After launching their Envita bacterial nitrogen colonizer product in the United States last year, Azotic North America is in the process of registering the product for sale on the Canadian market.
Azotic President and General Manager Nolan Berg says that their Envita product can replace 25-50 per cent of the nitrogen that a crop needs without compromising productivity and that they have yet to find a crop that it has not been successful on.
Azotic President and General Manager, Nolan Berg, says that the product, which can be applied in furrow or foliarly, colonizes into crops and draws nitrogen from the air, metabolizing it into a useable nitrogen for the crop.
“Most crops can’t do that naturally,” says Berg. “There is the odd crop like soybeans that have a natural ability and a symbiotic relationship with bacteria and can get some of their nitrogen needs out of the air. But crops like corn, wheat, barley and rice, the staple crops of the global food supply, can’t metabolize nitrogen out of the environment around them.”
Envita, technically known as gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus, (try saying that once at any speed), was discovered in 1988. Members of the Azotic team studied it for 20 years to find the most durable and effective strain. One of the biggest challenges was finding a formulation that can survive until germination in order to be effective.
Berg says that Envita can replace 25-50 per cent of the nitrogen that a crop needs without compromising on productivity.
This graphic by Azotic shows that as a crop grows, nitrogen demand rises and available nitrogen falls. Envita helps maintain a consistent level.
“One of the unique aspects of Envita is that we have yet to find a crop that it does not successfully colonize and have a synergistic impact on. This can have impact on everything from small acreages of corn, soybeans, wheat and so on, but also can be on turf. It works on vegetables, in a greenhouse if someone has a small glass house on their farm. It does wonderful things for tomatoes. You name it.”
— Matt Jones