Sustainable Soil Binding Product Hits the Market

Lucent Biosciences has patented a product that they say accelerate sustainable agriculture by delivering crop nutrition, which improves yield and soil by binding nutrients to the cellulosic fibers of soybeans, corn, and wheat crops. Product Manager Brian Waitte says their flagship Soileos line is a climate-friendly micronutrient fertilizer.

“The nutrients that are bound to the cellulose fiber are bound in such a way that they don't tie up in the soil. So they're not as prone to conditions like higher pH that might tie up a soil nutrients, but they're not so bound so tightly that plants and especially microbes can't get at them. So if we have plant root intercepts, the plant root exudates can lift the nutrients off of the fiber, the fiber needing to be degraded.”

Plus he says they are not water soluble. Waitte he explains that the fertilizer is fast acting but also has residual effects.

“The microbes were using the cellulose fiber that the nutrients were bound to as as an energy source as they would any other fiber or crop residue, any source of carbon. But along with it, they were also grabbing and mobilizing and liberating these nutrients that were bound to those fibers and a result of that mode of action. We've seen better nutrient uptake, so better nutrient recovery, better yield response, and all of that happen in year one.”

The Lucent Biofertilizer is created from food processing co-products.