Bioprime Research

Research and further development of Bioprime is multifaceted:

• Use optimisation: The aim is to provide growers with the ideal application timing and rate to produce the best yield that the season can offer.  Work is undertaken in growth chambers, small plots, large plots and on-farm.
• Disease control: Bioprime has a long history of preventing diseases like pythium and sclerotinia in horticulture. Now we are looking to control rhizoctonia, take-all and fusarium in broadacre crops.
• Soil Nitrogen: A recent finding is that Bioprime seems to promote better root nodulation in lupins. We consistently find that Bioprime suppresses Archea, a group which are increasingly seen as ammonia oxidisers. The long term impacts on soil health and mineral nutrition are being investigated.
• Production technology: The fermentation process at the heart of Bioprime manufacture is unusual. In a patented process, we deliberately put the system under stress conditions which results in the production of diverse signalling compound analogs and orthologs. The balance of oxidative, ionic or osmotic stress shifts product profile. We continue to explore the process to provide more active and specific purpose forms of Bioprime.
• Non-wetting soils: Farmers have reported a substantial improvement in productivity when Bioprime has been applied to white sandy water repellent soils. We have found a characteristic change in the ARISA profile in such non-wetting situations. We are working to optimise Bioprime application rates and timing with the objective of developing a new and very cost effective alternative to claying, delving and soil inversion to redress water repellency.