A 33% increase in sugar beet weight has been achieved from a very simple application of beneficial soil bacteria.
A very specific group of beneficial soil bacteria called Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been selected, refined, and made ready for general farming use over a four year research and development (R&D) programme at PlantWorks Ltd, the UK’s leading Biofertilser company.
PlantWorks, the UK’s leading manufacturer of beneficial soil microbes, will be releasing three PGPR products in 2018 ready for spring planting under the SMART ROTATIONS brand.
Targeted at beets, spinach, carrots, potatoes, onions and leeks, the unique blends of bacteria have been refined in laboratory and glass house experiments, and proven to improve yields in field trials.
Supplied as stable liquid suspension, ensuring the bacterial cells are at their optimal condition, the products are mixed into standard spraying tanks for direct soil application pre-emergence.
The bacteria in these products are grown using pharmaceutical production methods ensuring they are delivered to farm in peak condition with an eighteen month shelf life with no special storage conditions required.
'Growing techniques'
PGPR offer a wide range of benefits to treated plants and seeds through nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilisation, improved plant root development and general plant health as well as increased soil organic matter
"During our research and development we have discovered that crops reacted to different consortia of PGPR, and that the approach offered by other suppliers of simply adding further strains to a product to broaden its appeal can have little effect or indeed can be detrimental", says Dr QiaoYi Lin, Head of Science at PlantWorks
"Apart from poor selection of bacteria, previous products have also suffered from not being able to deliver sufficient numbers of viable bacterial cells to the ground to enable them to have a consistent effect within the natural background microbial community.
"We have refined the growing techniques for these PGPR, all of which have different requirements, to a point where we can deliver on average 100 million bacteria per treated plant or seed; at such high population numbers the probability of consistent positive effects is dramatically increased."
Increase in weight
In 2017, PlantWorks undertook trials in association with Allpress Farms in Cambridge using its SR3 Beet & Spinach product, sprayed twice, once after sowing and then six weeks later using a standard sprayer with 200L of water being sprayed per hectare.
A 33% statistically significant increase in the weight of the sugar beet root was noted, and chemical analysis confirmed that the treated beets had a small increase of 3.5% in sugar content with no changes in amino N. The SR3 Beet & Spinach product is available in a 5 hectare application unit size from spring 2018.
In collaboration with farmers and leading agronomy companies in the UK, PlantWorks has been studying the effects of different blends of PGPR in controlled trials, whilst in parallel quantifying shelf life and refining application methods.
Trials in 2018 will support the further expansion of the SR3 range to embrace Wheat, Oats and Oil Seed Rape derivatives for launch in 2019
