Over the last 7 years, we have conducted countless field trials and research initiatives with the goal of leveraging a foliar biological product. We are excited to announce that this work has finally come to fruition. SRP has been developed to optimize plant health and suppress disease while enhancing plant growth.
Continued research has led to some groundbreaking discoveries on the effectiveness of SRP on a variety of crops. This technology consists of a carefully formulated microbial community that is proven to boost plant growth by solubilizing phosphorus and increasing disease resistance throughout the growing season.
The SRP Advantage
We are constantly pushing the boundaries of what microbiology can do and challenging ourselves to create innovative solutions for growers that are easy to use and compete with conventional products. By focusing on more than one function and using a blend of microbial colonies, we are able to achieve this.
Specific microbial communities used in SRP:
Bacillus licheniformis
Bacillus megaterium
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
Early Research
This technology was first tested on bananas in the Dominican Republic (see full blog here) on a form of fusarium that caused up to 50% yield loss. Although this study led to some really eye-opening discoveries, more field and replicated trials on Canadian crops were needed in order to develop a product for broad acre crop production.
During our field trials, we found that not only did SRP applications result in a healthier, more uniform crop, an increase in biomass was also observed and tissue samples revealed elevated macro and micro nutrient levels in the plants with phosphorus being particularly abundant. Our focus with SRP is not just about disease resistance. We understand that during the growing season, crops need phosphorus as a key driver for maturation, overall quality, and yield.
Introducing SRP to Broad Acre Crops
We started in southern Saskatchewan with trials on chickpeas and lentils.
This grower was very pleased with the results, especially when observing the biomass imagery of his chickpeas. More on this study.
This led to another trial on lentils where we looked at things from a full program approach: ACF-SR at planting, SRP at fungicide timing, AgroLiquid fertilizer and humic.
It was clear that there was a real economic benefit to incorporating SRP during the growing season and building a program around it. The data represented in the chart below outlines the net revenue and yield vs control on a dryland farm near Kindersley SK, using varied programs on farm. The results speak for themselves.
Since we were seeing great results on dryland farms, our focus shifted to irrigated operations. Here is what Jeremy Wind of Windview Farms had to say about his irrigated potato trials:
“Not only did we save money on our fungicide bill, we saw healthier plants with less disease on the potato fields we applied SRP to, which led to larger and more uniform-sized tubers.”
Research is ongoing on this technology, but we know the potential ROI for farmers using this product is significant.