ИСТИНА

Commercial humic products (CHP) produced by manufactures from various organic raw materials, are being increasingly used in agriculture. Depending on organic source material (mostly lignite, peat and composts), humic acids, which are considered to be the active ingredient in CHP, are different in chemical structure and, consequently, in their efficiency as plant growth promotors and soil conditioners. Basing on our experimental research, in the presentation following issues will be discussed: - Chemical properties of lignite-, peat- and lignosulphonate- derived CHP, their similarity and diversity (elemental content, IR-spectra, absorption and fluorescence spectra); - Biological activity of CHPs in laboratory and field experiments: case studies. Results of experiments testing a number of CHPs differing in organic matter genesis and using various endpoints (plant biometry, soil chemical and biochemical parameters, bioassays with battery of test-cultures, effect on yield and crop quality in field trials) will be presented. - Approaches to assess the effectivity and “integrated environmental quality” of CHP: detoxication coefficient, Triad method, Harrington desirability function.