Bio-stimulant products are getting used by farmers more and more across Australia in addition to their traditional fertilizer programs.
However, there is still confusion for farmers around this sector as CEO Gary Murdoch-Brown of EcoCatalysts Pty Ltd – a leading Bio-Stimulants company with offices in Australia, South Africa, USA and the UK explains.
“We often see in both the farming and scientific worlds’ confusion on three points when it comes to Bio-Stimulants.
•One—what products are classed as Bio-Stimulants
•Two—product quality and
•Three—the promoted and perceived complication and difficulty in using Bio-Stimulants”.
Gary noted the below statement and the diagram from Scientia Horticulturae (Figure 1)that help clear up point one.
“A plant bio-stimulant is any substance or microorganism applied to plants with the aim to enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and/or crop quality traits, regardless of its nutrients content.”*
Point two—product quality—is a major challenge in the Australian market as Gary explains.
“Due to having no registration requirements by companies in the Australian market of Bio-Stimulants and fertiliser products, it opens the door for all sorts of products to be promoted to growers”.
“Often poor raw material and/or cheap extraction processes from raw material leads to sediment or solids left in the product that can cause blockages in irrigation/application systems; or the opposite with products watered down that much, that growers are applying little more than a good water.”
“Then you have companies trying to make the bio-stimulant market complicated while others promote the ‘snake oil’ market and how difficult they are to use. But they are challenges we need to meet,” Gary said.
EcoCatalysts seem to be doing a good job in meeting these challenges through their broad spectrum Bio-Stimulant technology.
Their product C-Lift™ is one example of this broad spectrum approach as explained by Gary.
“By utilizing the latest technology in raw material and extraction processes we are able to create the highest quality broad spectrum products that make life a lot easier and simpler for farmers”.
Through concentration technology of kelp product AfriKelp, high analysis, quality refined fulvic acid and fish amino acids, EcoCatalysts have created a unique 3-way synergistic product.
Farmers can now use one product that gives them the many benefits the three individual ingredients offer with no more on-farm and complicated mixing.
C-Lift is a powerful broad spectrum bio-stimulant that as a stand-alone product can assist crops get through biotic and abiotic stress periods and when mixed with soluble powders or liquid fertilisers it increases nutrient uptake.
Call to find out more about C-Lift and other EcoCatalysts products so you can make your life easier.
Phone 1800 207 009
www.ecocatalysts.com.au
See this article in Tree Fruit August 2018
