A teaspoon of healthy soil contains more organisms than there are people on Earth. Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods—an entire ecosystem invisible to the naked eye, all working to cycle nutrients and build soil structure. This is the soil food web, and understanding it changes how you think about feeding your plants.
Most gardeners focus on NPK—nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium—the big three nutrients that plants need in largest quantities. But plants can't actually use most of these nutrients directly. They need the soil food web to convert them into available forms.
Here's how it works: organic matter falls to the ground. Bacteria and fungi begin breaking it down, absorbing nutrients into their bodies. Protozoa and nematodes eat the bacteria and fungi, releasing nutrients in their waste. Larger organisms eat smaller ones, and nutrients keep cycling, becoming more and more available to plants at each step.
Humic substances play a crucial role in this web. They're a food source for bacteria and fungi—carbon compounds that microorganisms can metabolize. When you add KARA to your soil, you're not directly feeding your plants. You're feeding the organisms that feed your plants. It's a more indirect approach, but it's how natural systems work.
Humic substances also create habitat. Their complex molecular structure provides surfaces for bacteria to colonize, spaces for fungal hyphae to grow through. They help soil particles stick together into aggregates, creating the pore spaces that organisms need to move and breathe.
This is why synthetic fertilizers and humic substances work so differently. Synthetic fertilizers bypass the soil food web, delivering nutrients directly to plants in water-soluble forms. It works, but it doesn't build soil. Humic substances take the long way, strengthening the living systems that make soil fertile for generations.