SylgenBio used Groundswell to launch its new biostimulant, BioVigour8. The company claims independent trials prove the new microbial biostimulant significantly boosts grass and wholecrop dry matter yields.
“BioVigour8 is a highly concentrated soil and foliar biostimulant, engineered with a unique combination of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), specialised fungi, and arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF). Its formulation is designed not merely to “feed” the plant, but to strengthen its entire root-zone ecosystem,” explains SylgenBio director Romney Jackson.
Applied as a spray, the microbes establish themselves within the plant and the rhizosphere. “The microbes solubilise nutrients that are otherwise locked up in the soil matrix. By improving root architecture and stimulating natural growth hormones too, BioVigour8 supports robust nutrient translocation from the soil and foliar uptake into the plant’s vascular system, ensuring mineral levels are maintained even in fast-growing crops,” he notes.
As well as helping plants stay strong and healthy, Romney explains that many of the bacteria and fungi also boost the plant’s intrinsic defence systems, allowing crops to better cope with temperature spikes, drought conditions and pathogen pressure.
Over the last two years, Terrafarmer tested BioVigour8 across a variety of crops, demonstrating measurable economic and environmental gains.
In grassland trials, the product demonstrated potential for increasing grass dry matter yields by over 42%. The data also shows that a portion of conventional fertiliser use can be confidently replaced by BioVigour8 with comparable cost and significant yield uplift.
In whole-crop cereal trials, Terrafarmer observed yield increases of up to 77%, outperforming untreated controls.
TerraFarmer agronomist Will Marris says that in healthy soils, the BioVigour8 seems to ‘turbo charge’ the soil biology. “The key is the diversity of microbes. The wide variety of bacteria and fungi means that there are always microbes that can help to rebalance the soil and push on plant growth.”
