I.D. Please

[Jewels]

I found a seam of this stuff out in the badlands.
My spidey senses tell me it is Humic. Sometimes I make shit up, then I struggle to prove it.

I have played around with it, and can tell you that ,
It is sedimentry, and tightly stratified

Coffe coloured - (med. roast Tobogan)

It does not cleave cleanly
I can see parent material in the grain

It is softer than gypsum
Pulverizes %100 down to- fine as flour
It fizzles orange when I dust a flame with it.

40 gram sample with 100ml distilled water yields opauge.

Stuff looks delicious actually. Like espresso dregs, only finer.
I can scracely make it drip.



Not completely dissolved @ 10:4 ratio (85 -90% ? remains as solid)
reads @ 4.6 ph steady
Hanna KCI @ 660 ppm

Looks like could be Leonardite or Humalite ( read urbmicrobes ) Could be good ol' crap brown coal. In this case, I cannot spot the shinolá.

Where should I poke it next ?

 

[jpcyan]

Cool stuff you are doing there. Way beyond my level on an ID, but interesting none the less.
I see a lot of rock but my eyes are focused for flint/chert/granite and worked specimens.

urbmicrobes? I'll look it up.

I dont know if this will lead you anywhere but possibly an acid test?
https://geology.com/minerals/acid-test.shtml

I dig rocks, not physically just mentally I'm a surface collector (creek hunter) of artifacts. Always find this stuff interesting.
good luck on an ID.

 

[Jewels]

Most of my local finds are ammolite, baceolite (sp?), kimberlite, and the coal seams show amber when wet.

I have a couple more I.D.eas

I could make a foliar spray following humalite ratios. I could test it on the Swiss Chard, it grows fastest in my garden.

I could raise my tapwater by 50ppm with the sludge, and attempt to grow out elodea canadisis (sp?) underwater.

I could germinate corn and green pea seed in the tap+50ppm solution, regarding the sprouts.

I mean, I could try a lot of things- if I got off my ass. Alternatively,,,there is a company in Alberta that processes humalite. I wonder how communicative they would be with a little guy like me ?

 

[jpcyan]

heh Yeah i saw that company I believe in my quick search. You should contact them regardless. Ya never know.
Interesting ideas, you have a much better grasp of the whole concept than I.
Would you be running a control in the applications to determine what or how much increase in growth is achieved in the examples of application you listed?
Very cool stuff, I look forward to seeing you do one or more of these IDeas.
And yup your " I could try a lot of things if.." fits me as well, perfectly.

off topic: Do you know your minerals,rock, stones fairly well? If so I have a specimen I'd love to get a lil help on an ID. I found it locally, but I'm not sure it was here naturally. Someone may have found it and brought it here.

 

[Jewels]

I am somewhat familiar with what is below my feet. I guess I am like anyone else in that my research goes only as far as my personal interest in the particular soup du jour. Although, I am getting older, and have eaten a lot of soup.

I became curious when I saw this on the urbmicrobes website ( I saw someone spontaneously summon them by mentioning their name a few times on this site, I thought I would keep putting that tag in there,,, to see if it really works)


I AM in Alberta, so its not like I am claiming moonrocks here.
This "Humalite" is starting to look like a trade name. Not many use the term.
This is a random Leonardite.

I do have a Hanna phosphate checker. If I could get advertised ratios, I may have a better idea after checking that.
I am limited with other ideas/ tests that I can do at home.

 

[jpcyan]

hmmm thanks for the info. Yeah i couldnt find it other than as a product. I did read about the peat based coal. Interesting to me as well as the area i live is coal rich and mines. I even find it in veins in the creeks.. I need to read up a bit more. Good luck, I think youare onthe right trackl

 

[Jewels]

That is where you will find amber.
Let winter do the work for you; go hounding after breakup, or a good spring thaw. The mechanical force of the crushing ice and snow will wash away the buoyant coal and leave the Amber glistening on the surface.

I read somewhere that " humalite " is a bastardization of the word humic and Alberta. Very clever.

I want to think that this stuff holds some benefit. Activated carbon is similiar and it can can sequester yucky stuff.

These humates are advertised as incredible soil amendments. They can revitalize soil and also detoxify harmful metals and remove other contaminants. I am curious if this could be added to my post harvest soil itinerary, and cycled through my worm farm, to help desalinate coco chunks and hydrocorns, Tur-face , cintered clay and other open pore media recyclables.
The humates are microbe friendly. It has piqued my curiousity. This is appealing to me as I have working towards creating a "living" soiless soil.

My wife told me I love my soil more than my plants when the saw me loading bin after bin into the basement before winter. And rightly so, I also love tropical fish; but- you throw a WC Bolivian Ram Cichlid into a cesspool and you dont have fish no more.
I want my soil to be a living, breathing organism. I want my soil to grab a seed in its motherfearthly palm, and squeeze a half pound of bud out from between her fingers,,,

 

[jpcyan]

Love the way your thinking there! Building the soil is something I have had interest in for several years. I've tried many of the methods described from online sources, never really knowing what beneficial micro organisms and bacteria I was culturing.
I've tried the rice wash method for capturing and culturing BIM's from the forest floor, my worm bins, and from directly beneath the plants in my garden. Without a really good microscope and the knowledge of what I was looking at, or for, its hard to say.
I've also cultured Lacto Bac. and BTi with some success. I only know it (BTi) worked because it did kill the mosquito larvae in multiple control vs. BTi tests. Its use in pots for fungus gnat larvae was not as successful as store bought granular forms
I've also attempted culturing store bought endo-ecto products. Made some really nasty stinking stuff haha,
I love the idea of the desalination of the coco and hydroton/corn. And the benefits to the worm copmosting.

Good stuff Jewels, after a few years break from it all, I've recently regained my interest in Mycological and herbal endeavors. I hope to be playing with some of these ideas again as I wade back into it all.
But the "If I only got off" factor.. hehe and other things keeping me busy at the moment kind of limit the time I can put in.

Keep searching for info, working with and applying your ideas.! Just the discussion has me at least "feeling" more inspired to do the same.
have a great day.