Platform Seed®

Endophytic Trichoderma seed treatment

Overview

Application Rates

Documentation

What is it and how does it work?

Platform Seed is a modern biological seed treatment, designed and conceived with commercial agriculture at heart. It is readily soluble and easy to use and its high levels of bio-activity make it suitable for all crops, whether they are planted at 3kg or 300kg per ha.

Platform Seed contains selected strains of endophytic Trichoderma and utilises an internationally recognised strain, licensed from BioProtection Aotearoa at Lincoln University.

The best strains of Trichoderma will live in the rhizosphere and interact with the plant to increase root and foliar growth in many crops.

However, the endophytic Trichoderma in Platform Seed will confer plant benefits through the whole life of the plant.

These Trichoderma are uniquely able to live within the plant’s root tissue and stimulate a systemic immune response within the plant.

This priming of the plant’s defence system allows it to cope better with biotic and abiotic stresses and it has been written that “Endophytic Trichoderma improve a plant’s photosynthetic capability.

In our trial work, we have measured:

Trial Results

Yield Increases in a Wide Range of Crops

In all the trials shown below, Platform Seed was applied within a commercial seed coating environment.

It was applied separately over the top of an existing fungicide treated imported seed or
It was mixed with a grower standard fungicide and applied in one convenient step.

The results we measured were either from independent assessments or from the commercial harvesting machinery.

We have seen consistent economic yield benefits and a return on investment from 10 to 100x the initial outlay.

Better Establishment and Dry Matter Yields

This kale crop was planted in November 2020 at 4.5kg per ha.

Platform Seed was applied at 5g/kg seed in conjunction with a standard insecticide and using a commercial water rate of around 20ml per kg of seed.

There is no other biological seed treatment that can provide such bioactivity at such rates.

Establishment

Plant counts were 10% above control (which was treated with insecticide).

Harvest

Control yielded 16,180 kg DM / ha.
Platform Seed yielded 18,792 kg DM / ha
Based on DM payments of around d 31 cents a kg for this season.
This produced $865.50 extra per ha.
Based on the input cost, this produced greater than 80x return on investment.

Better Establishment and Yields

This fully replicated pea trial was established on a research plot at Lincoln University. The expectation was that an underlying level of Aphanomyces may affect yields and allow the seed treatments to stand out.

Planted on September 21 st there were 6 replicates each of:

bare seed
grower standard (Wakil applied at 2L per tonne
Platform Seed (applied at 250g/tonne)
Wakil + Platform.

Establishment

Plant Counts were taken on the 21 st October.

All three treatments were between 15% and 25% above control.

Harvest

Garden peas were harvested using 1 m2 sections from each plot over a matter of 3 days in December. The crop was then allowed to continue, and the balance of seed peas were harvested by NZ Arable on 5 th January 2022

Platform Seed increased garden pea yields by 29%.
The Seed yields were equivalent between Wakil and Platform but the combined treatment product 1 tonne extra seed per ha.