DLF’s ProNitro® nominated for Innovation Award

Date:03-06-2017

ProNitro®, the new nitrogen seed coating technology from DLF, is one of three nominations for a prestigious innovation award. The jury will announce the Winner on March 9.

The Innovation Award “Innovatieprijs Sportaccommodaties” is intended to stimulate new concepts in the sports sector.

The Dutch Trade Association for Sport and Cultivation Technology BSNC (Branchevereniging Sport en Cultuurtechniek) and two other organizations behind the award want by this award to strengthen the focus on innovation in business, clients and users. Among the 12 entries, the jury made its evaluations based on originality and creativity, the reason for the innovation, practical value, promotion, discipline and effectiveness.

Nitrogen-coated seeds get away sooner

Growing a new field of turf is a waiting game. The challenge for seed scientists is to make the process faster and more reliable.
ProNitro® combines high quality grass seed with nitrogen needed for fast effective establishment in a single seed coating. ProNitro® is both labour saving and cost effective.

A better solution is to alter the environment in favour of germinating grass seeds. We can’t change the fields in which our customers sow their seeds but we can use technology to give our seeds a head start. Coating seeds in nitrogen fertilizer give the newly germinated grass plants all the nutrition they need to develop early strong roots. It’s like sending each seed out into the world with its own packed lunch.
In trials, our own ProNitro® seed coating (launched in 2016) produced up to 30% more root growth and up to 30% more viable plants than an uncoated reference. Trial fields established faster and better, and were ready for playing sports or grazing cattle sooner. We estimate that this translates to an extra 30 to 50 playing hours or a 15% to 20% increase in forage yield in the vital first year of growth.

Seed coating is a cost-effective, precision approach

There’s very little waste when you coat a seed in nitrogen. The fertilizer feeds the seed not the weeds that surround it. It’s a time-saver too. You sow the seed and the fertilizer in one operation instead of two.
Since the grass plants grow faster, they take up nutrients more quickly. A field sown with nitrogen-coated seeds produces less nutrient run-off and environmental impact than one that’s subject to a traditional scattergun application of fertilizer.

Click to learn more about ProNitro® or contact your local DLF sales representative or product manager.