Humus is the most upper layer of our topsoil and is made up of decomposing or decaying dead organic material. Dead plants, leafs, wood, insects, animals.. when they die billions of good bacteria go to work and transform them into this dark brown or black soil: Humus.
This humus gets mixed with our topsoil (the first 30cm or one foot of our soil) and makes that topsoil airy, with lots of oxygen pockets. It gives the topsoil an advanced ability to retain moisture and it enhances the ability of our roses to take in nutrients.
So to make it short: Humus allows our roses (and all other plants) to eat more goodies.
A soil without humus is dead, it isn't alive. You can throw in tons of fertilizer, without humus your roses won't be able to eat from it.
Getting a thick humus layer isn't difficult. Each Autumn and April you can mulch with compost, composted manure, worm castings, mushroom compost, cow and horse manure etc... In essence it's covering your soil with organic decaying Material. Don't me a Scrooge and give plenty of it, you can't overdose.
So before we ask ourselves which and how many fertilizer we're gonna give its most important to ask ourselves "is my topsoil rich in humus"? If the answer is yes then you can start talking fertilizer. If it's negative you first increase the humus layer. A very good indicator of plenty of humus is the presence of earth worms or rain worms as we call them in Flanders and Holland. Earth worms are our soldiers as they eat the decaying material and poop 💩 out pure humus. If you see plenty of them when you dig a hole you can be sure that your soil is very healthy.
So don't forget how immensely important that black substance is.
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