Bacteria Sourced Organic Ammonium Takes a Step Closer to the Market

May 14, 2018

Very important news for organic berry growers, actually all organic crop growers.

As most of you know, nitrogen is pretty limiting in berry production, and those of you who follow this blog are also aware of the discussions of including conventional sources of fertilizer into organic production because of the issues of low nutrient concentration in organically approved fertilizers.

Perhaps we don't need to worry so much about this anymore.  Looks like to some extent this problem has been solved by the discovery and development by Dr. Brian Ward out of Clemson University of a bacteria produced organic source of ammonium.  The article says Dr. Ward is hoping to scale up to commercial by 2021.

It's a good article by the way, this wasn't something that was achieved easily but Dr. Ward's persistence in figuring it out eventually opened the door.

 

http://www.southeastfarmpress.com/fertilizer/first-bacteria-sourced-organic-ammonium-takes-big-step-closer-market

 


By Mark Bolda
Author - Farm Advisor, Strawberries & Caneberries