Recycled glass silicon fertilizer exceeds expectations
Libby Price from Ace Radio’s Country Today in Victoria talks to David Archer managing director of MaxSil about the latest findings which show the silicon fertiliser’s increased potency in facilitating plant nutrient uptake, and remediation of salt affected soils.
Libby Price
You might remember some time ago on Country Today. We talked about a new fertiliser made from recycled glass. Well, the good news is it's doing even better than expected. David Archer is the managing director of MaxSil.
David, one step back, explain to us again what MaxSil is; how you make it?
David Archer
It's a recycled glass material, which when you take it down to a certain particle size starts to become extraordinarily valuable as a plant nutrient or to facilitate plant nutrient uptake. That sounds like a mouthful, but it just means the plants perform better - more suck for your buck, so to speak.
Libby Price
Okay. And you had it tested in the United States, what did that lab analysis show?
David Archer
We've constantly used analysis out of the United States mainly because every state in the US uses a single test method to determine the level of plant-available silicon in a product That's the important thing. Plant-available silicon, or PAS is the real measure of how well or how effective a silicon fertiliser can be.
So what happened with that is that we found that as we started to develop a product and get a better grind on it and produce a far better product, the levels of plant available silicon went through the roof, went from 15,000 parts per million up to nudging 42,000 in some instances. So it's extraordinarily more potent, which means you need to use less to get the result.
Libby Price
And you've also just released some trials of using MaxSil on barley on saline soil in Western Australia. What did that show?
David Archer
We've been able to demonstrate that we can grow a viable crop on salt - salt-laden soils. You're talking, crikey, 4000 parts per million plus, very, very salty soils, and not only in Western Australia. We're now seeing some results come out of the northern New South Wales wheat belt, where there is some salinity in soils, and they've been getting exactly the same results. They've been able to grow a viable crop. That's extraordinary.
There's a lot of research around the world that talks of this. You know, a dinky little Australian company like us, we've been able to actually demonstrate that it works with our product.
Libby Price
And is it only for use where there's a problem with salinity?
David Archer
No. No. Look, we've got 10 years of research behind us which show that this product has a really good effect on yield and quality of most crops; horticultural crops, tomato, capsicum, sugarcane, avocado, there's almost no limit to it. The reality is that it will pick up and it'll make plants perform better, particularly when they're under stress.
And that's the key thing. People say, well, where should I use this? And I would say to them pick your worst paddock. Not quite as bad as our chap in Western Australia who sowed a barley crop onto a salt pan. But yeah, good on him.
Libby Price
They do have that in Western Australia, salt pans I mean.
And how much does it cost compared with other compared with other fertilisers?
David Archer
Other silicon based materials? Because it's so potent, because of the high levels of soluble plant-available silicon in it, it actually works out to about a quarter of the cost of anything else on the market. And despite that, not only quarter of the cost, it's got 15 to 20 times more plant soluble silicon in it, so it's a bit of a win-win.
Libby Price
David Archer is the managing director of MaxSil.
