5 Visible Signs Your Agricultural Biologicals Are Working

Key above-ground indicators that can give you confidence in your chosen agricultural biological

Growers face a lot of challenges that impact the profitability of their farming operation. From changing weather patterns, to skyrocketing costs, and diminishing margins, farmers need certainty that the dollars they spend on inputs are going to yield real results.

Certain microbial-based agricultural biologicals are proven to provide a wide range of benefits to crop quality, productivity and grower ROI. While some of those impacts take longer to materialize, there are several visible signs that a biological is working.

Here are five of the top above-ground indicators to look for and know that biological products are doing their job:

1. More Vigorous Plants
2. Better Quality Fruit
3. Bigger Fruit, Earlier
4. More Successful Transplanting
5. Increased Grower ROI

Read on to get more details on each indicator.

1: Bigger, More Vigorous Plants

Certain agricultural biologicals contain endophytic strains of microbes, which reside inside plant tissues and form a symbiotic relationship with the plant. These strains continue to support the plant as it grows, providing benefits to plant development throughout its lifecycle.

The microbial strains in biologicals are typically selected for their ability to strengthen plant root development and increase plant leaf size and volume, leading to a more robust canopy. Bigger, more robust leaves allow crops to capture more sunlight and produce more carbohydrates—which plants use to grow bigger and stronger.

By increasing plant vigor and robustness, the use of biologicals helps plants increase their efficiency, productivity and overall quality.

Figure 1: Strawberry CRO trial shows Grower’s Practice (left) and Locus AG Program (right). The use of Locus AG biologicals allows for increased nutrient uptake, which drives faster plant maturity, plant vigor and increased fruit production.

2: Better Fruit Quality

Specialty growers are up against a multitude of challenges that impact crop productivity yet face growing pressure to produce a bigger volume of higher quality fruit.

Certain biologicals are shown to unlock unused nutrients from other inputs and make them more available to plants—contributing to the development of higher quality, more marketable fruit.

There is typically a tradeoff between fruit quantity and Brix levels—the total amount of sugar present in fruit. Fruit that contains higher brix levels also has a shorter shelf life, making them less marketable.

Trial data from a third-party contract research organization (CRO) in San Luis Obispo, CA (figure 2) shows that strawberries grown with Locus AG biologicals demonstrated higher levels of the three big macronutrients, NPK. By unlocking these critical nutrients through increased fertilizer uptake, biologicals support crops to produce more nutrient-dense, higher quality fruit.

In addition to benefiting the overall fruit quality, biologicals also enhance average fruit size and contribute to an earlier fruiting schedule.

3: Bigger Fruit, Earlier

Biologicals are shown to increase fruit size on an earlier timeline than crops grown using standard practices.

Tomatoes that were put on a program with Locus AG biologicals produced a higher yield of medium and extra-large sized tomatoes than those grown with standard practices.

Use of the biologicals over a season resulted in an 8% increase in total yield, with a 12% increase in early season harvest—together contributing to an up to $2k increase per acre for growers.

The benefits from biologicals are not exclusive to plants that are directly seeded, but also apply to plants that are transplanted in the field when outdoor conditions are more favorable.

4: More Successful Transplanting

Transplanting is the act of establishing crop seedlings either indoors or in a controlled outdoor environment, then moving the plants into a field to grow until harvest.

Farmers may choose to transplant certain crops for a variety of reasons, yet the goal is always to support maximum success in crop development.

Transplant crops have special fertilizer timing needs that are based on temperature and light conditions. Agricultural biologicals are shown to help support transplant crops before and after their transition into the field.

Biologicals have proven key benefits to help transplant crops thrive, including:

• Increasing nutrient availability
• Supporting root growth
• Enhancing plant vigor
• Boosting yields

With all of these key benefits to crop growth and productivity, biologicals also have the added benefit of improving grower ROI.

READ MORE: HOW BIOLOGICALS SUPPORT TRANSPLANT CROPS

5: Increased Grower ROI

Agricultural biologicals aren’t just another input that growers need to factor into their budget. The profits generated from producing higher quality, more marketable fruit can cover, and often surpass, the cost of the biological products themselves.

Biologicals can also unlock and bolster benefits from previous crop management efforts such as fertilizers, manure and conservation tillage.

Locus AG offers several biological products that feature vital microbial strains precision targeted to provide far-reaching benefits to both crop productivity and grower ROI.

These strains are third-party tested and proven to:

• Expand early root development
• Enhance crop nutrient uptake and absorption
• Improve soil quality and structure
• Boost grower ROI

With all the benefits to crop quality and productivity, the use of biologicals is a proven strategy to increasing overall grower profits and ROI.