Published by New Ag International
February 26, 2024
BioConsortia, Inc., has further developed its nitrogen-fixing products in row crops.
A company news releases stated that “2023 field trial results have confirmed that levels of nitrogen-replacement from BioConsortia’s seed treatment products met or exceeded performance expectations when evaluated in row crops like corn, wheat, rice and cotton.”
The company stated that Always-N microbes exceeded performance expectations and demonstrate fit in a wide variety of crops.
According to Marcus Meadows-Smith, Bio Consortia CEO, the technology, based on proprietary microbes that colonize the roots of crops, “enables growers to optimize their fertilizer use strategy. Since the microbes remain in the root zone throughout the growing season, they ensure there is always nitrogen available to influence crop yield. Even when synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has dissipated, these microbes are still working to convert nitrogen from the air to a form easily taken up by plants,” said Meadows-Smith.”
The company further stated that its nitrogen-fixing seed products are shelf-stable and seed-stable for more than two years. “The stability of BioConsortia’s proprietary microbes when applied to the surface of fertilizer granules has now been shown to extend beyond 40 months. This opens new application opportunities including in-season side-dress or in-furrow uses.”
“We can offer the extended shelf- and seed-life products because our platform is focused on Gram-positive microbes,” explained Dr. Hong Zhu, SVP of R&D at BioConsortia. “We made our job as microbial product designers much more complex because Gram-positive microbes are not generally known for their nitrogen-fixing functionality. We used our proprietary R&D platform to discover and improve the nitrogen-fixing capabilities of Gram-positive microbes. We have demonstrated they are inherently stable and reliable root colonizers, making them ideal for seed treatment products.”