AgroPages-Inocucor Garden Solution approved for organic farms-Agricultural news

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Inocucor's specialty ag biological products registered in Canada

Inocucor Garden Solution®, a proprietary biological soil, seed and plant accelerator developed by the Montreal-based ag biotech company Inocucor Technologies, Inc., has been approved for use in the U.S. as an organic soil amendment by the international Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).

Under development since 2007, Inocucor Garden Solution is fermented from a consortium of naturally occurring beneficial micro-organisms, including yeasts, fungi and bacteria. It interacts with the indigenous ecology—the phyto-microbiome—to act as a natural growth optimizer by improving both plant and soil quality. It also helps plants survive extreme weather conditions, including drought.

Inocucor co-founder and Vice-President of Discovery & Process Development Ananda Lynn Fitzsimmons said Garden Solution, while helping farmers increase yields, also reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. It is targeted at current organic growers, as well as at production farmers seeking to transition to organic farming or reduce chemical inputs on their farms.

"We designed Garden Solution as a vital piece in the sustainability puzzle for organic and conventional farmers. It gives all farmers a way to naturally condition soil, restore the soil-vegetation balance and reduce run-off of chemical fertilizers into groundwater," Fitzsimmons said.

Field tests conducted with McGill University's Department of Plant Science in Montreal and at Brookgreen Gardens in Myrtle Beach, S.C., among other venues, have shown that Garden Solution promotes plant growth, increases plant biomass and causes earlier maturation of fruit and vegetables, often increasing yields by 10 to 15 percent.

Inocucor Garden Solution's current customers are production farmers, urban gardeners, greenhouses, landscape companies and orchards. Garden Solution can be employed as a seed treatment, soil drench or foliar spray. It works in combination with existing conventional or organic farming methods, and can be applied using conventional equipment on large-scale farms as a tank mix with fertilizers and nutrients.

Inocucor Garden Solution is patented and registered as a soil amendment in approximately 12 U.S. states. It is expected to be approved for use in nearly two dozen states by mid-2015. It is also registered as a water treatment under the name of Aqua Solution® in Québec and Ontario.