Nutrients PLUS® LLC, headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, announces that it is the first in the U.S. to register algae based fertilizer and to market it as a beneficial natural ingredient in the company’s fertilizer.
The company applied for registration of algae and is now approved for the sale of this source of plant food nutrients—it’s a first in the country. This has significance, because it is the first such application and approval in the United States.
The immediate agronomic benefit is soil health and productivity.
This discovery is part of a larger break-through – being the first to market a biomass-energy algae fertilizer by-product. Demonstrating enhanced efficiency from conventional fertilizer by utilizing natural ingredients in their formulation (in this case, algae) for agriculture is obviously important.
Past research by Nutrients PLUS® has demonstrated benefits from natural ingredients in the premium and specialty fertilizer markets. With algae, the company’s new study has again demonstrated the benefits from integrating natural ingredients with conventional fertilizer. But this time, it is for agriculture and growing food.
In early 2011, Nutrients PLUS®’s president, John Moriarty met Dr. Patrick Hatcher, the Old Dominion University Batten Chair in Physical Sciences. As the chair of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, Hatcher was seeking partners to commercialize new technology to convert biomass from algae into biodiesel fuels, “algae crude”, that is very much like petroleum crude, fuel additives and slow release organic fertilizers. Moriarty’s own scientific curiosity led to deeper discussions.
Years of university research under the direction of Nutrients PLUS® have proven that fertilizers containing organic matter perform as well or better than traditional fertilizer, but without the harmful effects to water supplies. The company was able to apply the processes from the science used in the Virginia Tech study for the agriculture application with Old Dominion University (ODU).
The research on algae began approximately two years ago at ODU’s Algae Farm near Hopewell, Virginia.
The soil at the algae-growing farm had no historical use of fertilizer. Tests taken prior to planting indicated the soil was very unfertile. Thus, results are particularly relative for observing fertilizer applications as the only variable.
The corn row to the far right of the photo received no fertilizer at time of planting. As expected, very little results are seen, especially since no fertilizer had ever been applied.
The next row, row 2, received the conventional fertilizer treatment. All of the other rows which received algae were doing much better.
Treatments included algae alone and algae blended with conventional fertilizer in various ratios. If all the fertilized plots received the same amount of nitrogen, it is obvious the algae nitrogen is more efficient.
In a venture which began in 2011, Nutrients PLUS® partnered with the Virginia Coastal Research Energy Consortium to plant corn using algae as a fertilizer at the Old Dominion University algae-growing farm 20 miles east of Hopewell, Virginia. The research led to Nutrients PLUS® being the first in the U.S. to register algae based fertilizer and to market it as a beneficial natural ingredient in the company’s fertilizer.
