US (UT): Decreasing fertilizer use with nanotechnology
“He’ll call me, ‘Hey, your snake oil salesman’s here,’” Block said.
Aqua-Yield’s processed fertilizer might be snake oil to the neighbor, but Block sees it as money in his pocket.
He’s been using Aqua-Yield’s product on one of the fields on his 950-acre farm, where he grows sod for homes, commercial use and athletic fields. Instead of getting one crop a year on that field, he gets two harvests, using the same amount of fertilizer he previously used for a single crop.
“It’s definitely been a game-changer for us,” Block said.
Aqua-Yield CEO Clark Bell says that’s the promise of the new but rapidly growing Draper company’s products: Use less fertilizer and increase yields with its “smallest innovation in agricultural history.”
The problem with most manufactured fertilizers in their traditional forms, he said, are that only a portion is absorbed by the plants. The rest is wasted and can run off into aquifers, streams and lakes.
Aqua-Yield’s innovation reduces or enlarges the size of fertilizer particles so they’re nanosize — anything between 1 and 100 nanometers, which are one-billionth of a meter — then combines them with ultrapure water.
The combination results in a molecular shield, which the company calls its “Nano-Shield,” as water molecules surround the smaller fertilizer particles. According to farmers who have used the processed fertilizer, it improves plant health and greatly increases yields.
Read more at The Salt Lake Tribune (Tom Harvey)
