With weather warming up, many growers are starting to think about planting. The first thing all growers should consider before seeding this year’s crop is crop health as well as soil health. Whether it’s a phosphate-solubilizing biological or a liquid inoculant for your pulse or soybean crops, XiteBio has eco-friendly and ROI-friendly technologies that should nicely fit into your cropping plan. In this week’s edition of Growing Possibilities, we will be breaking down all the products XiteBio offers by crop, so you can choose the right product for your fields.
Canola
One of the major crops of the Canadian prairies is Canola, with all Western Canadians familiar with the sight of a canola field in the summer. Canola was the first crop that XiteBio® Yield+ was approved for, and this liquid biological has been helping farmers across both the US and Canada enhance their plant health ever since. XiteBio® Yield+ has been shown to increase the efficiency of your phosphate fertilizer applications by solubilizing soil-fixed phosphates, creating more plant-available P for your crop to use. Field research trials have shown an average 3 bu/ac yield gain when using XiteBio® Yield+, compared to untreated check.
Cereals
Corn, Wheat and Barley might be the biggest row crops in North America, and XiteBio® Yield+ can make them even bigger. XiteBio® Yield+ is a liquid biological that utilizes Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) to solubilize soil-fixed phosphates, encourage early root development and help your plants deal with environmental stress. In an all-in-one, easy-to-use package it can be applied in-furrow or early post-emergent in the 0-6 leaf stage. Our field trials have shown increased root mass, earlier flowering and incremental yield gains of +6 bu/ac in corn, +5 bu/ac in wheat, +7 bu/ac in barley, and +7 bu/ac in oats, on average.
Pulse Crops
XiteBio® PulseRhizo® liquid inoculant for peas, lentils and faba beans has become a favorite of many pulse growers in Western Canada, and for good reasons. XiteBio® PulseRhizo® inoculates your pulse crop with an optimal number of vigorous nitrogen (N)-fixing bacteria that use our unique AGPT® formulation, meaning the introduced bacteria work alongside your native soil bacteria, not against them. The all-in-one, easy to handle package of XiteBio® PulseRhizo® is all you need to ensure that your pulse crop is well nodulated and N-fixation is at its highest.
Pulse crops are heavy phosphorous (P) users, which means soil lacking plant-available phosphates may lead to nutrient deficiency in your crop. XiteBio® Yield+ can be used on all pulse crops either in-furrow or early post-emergent to unlock the soil-fixed phosphates already present in your fields. This means XiteBio® Yield+ not only increases the efficiency of your applied phosphate fertilizer, but also unlocks phosphates already present in your soil.
Soybeans
As most soybean growers know, soybeans require a rhizobial inoculant either on-seed or in-furrow during planting to create N-fixing root nodules. XiteBio® SoyRhizo® has been the liquid inoculant of choice of many growers since its introduction onto the market a decade ago. Utilizing our unique AGPT® formula, XiteBio® SoyRhizo® adds fresh, vigorous N-fixing rhizobia to your soil to get the best nodulation and optimal N-fixation.
XiteBio® Yield+ has also been used on soybeans since its introduction onto the market. Like pulse crops, soybeans have a large demand for P, with a 35 bu/ac crop taking up 28-35 lbs/ac of P2O5 from the soil (1). XiteBio® Yield+ can help your crop get the P it needs from your soil by making tied-up phosphates available for plants and by giving a boost to early root development.
This year, XiteBio is introducing a new way to get the benefits of both of these technologies into your soybean crop in one simple package. New for 2021 growing season is XiteBio® OptiPlus®, a revolutionary new multi-action in-furrow inoculant for soybeans. XiteBio® OptiPlus® combines the N-fixing power of our AGPT® formulation with P-solubilizing PGPR. Available in a limited trial run this year, XiteBio® OptiPlus is the most efficient way to get all of the benefits XiteBio’s product has to offer into your soybean crop.
Tuber Crops
After conducting field trials in 2019 & 2020, we are happy to say that XiteBio® Yield+ can be used on tuber crops like potatoes and sugar beets. Farmers growing these crops can now reap the benefits of the multi-action formulation of XiteBio® Yield+. Field research trials showed a 14% increase in CWT/ac compared to a control in potato, and has shown a 0.8% increase in sugar content in sugar beet trials.
This year all of XiteBio’s inoculants & biologicals were approved for organic use in Canada, meaning organic growers can now enjoy the same soil enhancing advantages offered by XiteBio’s innovative products. To see full lists of field trials or to learn more about any of our products & technologies, visit xitebio.ca
Reference:
1) https://saskpulse.com/files/general/160401_Phosphorus_management_for_pulses2.pdf