield of any short season crop including the production of World Record Pumpkins.
Trace Minerals: Kelp is for trace minerals and since we use kelp in everything we produce at Soil Secrets, using our protocol always results in plenty of trace minerals. Don't use more if you are using TerraPro, Earth Nectar, Earth Ambrosia or Protein Crumblies at minimum label rates. Since Kelp and Raw Whole Organic Milk are major ingredients in formulating our TerraPro's humic characteristics and kelp is also used in the formulation of the other listed products, our protocol provides a healthy dose of trace minerals. For example, in acid soils Calcium is a limiting factor and all plant and animal life need Calcium. Well there's no better source or better molecular configuration for Calcium than what's found in Raw Whole Organic Milk, and the molecular configuration of the humic molecules of TerraPro are made by using milk.
What makes a plant produce biomass is the combination of energy from the sun, nitrogen from the protein coming from the soil microbiology (what we call the Soil Food Web), carbon from the atmosphere and the major base cations occupying the Cation Exchange Capacity of the soil. Hopefully your soil is dominated by the base cation Calcium, which is often the case in a high pH soil (alkaline). Cation Exchange Capacity is abbreviated CEC and if its low, often the case with sandy soil, then fortifying the site with humic molecules that have an extremely high CEC will help you hold onto those base cations you have purchased and applied to the site. Adding our supramolecular humic molecules of TerraPro will fortify additional CEC potential, helping to retain the base cation minerals that are being added to the site, for example, in the form of slow release fertilizers like Compost.
While the CEC of TerraPro's humic molecules is huge, adding the product will not change the indigenous CEC of the soil, unless you added a ridiculous amount of it. The exception of needed to add huge amounts of TerraPro is when you’re dealing with toxic and corrosive mine tailings. The major base cations of soil such as the calcium may not be abundant in a soil with a low pH, or the minerals might be cemented into the chemistry of the soil and the plant is unable to make them available via a "solutioning"process. Solutioning is a term of geology where carbonic acid and other weak acids of soil chemistry dissolve the solid mass of rock, putting the elements of the rock into a liquid solution. Once in a liquid solution plants are able to uptake those minerals as needed. Both the mycorrhizal relationship and the supramolecular humic molecules that make up the persistent carbon of soil play a huge role in plant nutrient uptake potential by solutioning the indigenous minerals of the soil that the plant cannot get on its own. The humic factor helps to keep the minerals in a water nutrient solution longer, as the molecules of the humics, if supramolecular only, hold water molecules from evaporating away so easily. If the soil has a poor Soil Food Web which is almost always the case, then it's prudent to fortify the Soil Food Web with Protein Crumblies to make sure there's enough protein nitrogen cycling on the site to satisfy every part of the terrestrial biosphere including the pumpkin crop.