Farmers normally have a 24 to 48 hour window to get their pulse seed into the ground after inoculating it with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Wait too long and the bacteria start to die off.
But coating the inoculated seed with a polymer can extend the life of those bacteria up to 30 days, allowing growers to preinoculate their seed, or not worry about reinoculation after a stretch of bad weather.
Pat Michetti of Calgary and partner Ken Getty of Lethbridge own Kenobie Inc., which has exclusive rights for a pulse crop polymer formulation.
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They have been marketing it in Western Canada for the past four years, although Michetti said the first year involved testing the product and the past three have been spent building a dealer network.
“We use a mobile machine and put on the polymer, a peat-based inoculant and fungicide seed treatments if the customer requires it,” he said. “We can do JumpStart in our system, as well.”
The polymer creates a moisture barrier so the rhizobia have the moisture to stay viable until the seeds are planted. It also includes nutrients to feed the bacteria.
Michetti said Grow Tec was the first western Canadian company to work with rhizobia-safe polymers, in the 1990s, but European farmers had been using polymers on pulse crops before that. Grow Tec did the research to make it adaptable to the prairie climate and more rhizobia safe, she added.
The product is used to coat peas, lentils, chickpeas, fababeans and soybeans. While it also works on dry beans, Michetti said most producers don’t inoculate their beans, so Kenobie hasn’t done much work with that crop. The polymer includes a metallic-like substance that creates the moisture barrier.
“The components in the polymer are proprietary information, but viscosity and stability are the most important properties,” Michetti said. “That determines the drying time and the level of moisture it can seal into the seed.”
It is a water-based biological product, which means it dissolves and the seed germinates normally when moisture hits it.
“Because of that, it does very well in a dry year. When you put rhizobia in the ground without the polymer, it does die off. In a dry year, the polymer will stay on the seed, keeping the rhizobia viable until you get some moisture.”
After the polymer is applied, growers can’t apply a seed treatment or get the seed wet.
“As soon as they get the seed wet, it’s going to dissolve the polymer.”
Time management and efficiency are the main benefits.
“It’s a clean, timely, efficient process. Our customers know that each one of those seeds is coated the same. It’s a uniform product.”
Michetti said clients include larger farmers looking to manage their time better and work with a convenient product.
“They don’t have the labour they need to do this inoculating (in a timely fashion). We have some small guys, too, so it can fit into any type of operation.”
Michetti said she is confident with a 30-day shelf life if a farmer wants only inoculant and the polymer, but the period can vary with fungicidal seed treatment.
“With Apron Maxx, which is not really very harsh, we have data for 30 days. With Crown and Apron, we have a two-week window. However, with Vitaflow we have a small window as it’s very harsh on the rhizobia. Our counts really start to drop after three days, so I wouldn’t recommend holding that seed. But we’re still ahead of what it would do to the rhizobia if the polymer was not on the seed.”
She said a producer south of Regina treated lentils at the end of April last year and didn’t finish planting until June 20. The seed was still viable six weeks after application and produced one of his best lentil crops, she added.
“While we wouldn’t suggest someone wait that long, if they had to wait 30 days, that would not be a problem.”
Michetti said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s standard for pulse crop inoculation is 100,000 live cells per seed on peas and 10,000 on lentils. She said her system typically produces about 300,000 on peas, 650,000 on chickpeas because it’s a larger seed and 65,000 on lentils.
“We inoculated some pea seed last October and results from the end of April showed we still had counts of 200,000 after five months,” she said.
“We’re not recommending farmers wait that long, or keep their seed over to the next year without reinoculating it. But we know we definitely have a 30-day window with seed that’s not treated with a fungicide.”
Michetti tests every sample after applying the inoculant and polymer.
“(Farmers) get a certificate from an accredited lab showing them how many viable cells they had on that seed at the time of treating, so they get peace of mind, knowing their pulse crops are well inoculated,” she said.
The company has also found that its polymer can increase germination by 20 percent on mechanically damaged seed.
Michetti said seed growers and chemical and fertilizer dealers are also becoming interested in the product. She began with a Protec polymer, but this year she is using the L404 blue polymer made by Incotech, which is specifically formulated for pulse crops.
Incotech makes other polymers as well and Michetti said she is considering some for wheat, to carry micronutrients.
Kenobie treated 270,000 bushels of pulse crops last year, she said.
