Canola Soil Biostimulants

Regarding: HumaTerra Heavy Protocol Analytical Program

Since 2016 HumaTerra has been committed to the development of formulation and manufacturing technologies that would produce the richest microbial soil biostimulants available. One of the primary objectives of this research was the development of microbial strains that contained canola favourable / beneficial traits that would increase yield and enhance seed quality characteristics.  The experiences and results garnered during these five years of research including commercial-scale head-to-head in field competitions demonstrated the agronomic effectiveness and financial viability of HumaTerra’s HSECanola1 product. Typical results in these field evaluations netted year over year positive yield increase varying between 2.9% to 25%. (For more data results visit www.htregen.com)

In 2021 HumaTerra initiated an aggressive four-year Heavy Protocol Analytical Program, “HPAP” with our partner farms focused on collecting and creating a comprehensive database on the critical regenerative aspects of applying HumaTerra biostimulants to your soil. The scope of this project is to assay the quantity and nutritional quality of the varied crops produced, as well as the science and scalability of analytical tools like biochemical and genomic analyzes to validate the improvements of microbial life in the soil and the subsequent effects this biodiversity transformation have over the four years of the project. With this deep-dive data collection, HumaTerra will strive to continue improving our knowledge base and the formulations of biostimulants with improved canola-specific traits.

The first year of the Canola HPAP generated a series of affirmative production-related results which included increases in yield and oil content exhibited in the highlights in Table #1. Importantly, additional data collected is instrumental in supporting HumaTerra’s hypothesis as to how soil biostimulants are interacting with soil and all aspects of plant germination, healthy growth, and seed production of canola.

Various hypotheses may account for the improvement of the quantitative and qualitative traits in canola production. HPAP is meant to expand our testing capacity and through replication validate those hypotheses with the most sophisticated analyses and diagnostic tools available.

  • HumaTerra biostimulants are repopulating the soil with beneficial microorganisms.
  • HumaTerra biostimulants are directly and indirectly providing humic substances that make the cells of the crop (roots, leaves,..) more permeable, causing a better vascular tissue development, visible stem diameter increase, hence increasing the nutrient flow; 
  • The diversity of micro-organisms in HumaTerra’s biostimulants bear important biological functions of agronomic significance like phosphorus solubilization, bioavailability/chelation of macro and micro-nutrients, nitrogen metabolism cascades, production of growth hormones like auxins that cause the multiplication of roots, mycorrhizal functions that extend the root system.
  • Those functions -mostly enzymatic processes- are improving the timely delivery of the nutrients during important phases of the crop development, for instance during the oil biosynthesis or
  • generally for carbon partitioning in the seed storage reserves.
  • As a particular case in 2021 where the high heat levels have hindered the oil biosynthesis and carbon transport to the canola seed, the integrity of the nutrient flow and the activity of the enzymes was important to preserve the carbon storage as oil in the canola seed. 
  • The higher yields and oil content which in the case of canola is the privileged storage system, and lower protein content (protein is not the best storage system for canola) show that the carbon storage pathways were better preserved with the biostimulants than in the control.
  • A balanced rhizosphere ecosystem improves the resilience of this complex biosynthesis pathway.
  • The improvement of these  functions might explain a better fertilizer uptake and utilization as shown Table #2.
  • Important modifications also occur in the soil structure that indirectly impacts the production, but these modifications will take more time to be expressed.