Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/12477
diggin’ in SMART IRRIGATION MONTH by Tyler J. Baum, editor An On-Demand Reservoir Absorbing water at the root zone with Zeba DESPITE THE FACT THAT 70 PERCENT of the planet is covered by water, it’s amazing to think that 96 percent of that water is saline water—in the world’s oceans, according to the USGS. So, really, there’s less than 4 percent of the world’s water that’s fresh—that has to be divided between 6 billion-plus people for drinking, irrigation, municipal purposes, etc. Each year the population increases, but growers in dry regions still need to irrigate their crops. When water is a tight resource, like this summer has been in eastern Idaho, you need to make every ounce of water go as far as possible to nourish your crops. The people at Absorbent Technologies saw the writing on the wall and perfected a discovery made by the USDA years ago to come up with Zeba. A SPONGE FOR POTATOES Zeba is a super-absorbent soil amendment that helps improve quality and yield for all types of plants, using less water while increasing the efficiency of other crop inputs. This new technology builds on basic cornstarch to create a “hydro-gel” that holds and releases water over and over again—similar to a sponge below the soil—for use by plants and food crops on an as-needed basis. Each small granule holds 500 times its weight in water, nearly all of which is made available to the plant in the right quantities in response to plant root suction. By creating an “on-demand” moisture and nutrient reservoir, Zeba not only reduces the level of water and nutrient inputs required, but also reduces plant stress, which results in greater yields and a heartier, higher quality of crops. Ed Clark, Pacific Northwest sales manager for Absorbent Technologies, says, “It’s an extension of the soil’s ability to hold water.” Clark points out that the center of the potato hill is a difficult place to manage water. Zeba’s ability to hold a reservoir of water when the plant needs that between irrigation cycles is the key to yield and quality. “Soluble nutrients, particularly nitrogen, leach through the soil if they’re not consumed and taken up by the plant. And where water flows, soluble nutrients are a component of that water. So some of the nutrients are captured in that hydro- gel. What Zeba does is it creates efficiency with irrigation, nutrient applications or fertilizer applications,” he says. Zeba biodegrades harmlessly in the soil and can be reapplied every time a new crop is planted. SPONGE DISCOVERY The core technology of Zeba was developed by William Doane during his 30 years with the USDA. During this time, he led a USDA staff that successfully developed key scientific breakthroughs and patents in starch-based super- absorbent technologies. Hundreds of scientific trials in worldwide agricultural production and university studies proved its effectiveness. In 1994, Milan H. Savich joined forces with Dr. Doane to take initial USDA lab discoveries and develop a commercial product. By 2002, this group developed a dramatically new starch-based polymers technology, which led to the founding of Absorbent Technologies (ATI) in Beaverton, Ore., in 2003. Clark says they’ve conducted side-by- side field trials for four years across Idaho and five years across the Pacific Northwest, looking at yield and then looking at quality. “We get a very consistent, conservative, For potatoes, Absorbent Technologies suggests growers apply Zeba at a rate of 6–8 lb./acre in furrow near seed pieces at planting. Figure 1. Potatoes − Idaho (2008 Summary). 26 Potato Grower | JULY 2010 three-times ROI on that investment,” he says. Clark says that what really has happened in the last four seasons of testing is the impact on usable yield versus tonnage. In multiple trials and on-farm usage, Zeba has been shown to increase the percentage of usables, produce bigger potatoes, better potatoes and more of them—moving un-usables into usables, and take smaller usables and moving them