Aptus - Humic-Blast

An organic soil conditioner built on humic acids from Leonardite. Aptus put it in the last two to three waterings, at 60 ml per 100 litres for the very last one.

You buy this for the end of this crop, not the start

The name and the description suggest a soil improver you use at potting up. Aptus place it somewhere else: Humic-Blast is used in the last two to three waterings. That is the whole application as they give it.

It feels contrary. You are winding down, you are busy flushing your medium out, and that is precisely when you add something.

The reason sits in their own notes. Feeding Humic-Blast in those last waterings makes the feed salts left behind in the medium available again, gives the medium a loose, airy structure, and regulates the EC in it. And then the sentence it all turns on: so that the young plants in the next round establish properly.

So it is not a product for the plant standing there now. It is a product for the pot, and you see the return on it in the crop that follows.

What is wrong with a used medium

At the end of a cycle your soil or coco holds all sorts of things that do not belong there. Feed salts that were never taken up. Elements that have displaced each other and are locked. A structure compacted by months of watering. And, according to Aptus, heavy metals, chlorine compounds, aluminium and sodium as well, for which they claim a detoxifying action.

That is exactly why most growers throw their medium away after one round. Humic-Blast is Aptus's answer to it: they state that using it makes it possible to run the medium for several cycles.

Work out for yourself what that is worth. A bag of soil or coco per round against a feed of 30 to 60 ml at the end.

How humic acids do it

Humic acids hold nutrients and release them at the moment the plant is ready for them. In an exhausted medium that mostly means the second half: what is locked becomes available again.

Alongside that, Aptus name a better soil structure along three lines. A higher water retention capacity, a cation exchange capacity that stays in balance, and the breaking down of salts. Together those restore the structure of the medium rather than only flushing it empty.

The difference from a bare flush is that flushing takes everything out, the good with the bad, and leaves you with a medium that is empty but also dead. Here you keep the soil life and the holding capacity and lose the salt load.

What is in it

• Humic acids from Leonardite, a fossilised source of humus
• Biomass of micro-organisms from controlled fermentation of selected strains, described by Aptus as specific beneficial bacteria
• Growth-promoting L-amino acids
• Specific plant extracts

Aptus additionally describe the product as rich in carbon components and potassium humates, supplemented with natural plant hormones and micro-elements.

Not together with an oxidiser

There are living bacteria in it. An oxidiser does not distinguish between useful and harmful microbial life, so anything working on hydrogen peroxide takes this part of the product out.

In this range that includes Aptus System-Clean at 8% hydrogen peroxide. Do not give them in the same feed.

In use

Shake well before use. Mix 30 ml per 100 litres of water for the last two to three waterings, and 60 ml per 100 litres for the very last one.

If that is not possible, Aptus give an alternative: flush the final week with clean water and Humic-Blast. You can also use it to condition a fresh growing medium before planting, which appears in their manual as a grower's tip.

Suitable for soil, peat mixes and coco substrates.

Available sizes

Technical Specifications:

• Type: organic soil conditioner
• Manufacturer: Aptus
• Contains: humic acids from Leonardite, biomass of micro-organisms, L-amino acids, plant extracts
• Further described as: rich in carbon components and potassium humates, with natural plant hormones and micro-elements
• Dosage: 30 ml per 100 litres of water
• Final watering: 60 ml per 100 litres of water
• Period: the last two to three waterings
• Alternative: flush the final week with clean water and Humic-Blast
• Do not combine with: oxidisers such as hydrogen peroxide
• Substrate: soil, peat mixes and coco
• Before use: shake well

Frequently asked questions

Why add something while I am flushing?
Because you are not treating the plant but the medium. You see the gain in the next round, not this one.

Can I really reuse my soil afterwards?
Aptus state that using it makes running the medium for several cycles possible. Do still judge for yourself whether disease or pests have been in it.

Can I use it at potting up as well?
Yes, that appears as a grower's tip in their manual: use it to condition a fresh medium before planting. The stated application remains the last two to three waterings.

Why 60 ml on the last feed?
That is what Aptus prescribe. The final feed is the heaviest, because nothing follows it to finish the job.

Can it go in with System-Clean?
No, not in the same feed. There are living bacteria in it and hydrogen peroxide kills them.