Seed Coatings
Time Released Plant Growth Hormone
Breakthrough Technology for Faster Germination and Stronger Seedlings (Patent Pending)
Conglomeration
Enhanced Coating Technology for Legume Germination and Growth
Encrusting
Building Stronger, Healthier Plants
Fungicide Treatments
A Improved Seed Delivery for Low-Purity Seed Lots
Pelleting
Enhancing Seed Size for Better Handling and Delivery
Germination Delay
Protecting Seeds from Premature Germination
Rhizobium Inoculum
Improved Handling for Seeds with Appendages and Enhanced Delivery of Beneficial Ingredients
Vermicompost Inoculum
Protecting Seeds from Pathogens for Improved Winter Survival
Seed Protectant
Protecting Seeds from Herbicide Toxicity and Predation
Time Released Growth Hormone
Our advanced seed coating technology is designed to address the challenges of physiological dormancy, enabling better germination and seedling emergence to meet restoration goals. While seed dormancy supports long-term species survival, it often conflicts with restoration efforts that require prompt germination within the first year to prevent invasive species from taking over.
To overcome this, we’ve developed a cutting-edge technique that incorporates time-released plant growth hormones, such as gibberellic acid, into the seed coating. As the coating naturally breaks down after planting, it gradually delivers these active ingredients to the seed. This process enhances the germination rate of dormant seeds, accelerates germination in non-dormant seeds, and improves seedling emergence, even from deeper planting depths.
This innovative approach is a game-changer for restoration projects, ensuring healthier, more robust seedling growth when and where it’s needed most.
Vermicompost Inoculum
Our nutrient-rich vermicompost inoculum enhances plant vigor by delivering a powerful mix of beneficial soil microbes, essential nutrients, and natural hormones, creating healthier seedlings and fostering resilient growth. These microbes play a crucial role in limiting damage from pests and diseases by competing for resources, producing antimicrobial compounds, and activating plant defense mechanisms.
In addition, vermicompost supports nutrient cycling as microbes break down organic matter. Plants share exudates with bacteria and fungi, which are then consumed by predators like protozoa and nematodes, releasing soluble nutrients directly to the plant. Through rhizophagy, plants absorb living microbes, gaining immediate access to these nutrients. The endophytic microbes further improve stress tolerance, enabling plants to adapt and thrive in challenging conditions.
With its abundance of nutrients and hormones, vermicompost not only enhances seed germination but also accelerates early plant development, providing the foundation for vigorous, thriving growth.
High Flow Encrusting
Seed encrusting is a process that adds materials to seeds, increasing their weight and volume while maintaining the shape of the original seed. This method is often used to deliver beneficial substances like fungicides, pesticides, fertilizers, or other agents designed to protect or enhance seed performance.
Encrusting is also particularly useful for improving the flow of seeds with challenging appendages. For example, winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) seeds are encased in one-seeded fruits surrounded by four fluffy, silky bracts. While removing the bracts could improve flow, they are considered protective and beneficial for the seed, making removal undesirable. These bracts, however, can make it difficult to incorporate winterfat into seed mixes, as they hinder seed flow through mechanized seeders.
Our innovative encrusting coating addresses this challenge by enhancing the flowability of winterfat fruits. This allows the seeds to be efficiently delivered through rangeland seeding equipment, enabling easier and more consistent distribution of this valuable restoration species.
Pelleting
Seed pelleting involves coating small seeds with inert materials to increase their size, offering a range of benefits. This process makes seeds easier to handle and ensures smoother delivery through mechanical equipment. By increasing the size of small seeds, pelleting helps them blend with larger seeds in the mix, preventing separation during planting. Additionally, the protective coating shields pelleted seeds from environmental stresses, such as moisture fluctuations and soil-borne pathogens, leading to improved germination rates and better plant establishment.
Seed Protectant
Our activated carbon seed coating offers dual protection by mitigating the effects of pre-emergent herbicides and reducing seed predation. By applying a layer of activated carbon, seeds can be shielded from herbicide toxicity, allowing for the simultaneous seeding of desirable species while controlling annual weeds.
Additionally, the unique porous structure of activated carbon absorbs and traps odors, making seeds less detectable to rodent granivores and other pests that rely on scent cues for foraging. This reduces the likelihood of seed consumption, further enhancing seed survival and promoting successful planting.
Rhizobium Inoculum
Our advanced seed coatings are meticulously designed to address two critical factors for successful planting: overcoming physiological dormancy and enhancing the growth of beneficial bacteria essential for optimal legume development.
The coating facilitates the gradual, controlled release of plant growth hormones, which helps to break physiological dormancy and improve seedling emergence. For legume species, a best practice is to inoculate seeds with Rhizobium bacteria, enabling them to form a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. This partnership is vital for nitrogen fixation, which in turn promotes healthier, more vigorous plant growth.
Our coating formulations feature a specialized matrix that effectively protects the bacteria from harsh environmental conditions. This matrix not only ensures the inoculum remains safeguarded but also provides the essential nutrients and substrates needed for its survival and proliferation. By supporting the bacterial growth and activity, the matrix significantly enhances nitrogen fixation, which ultimately leads to stronger, more resilient plants that perform better and thrive in the field.
Conglomeration
Seeds with a low purity, such as those containing a large percentage of non-seed material, can pose significant challenges for planting. For example, sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) seed lots often contain 70-90% non-seed parts like bracts, leaves, and fine stems. These materials can clog seeders and hinder proper seed flow, making it difficult to broadcast seeds evenly across a restoration area. Additionally, the low density of these seeds and their associated material reduces their ability to travel the same distance as other seeds in the mix, resulting in uneven distribution.
While cleaning seeds to high purity can solve these issues, it is often a costly and time-consuming process. Our innovative solution bypasses the need for high-purity cleaning by combining the seed with its non-seed parts into spherical, clay-based pellets. These specially formulated pellets improve seed flow and enhance the ballistics, making them easier to distribute consistently across the planting area. This technology is especially beneficial for species like sagebrush, where high seeding rates are needed, providing a more efficient and cost-effective approach to seed delivery.
Fungicide Treatments
Fall-seeded crops are vulnerable to significant loss, especially due to fungal attacks on seeds and young seedlings. These attacks are more likely in cool, moist soils with snow cover, where long soil incubation times encourage fungal growth. Additionally, freeze-thaw cycles and winter drought can weaken seeds and seedlings, making them more susceptible to fungal damage.
To minimize these risks and improve winter survival, we use a robust fungicide seed coating with four active ingredients—mefenoxam, azoxystrobin, difenoconazole, and fludioxonil. This carefully selected formulation targets common seed-borne pathogens found in wildland environments. It's especially effective in soils with high pathogen loads and provides added protection for seeds that have undergone scarification to break physical dormancy. In these cases, the fungicide treatment helps restore the integrity of the seed coating, ensuring protection from pathogens.
Germination Delay
Fall-sown non-dormant seeds are at risk of premature germination, which can result in loss over the winter. To prevent this, a hydrophobic seed coating can be applied, creating a water-repellent barrier around the seed. This delays germination until the coating breaks down in the spring, allowing the seed to emerge when conditions are favorable. Additionally, this coating technology is being tested to protect seeds from pre-emergent herbicides by delaying germination until herbicide levels in the soil have decreased.
