Background

What is a Humus Oasis?

A Humus Oasis is a living place where Biocyclic Humus Soil is created, cultivated and used. It can be as small as a raised bed on a balcony or as large as an entire agricultural operation.

The concept connects people from different backgrounds – hobby gardeners, vegetable growers, farmers and investors – in a shared goal: the restoration of living, fertile soils.

Humus Oases together form a network based on the philosophy of biocyclic-vegan cultivation: no use of animal inputs, fully plant-based cycles, maximum biodiversity.

How is Biocyclic Humus Soil created?

The process begins with the production of quality compost using the Lübke-Hildebrandt method – exclusively from plant residues. In the case of Biocyclic Park in Greece, these are olive pomace, grape pomace, olive leaves, vegetable waste and mushroom substrate. The composition of the starting materials varies depending on the location and availability of plant material.

This compost is then refined under biocyclic-vegan growing conditions over several years by growing plants. The plants pump carbohydrates into the substrate, where stable carbon compounds accumulate.

The result is macromolecular carbon structures (Micro-Carbon-Clusters) that can no longer be broken down by microbes (carbon store) and serve as a carrier substance for plant nutrients (fertility catalyst). This also protects water-soluble nutrients from leaching, even though they can be easily absorbed by the plant.

What is a terra plena Hub?

A terra plena Hub is an action alliance of various stakeholders who, through coordinated cooperation at the local level, help close nutrient cycles and thereby enable the generation of Biocyclic Humus Soil.

A terra plena Hub brings together six actor groups: Raw material suppliers (food processing, agriculture, landscape management), PCS® providers (also called 'incubators'), Refiners (gardeners and farmers who run Humus Oases), terra plena vegetable buyers (gastronomy, farm shops, retail, households), Soil curators (investors) and Hub coordinators.

Each Hub contributes to the restoration of regional soil fertility while simultaneously creating economic value for all participants.

The goal is for terra plena Hubs to emerge in as many locations as possible, forming a dense network so that PCS® can be made available everywhere in sufficient quantities without long transport routes, to then be refined into Biocyclic Humus Soil in Humus Oases.