Fossilized Carbon Complex

I was at my local ag/feed store the other day and noticed they have 50lb bags of a product called "Fossilized Carbon Complex" made by Gaia Green (Canadian organics company).

The Gaia website doesn't list the product, the salesperson knew nothing about it and a Google search doesn't turn up much in relation to gardening. The label simply says something like "increases microbial activity in the soil" but surely there has to be more going on here.

Can anyone share some knowledge with me?

.clunk

Did you find the Fossilized Carbon Complex as a stand-alone product or is it part of their turf mix?

CC

Interesting. Sounds like some well-aged bio-char!

I'm sure Coot knows or he'll call Concentrates. I'm curious now.

.clunk

Here's what is probably happening with Gaia Green's Natural Turf & Athletic Field Blend 6-2-3 which is said to contain:

Feather meal, Bone Meal, Glacial Rock Dust, Fossilized Carbon Complex, Mined Potassium Sulphate, Organic Alfalfa Meal, Gypsum

Nothing special or unique about this general fertilizer mix at all.

Fossilized Carbon can refer to a lot of things - coal, oil or even natural gas. FC can be the fossilized remains of dead plants - Carbon

But what it probably being added to this mix is Lignite (Leonardite) which would qualify as a 'Fossilized Carbon Complex' and unprocessed it is a very inexpensive material to use. Leonardite is used to create Humic acids with alkaline solutions.

You could probably find this fertilizer mix from at least 20 companies so shop price but at least Gaia Green is using organic Alfalfa Meal which is not the usual case.

No big deal......

CC

Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

This is, in fact, a stand alone product not the turf blend (google search seems to pull that up quick).

So I'm assuming this is mostly just leonardite - still a very valuable source of humic acids like you say.


I'm wondering if the 50lb bag warrants the $60 price tag...