In recent years, the concept of ecological agriculture and green development has gradually evolved into a profound revolution in agricultural development concepts and has become a key focus of supply-side structural reform in agriculture. The accompanying policy requirements, such as “zero growth” in chemical fertilizers, weight reduction and efficiency enhancement, and the replacement of chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers, have also triggered a transformation in the agricultural input sector, embracing “scientific fertilizer use and green development.” This green revolution has given rise to mineral-sourced fulvic acid. Let’s delve deeper into the wonders of mineral-sourced fulvic acid.
Fulvic acid is a short-chain, small molecule extracted from natural humic acid. It is the water-soluble fraction with the smallest molecular weight and the highest content of active groups. It is widely found in nature, with the largest concentration found in soil. Fulvic acid is primarily composed of a naturally occurring, low-molecular-weight, yellow to dark-brown, amorphous, colloidal, fatty, and aromatic organic polyelectrolyte, and cannot be represented by a single chemical formula.
The Effects of Mineral Fulvic Acid:
1. Soil Improvement: Fulvic Acid is Food for Microorganisms
The effects of fulvic acid can alter soil aggregate structure. Fulvic acid contains numerous functional groups that interact with soil particles, forming aggregates of varying sizes and creating a stable structure. Its molecular exchange capacity is between 400-600 me/100g, compared to the ion exchange capacity of ordinary soil, which is only 10-20 me/100g. “This means that after fulvic acid is applied to the soil, its surface activity can adsorb, exchange, and complex the applied fertilizer. It also converts the soil-bound nutrients, converting them from nutrients that cannot be absorbed by crops into nutrients that can be utilized by them, thereby improving nutrient utilization. This is what distinguishes it from ordinary compound fertilizers.”
Fulvic acid is also food for microorganisms. In soils where fulvic acid forms aggregates, microbial activity is intense, biological activity is high, and nutrient supply is plentiful. Nutrient storage and supply are well-coordinated, thereby improving soil fertility. As soil microorganisms proliferate, they convert and release the available nutrients that were bound by the soil for crop absorption. Fulvic acid can also remediate heavy metal contamination in soil. It chelates heavy metals, particularly hexavalent chromium, converting it to trivalent chromium, thus inactivating it and rendering it non-toxic. Properly treated soil can be used for planting the same year. Appropriate use can increase yields and produce more ecologically sound crops.
Fulvic acid also regulates soil pH, balancing the pH balance. Mineral-sourced fulvic acid has a dual effect on soil conditioning, adjusting acidity when exposed to acid and alkalinity when exposed to alkalinity, effectively adjusting the soil pH to a suitable environment for crop growth. Furthermore, mineral-sourced fulvic acid can eliminate soil compaction.
2. Improve fertilizer utilization, save costs, and reduce fertilizer pollution.
Fulvic acid can significantly improve fertilizer efficiency, particularly for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and trace element fertilizers. It can serve as a slow-release agent for nitrogen fertilizers, an activator for phosphorus fertilizers, a fast-acting agent for potassium fertilizers, and a chelating agent for trace element fertilizers.
Fulvic acid is a slow-release agent for nitrogen fertilizers and inhibits urease and nitrate degrading enzymes in the soil. “As we all know, the raw materials of compound fertilizers and mixed fertilizers mainly use urea as nitrogen fertilizer. Urea is amide nitrogen. After being applied to the soil, it must be converted into ammonium nitrogen or nitrate nitrogen under the action of urease before it can be absorbed and utilized by crops. Fulvic acid has an inhibitory effect on urease and nitrification, thereby improving the utilization rate of amide nitrogen. The inhibitory effect of mineral fulvic acid on enzymes can last for about 100 days. During the growth period of crops, fulvic acid can inhibit the decomposition of urea, thereby reducing the volatilization of urea. This proves that fulvic acid has a slow-release effect. In the middle and late stages of crop growth, as crops absorb fulvic acid, its inhibitory effect on urease weakens, and the release of urea gradually increases to meet the large demand for nitrogen during the period of vigorous crop development. In addition, fulvic acid can also inhibit It inhibits nitrifying enzyme activity, improves urea utilization, and increases ammonia stability.
Fulvic acid is an activator for phosphate fertilizers. The direct reason why fulvic acid improves the efficiency of phosphate fertilizers is that it forms fulvic acid-metal-phosphate complexes with phosphate fertilizers, such as fulvic acid iron, fulvic acid aluminum, and fulvic acid phosphorus. These complexes prevent soil phosphorus fixation and facilitate crop uptake, thereby increasing phosphate fertilizer utilization from 10%-20% to 28%-39%. “In soil, phosphate fertilizers are typically monoammonium phosphate and diammonium phosphate, which are easily fixed in the soil and therefore have low utilization rates. The addition of fulvic acid forms a ternary stable structure, combining phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium, and aluminum into a ternary complex or chelate, thereby improving phosphorus utilization. Related research has shown that when mineral-derived fulvic acid is combined with phosphate fertilizers, phosphorus availability increases by 14.6% compared to applying phosphate fertilizers alone, and inhibits phosphorus fixation by 8.4 times.” As a fast-acting agent for potassium fertilizers, research has shown that fulvic acid can promote the release of insoluble potassium and increase the release of available potassium in the soil, particularly water-soluble potassium, while also reducing the fixation of potassium fertilizers. When humic acid combines with potassium ions, it releases the potassium that is fixed in the soil, converting it from inaccessible to crops into usable, significantly improving potassium utilization and reducing potassium loss with water and soil fixation.
Chelating agents for micronutrient fertilizers. Currently, micronutrient fertilizers primarily include sulfates, zinc sulfate, iron sulfate, copper sulfate, and keto acids. However, these micronutrient fertilizers are easily fixed in the soil after application, becoming insoluble, making them difficult for crops to absorb and utilize, thus losing their effectiveness. After conducting a series of experiments on zinc sulfate and zinc fulvic acid, the zinc content of zinc sulfate was about 30%, and the zinc content of zinc fulvic acid was 5%. Through the tracking test method, the zinc content in plants was measured, and the zinc content of fulvic acid was 30% higher than that of zinc sulfate. This shows why fulvic acid improves the utilization rate of trace fertilizers. When fulvic acid is applied to the soil, due to the large number of active groups (carboxyl, phenylhydroxyl, methoxy) in fulvic acid, it reacts with trace elements in the soil, converting the part that cannot be absorbed and utilized by crops into absorbable and usable parts, thereby greatly improving the utilization rate of trace elements. “In addition, experiments have found that mineral fulvic acid can undergo chelation reactions with trace elements such as iron and zinc to form fulvic acid trace element chelates with good solubility and easy absorption by plants.
