Offically Certified Microplastic Free Seed Treatments - Microplastic Free and Energy Saving by Ad Terram

Ad Terram develops and produces agricultural treatments and lead the way towards a microplastic free industry without compromising in price and quality. We founded Ad Terram in 2014 with one mission: provide the agro-industry with environmentally friendly products to support the agro-industry in the changes that lie ahead. We always stay ahead of changing regulations and certify our products accordingly. By staying ahead of the changing regulations we now have all our products certified according to the ECHA restriction (European Chemical Agency) carried out by Flustix. We are the first and only Agro Treatment Company with officially certified microplastic free products.

Microplastic Free Seed Treatments

Seedcoat Liquids

Our seed coatings are not based on bio-polymers or synthetic polymers. Our filmcoat liquids consist of 100% natural sources such as plant extracts. Our approach enables the rheopectic behavior of our seed coat liquids, which means that the fluids solidify. This makes that our film coat liquids contain a very low content of free water (<1%).

Because of our different approach our filmcoat shows some big advantages in comparison with other filmcoat liquids. With our filmcoating no drying is needed after application. The processing time of the filmcoating process is max. 90 sec. And it is applicable on all types of seeds (Vegetables, fieldcrops, flowers and trees). Last but not least our filmcoatings can be used in organic farming because they are certified by multiple institutes all over the world. But they are mainly used in the conventional market as they can be mixed with the majority of insecticides and fungicides available on the market.

Pelleting, Encrusting powders and binders

We developed our own pelleting and encrusting powders and binders. Our fixum binders are based on the same principles as the filmcoat liquid and therefore the drying process of encrusting and pelleting is much faster than using conventional binders. For example a batch of onion pellets (two million pellets) takes approximately 20 minutes to dry without using heated air, saving a lot of energy while creating a pellet with extreme low dust, good friability and homogenic hardness of the pellets. With encrusting a batch of 9 million seeds (100% weight increase) will approximately take 3 minutes to dry. These characteristics of our products result in homogenic and fast germination in the field.

Energy Saving

A key characteristic of our filmcoat liquids is that drying the seeds after application with our filmcoat liquids is not needed anymore. Which saves a lot of precious energy, time and in the end money. The maximum batch time for treating a full batch of seeds with our filmcoating is 90 seconds and for many seed types even shorter than 90 seconds (see table 1).

Futhermore, the drying process of pelleted and encrusted seeds is approximately four times faster when using our Circumeo Powders in combination with our Fixum Binders compared to conventional products currently on the market.

Especially now the price of energy is globally skyrocketing and global concerns about the use of energy which is accompanied with CO₂ emissions are rising. Our seed treatments offer the market a welcoming solution to the sustainability goals set by more and more governments all over the world. While at the same time they increase production capacity with less use of energy.

Biodegradable within 12 months

Most of the conventional filmcoatings (polymers and biodegradable polymers) leave behind small fragments of seed coating (after germination) which contain, when added, products such as insecticides and pesticides. These fragments can create spikes and in time they can be caught by the wind and threaten biodiversity in soil and air. Biodegradable filmcoatings appear as a good alternative for the conventional polymer filmcoatings but their biodegradability until hydrocarbon level can take up to 200 years. Meaning that they don’t solve the problem with left behind fragments. Our filmcoat liquids and binders consist of 100% natural sources (plant extracts) and therefore they will biodegrade within 12 months to hydrocarbon level. With changing regulations and upcoming bans on chemicals and synthetic products, using our filmcoatings and pelleting/encrusting binders it ensures companies that they can continue using products who are environmentally safe and ahead of the upcoming changes. Without having to change their protocols every year.

Seed Friendly

Our filmcoat liquids are designed to be as seed -friendly as possible, giving less stress to the seed during treatment and during storage. Thanks to having obtained many years of data on treated and untreaded seeds from the same seed lot, we can conclude that our filmcoat liquids have no negative influence on the shelf life of the treated seeds compared to the untreated seeds.

Another reason why all of our seed treatment products are not containing micro- and nano-plastics is because the tiny particles tend to settle themselves in pathways wherethrough the seed absorb water, this gives a setback in germination and vigour. Our filmcoat liquid doesn’t contain these tiny particles who settle in the pathways resulting in uniform germination and good vigour.

Biostimulants

We have developed a special Biostimulant which can be added to our filmcoat; Optimum Seed.

This product Optimum Seed increases the seeds ability to take up micro-elements easier without setback in germination. It increases the root and hair root growth of the plant. Which results in higher uptake of water and it increases the uptake of minerals and fertilizers. This results in higher vigour and more uniform germination.

Other Biostimulants in our portfolio are: Foliar treatments, treatments for bulbs and tubers and Soil treatments. Besides the non-microbial Biostimulants we also carefully select specific Rhizobium strains for specific legume crops and an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi. In addition to these products we also have different Micronutrient Gluconates.

Also widely used in Field crops

Next to our Sapphire seedcoat liquid which is mainly used in for vegetable seeds, we have also developed a solution that is widely used in fieldcrops, our Fieldcropcoat PreMix. Fieldcropcoat Premix can be mixed with the majority of fungicides and insecticides. The fieldcrop coat is mainly used for the treatment of corn, wheat, cereals, sunflower, paddies/rice and oilseed rape. The margins in fieldcrop seeds are in general lower as in vegetable seeds, therefore we did a lot of research about the saturation point per crop.

By treating to saturation point, our customers secure perfect coverage on the seeds and don’t spill filmcoat by overcoating the seeds as well as the pollution in the coating pan is reduced to a minimum.

Compatibility with Microbes

We developed a method to fixate these microbes on seeds and granulates without changing the status of the ″sleeping″ microbes resulting in a useful product for the farmer without the shelf life troubles. Besides not changing the status of the microbes we also secure a high survival rate of the microbes. Therefore you don’t have to apply much more spores than necessary to maintain the right amount required per hectare or seed.

Officially Certified Microplastic Free

Last month all of our products got officially certified microplastic free by Flustix (Germany). We are the first Agro Treatment company who got certified. Flustix certifies on the basis of the only internationally respected and followed microplastic definition by ECHA. This refers to solid, water-insoluble plastic particles with a size of less than 5 mm, based on the longest dimension or diameter of the plastic particles. They work closely together with Wesseling group an accredited lab in Germany. This certification enables companies who want to reduce their microplastic pollution in the environment with certified microplastic free products. Our products can also be used for organic farming as they are certified organic by multiple institutes worldwide.

This article was initially published in AgroPages' '2022 Seed Treatment Special' magazine.