As the company goes into it’s seventh year of operation, more and more farmers are investing in their product. Indeed, says Berg, Azotic is currently developing plans to scale manufacturing to meet the change – from hundreds of thousands of acres this year, to millions next.

Friendly invaders

Azotic North America sells Envita – a bacterial input that can be applied to either as a seed coating or through side-dressing in-furrow. Originally discovered in sugarcane by researchers at the United Kingdom’s University of Nottingham, Berg says the bacteria colonises every cell within the plant at the time of germination, and grows with it. With that bacterium’s help, each plant cell can subsequently fix its own nitrogen.

Global approach

This doesn’t apply to just corn or other grass crops, either. Berg says his company is trying to take a global approach, and they have seen successes in many other crops, from soybeans and rice to canola and pulses.

“It gets physically inside the plant cells where photosynthesis is taking place,” says Berg. “We have yet to find a crop that Envita does not successfully colonise.”

Read the Full Article here: https://www.futurefarming.com/Smart-farmers/Articles/2019/5/Nitrogen-fixing-bacteria-more-available-to-US-farmers-428153E/