High yields are possible when seeds germinate early and evenly with uniform emergence.
A new product focuses on those first few days of a seed’s life in the ground.
Protinus, an early plant growth promoter from Wolf Trax Innovative Micronutrients in Winnipeg, recently received registration from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and will be available this spring.
Protinus optimizes the pH around the seed for uptake of important nutrients. It delivers three key micronutrients directly to young seedlings.
Zinc is the main component because it is one of the most important nutrients for all types of young seedlings, said Jennifer Bailes of Wolf Trax.
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Protinus doesn’t provide enough zinc to solve a micronutrient deficiency in the soil, but it is enough to meet the immediate needs of a seedling.
“Our label claim with CFIA is that Protinus enhances early seedling growth. It provides earlier and more uniform emergence and earlier seedling growth,” she said.
“The Canadian registration process requires third party research data to prove efficacy. The third party data we provided came from hundreds of different trials. It supports our claim under a broad range of crops, soil types and growing conditions.
“Hybrid corn gains a half day to one full day over corn that wasn’t treated. It generally tends to be in that neighbour-hood: a benefit of a day or so.”
Bailes said positive responses were documented in wheat, canola, grass, forages, corn, vegetables and soybeans.
Wolf Trax researchers also evaluated shoot growth and root development and found greater root mass and plant weight in more than 80 trials performed by Wolf Trax and independent researchers.
Treated plants had a 10 to 18 percent advantage over non-treated plants. The study included root surface area, root length, fresh weight of the root and fresh weight of the shoot.
Protinus is formulated as a dry powder and is designed for use by seed dealers and operators of professional seed treatment equipment.
For more information, contact Jennifer Bailes at 204-237-9653 or visit www.protinus.org.
