Say Goodbye to Nitrogen Guesswork – BenVireo® TerraLux™ Is Here for Organic Growers

Wilbur-Ellis is excited to introduce our new 100% plant available organic liquid nitrogen fertilizer! BenVireo TerraLux is a new organic liquid nitrogen that is user friendly  with a pleasant odor, easy to apply (filtered to 1 micron) and 100% plant available ammonium nitrate liquid nitrogen. It is OMRI, CDFA OIM (7%) and LGMA compliant.

In organic farming, one of the limiting factors in organic production is available nitrogen. When nitrogen is deficient, then other factors are affected that include proper root development, vegetative growth, bloom set, and ultimately, yield potential and quality. Organic forms of nitrogen (compost, pelleted fertilizers, cover crop residue…) can be unpredictable, having to go through the process of mineralization, becoming NH4 (ammonium) and NO3 (nitrate) in the soil, the plant available forms of nitrogen. 

When using BenVireo TerraLux in your farming system, you can employ strategies to reduce overall rates of nitrogen by spoon feeding TerraLux during higher nitrogen demands (rapid vegetative growth) when efficient applications of nitrogen can be optimized. This approach gives you the option to apply more carbon early in the growth cycle and apply reduced volumes of BenVireo TerraLux plant available nitrogen throughout the cropping season, adjusting for crop nitrogen demand. This is an excellent technique to reduce total nitrogen applied, aiding in compliance with sustainability metrics and state and local regulations. When utilizing a higher C:N fertilizer, such as compost or cover crop, you can reduce the total nitrogen applied by having up front carbon in the system. This initiates complex microbial biological processes that can help to increase the crops defense mechanism against environmental stressors, producing a healthy, vigorous crop. 

From Manure to Market

BenVireo TerraLux is derived from dairy manure lagoon effluent. Lagoons contribute large amounts of GHG emissions into the atmosphere with one dairy cow contributing up to 500 pounds of methane per year. The BenVireo TerraLux technology utilizes a patented process that takes manure and incorporates biological, mechanical and thermal processes that recover, stabilize and concentrate the liquid to produce a 100% available nitrogen. BenVireo TerraLux is produced in the United States utilizing this technology with a very low to negative carbon footprint. The process runs at high heat, so pasteurization is achieved several times within the process, eliminating any type of food borne pathogen. It has a low salt index, neutral pH and very low pleasant odor. BenVireo TerraLux is very food safe and easy to handle.

This 100% plant available nitrogen, when combined with precise agronomic skill, can be dialed in and applied at exact rates with ideal timing based on crop demand. This enables the user to deliver the crop its nitrogen in a precise manner, whichever is most efficient for the crop at any stage of growth and development. When crops are younger, they need less nitrogen, but more of the other nutrients; P, K, Ca, Mg and carbon to establish a hardy root system and feed the microbiome in the rhizosphere. As the crop puts on vegetative growth, the demand for nitrogen increases, making it important to keep up with those demands, while not overfertilizing, which can contribute to nitrogen loss, through volatilization and leaching. See the Fig. 1 Lloyd, Geisseler, Lazicki, Muramoto & Smith, 2020, “Estimating Nitrogen Availability in Organic Annual Production”.

“Nitrogen is often the most limiting nutrient to yield in organic production due to a lack of synchronicity between mineralization and plant demand and its potential for loss through a variety of mechanisms, like immobilization, leaching and gaseous losses.” (Berry et al 2002, Rosen and Allen 2007).

One of the top goals for sustainability along with State and Water Board Regulations is to reduce total nitrogen applied per crop. An efficient way to achieve this is to reduce the upfront nitrogen applied and increase the carbon applied. An efficient technique is to preplant with a higher C:N ratio dry amendment to supply lower amounts of nitrogen and higher amounts of carbon which feeds the microbiome what it requires to thrive and create biodiversity.  When applying a plant available liquid nitrogen, incorporate carbon in the form of humic acid or kelp products where you can achieve the C:N ratio to what your crop and soil need at that specific point in time. Incorporating a carbon source with 100% plant available nitrogen will slow the conversion of NH4 (ammonium) to NO3 (nitrate), reducing the chance of leaching and optimizing plant uptake and utilization.  In scenarios where cover cropping or orchard recycling creates a high C:N ratio, nitrogen immobilization can occur. At this point, a 100% plant available organic liquid nitrogen can stimulate microbes to break down carbon and liberate the organic nitrogen, see figure 2.

So, it is recognized that carbon is essential to the soil. It is recommended to use BenVireo TerraLux alone and in conjunction with selected liquid carbons when needed. It is important to understand what C:N ratio your soil runs at optimally and manage your microbiome with the best carbon and nitrogen to maintain that balance.

Feed the system so that it can feed us all sustainably.

BenVireo TerraLux is a tool in the organic fertilizer toolbox.

Glossary:

Plant-available refers to the forms of nitrogen, ammonium and nitrate, that are readily available for use by most plants.

Mineralization is the process by which microbes decompose organic N from manure, organic matter and crop residues to ammonium. Because it is a biological process, rates of mineralization vary with soil temperature, moisture and the amount of oxygen in the soil (aeration). 

Immobilization is the reverse of mineralization. All living things require N; therefore, microorganisms in the soil compete with crops for N. Immobilization refers to the process in which nitrate and ammonium are taken up by soil organisms and therefore become unavailable to crops. Incorporation of materials with a high carbon to nitrogen ratio (e.g. sawdust, straw, etc.), will increase biological activity and cause a greater demand for N, and thus result in N immobilization. Immobilization only temporarily locks up N. When the microorganisms die, the organic N contained in their cells is converted by mineralization and nitrification to plant available nitrate. 

Leaching is a pathway of N loss of a high concern to water quality. Soil particles do not retain nitrate very well because both are negatively charged. As a result, nitrate easily moves with water in the soil. The rate of leaching depends on soil drainage, rainfall, amount of nitrate present in the soil, and crop uptake. The EPA has set the maximum contaminant level for drinking water at 10 ppm N as nitrate. Well-drained soils, unexpected low crop yield high N inputs (especially outside of the growing season) and high rainfall are all conditions that increase the potential for nitrate leaching.