John Kempf (speaker) explains benefits of inoculating seed with mycorrhizal fungi plus supporting bacteria—especially under challenged soil conditions (dry or overly wet). He presents BioKoat Gold, a seed-coat microbial inoculant containing multiple mycorrhizal strains and supporting bacteria, claims it improves seedling vigor, root development, nutrient extraction, disease suppression, and crop quality. He reports an anecdotal field result of up to a 1 percentage point protein gain in winter wheat in southwest Kansas and recommends testing BioKoat Gold on cover crops and cash crops.
Questions this video answers
John Kempf.
October 7, 2019.
Up to an entire percentage point protein content gain in winter wheat in southwest Kansas (treated vs. untreated).
Multiple strains of mycorrhizal fungi ("half a dozen" or more) plus several supporting bacterial organisms.
Chapters
Hi friends. It's been an interesting summer. Lots of growing challenges and more challenges coming up this fall. With dry weather in large parts of the country, there's been a lot of conversations happening for the last couple of years about the benefits of inoculating seed with mycorrhizal fungi with other organisms to get them to take off and grow really quickly, particularly in challenging conditions. In all the experience that we've had over the years, when you have ideal conditions for soil biology, then these regenerative agriculture systems don't have such a pronounced difference between the treated and the untreated areas. But whenever you have a challenged environment, when you have really dry soils, when you have excess of moisture or not enough moisture, whatever the case might be, that is when these regenerative farming systems and robust soil biology really shines very, very well. We developed a biocode gold a number of years ago to help crop seedlings get off to a really strong start. There have been lots of discussions about the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi and the capability of fungi to access water and deliver water to plant roots that plant roots can't get by themselves, solubilize phosphorus to extract nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil and make them available to plants. So the use of mycorrhizal fungi has been very strongly emphasized for good reason. It's microbial inoculants a very and delivers significant crop benefits. We use it all the time on the crops that we work with. But I do think it's not that mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhizal fungi inoculants are overrated. I do believe that the other supporting bacterial organisms that should be associated with mycorrhizal fungi are underrated. And they're underrated only simply because we don't understand them well enough. We don't yet understand deeply enough all the benefits that Pseudomonas fluorescence can and that all these organisms can have. So we know that they are a part of a group of biology that develops disease suppressive soil, but that it takes the entire group. This is the reason we develop the BioKoat gold as we have. It does not contain just mycorrhizal fungi. It contains a half a dozen different strains of mycorrhizae, actually more than that. But then it also contains a number of other supporting bacteria supporting organisms that really help seedlings take off, get a very robust start, develop very large root systems and develop a disease suppressive soil in the soil environment. And developing a disease suppressive soil is important because Whenever we think about challenges with Besarium or Pythium or Rhizoctonia or Phytophthora, any of these soil borne fungal diseases or water molds, the reality is that the presence of diseased plants has nothing to do with the population of the pathogen in the soil, has nothing to do with the quantity of the that's in the soil. Instead, it has everything to do with the presence of suppressive organisms. It's not about the presence of the germ, it's about the terrain. It's very similar to people. We know that some people become ill very easily with every cold or flu bug that comes along because they have a very different microbiome and a very different immune reaction than others. And the same is true of soil. Soils can be very disease suppressive. In addition to all these benefits, there is one other significant piece that biogold brings which is that it can extract nutrients and make nutrients available to the crop to an exceptional degree. It is the least expensive application that a grower can apply. It provides the biggest roi. Consistently we've seen it this last year produce as much as an entire percentage point protein content gain in winter wheat in southwest Kansas on the treated versus the untreated areas, with no other differences other than an application of biocoat gold. So when we are planting cover crops, if we want our cover crops to extract nutrients from the soil profile and make them available to next year's crop, the most effective, one of the most effective and least expensive things we can do is to add biocoat gold to our cover crop seeds. Because this biology has the capacity to extract minerals from the soil mineral matrix, unlock them, have the COVID crop absorb them, and the following year we get a much bigger nutrient response than where we have not applied the biokoat gold. So we're seeing very significant yield responses and crop quality responses. And we get the biggest responses when we combine it with a rejuvenate application. Biokil gold is a workhorse and I would suggest that you test it out, try it out in your operation, plant some acres with it, it's very inexpensive, you'll be happy that you did and you'll be using it a lot more in the future. Of that I'm certain.
