Ohio-based Locus Agriculture is expanding the use of Unpac, its glycolipid-based soil conditioner, across row and specialty crops where compaction and poor water movement hold back root growth. Compaction is a widespread problem: a USDA Economic Research Service analysis found growers named it as a resource concern on 22% of surveyed wheat, soybean, oat and cotton fields.

Rather than breaking the soil mechanically, Unpac works on the way water and soil interact. Made with fermentation-derived glycolipids, it lowers surface tension so water penetrates and spreads laterally through the profile, reaching micropores and creating looser conditions for roots. The field rate is about 4 fluid ounces an acre and it fits into existing programmes.

Third-party laboratory tests on soils from California's Central Coast and Central Valley showed reduced density across a range of moisture levels and better water penetration than untreated water. Compaction is a crop-performance problem as much as a soil problem, said lead agronomist Dave Dyson.

In potatoes the product is applied in-furrow to keep the growing medium loose as roots and tubers develop; Locus says programmes combining Unpac with its microbial technology have given yield increases of 10–15%. Californian strawberry growers are applying it through drip lines under plastic-covered raised beds, where agronomists have seen looser soil and better root penetration.

Growers have already paid for fertility, water and crop protection on every acre, said vice-president Jason McGarrh, and compaction stops the crop reaching those inputs. Unpac is one agricultural use of the glycolipid technology of parent company Locus FS; the company's other products — biologicals, inoculants, foliar products and adjuvants — work through biological activity rather than physical change.

Source: American Ag Network