Category: Knowledge
Date published: September 16, 2024

Healthy Soils, Healthy Crops with Koppert’s Comprehensive Soil Health Program

In today’s agriculture, maintaining healthy soil is more important than ever. Excessive reliance on chemical interventions has in the recent past disrupted the delicate balance of beneficial microorganisms in the soil, leading to productivity and long-term sustainability challenges.

We have developed our Koppert Soil Health Program- a robust program that champions sustainable solutions that foster healthy, resilient crops by nurturing the soil from the ground up.

Supporting Plants the Natural Way

Our Soil Health Program is designed to help growers cultivate resilient, disease-resistant crops without heavy reliance on chemicals. The goal is simple: to create a thriving, balanced ecosystem below ground, where beneficial microorganisms can naturally control harmful pathogens, ensuring your crops stay healthy and productive.

The soil health program is a three-tiered strategy which includes a combination of innovative solutions designed to create the perfect environment for soil health and crop growth.

The program combines use of the following products, each playing a vital role in promoting a balanced and healthy soil ecosystem.

1. NoPath: Advanced Antifungal and Antimicrobial Action

NoPath is a powerful Koppert solution based on plant essential oil extracts. It is a blend of natural ingredients that work to suppress soil-borne pathogens by disrupting several key processes in bacterial and fungal cells, ultimately leading to their destruction.

NoPath’s Key Modes of Action:

Nopath has a broad range of modes of action that make it a holistic antifungal and anti-microbial product. These can be discussed in the following 4 ways:

  • Alteration of microbial cell permeability, permitting the loss of macromolecules from the interior of the pathogen cell
  • Interaction with membrane enzymes and proteins which causes an opposite flow of protons, affecting cellular activity.
  • Damage of enzymatic cell systems, including those associated with energy production and synthesis of structural compounds.
  • Biofilm Inhibition: Prevents the formation and growth of biofilms, reducing the chance of harmful microbes becoming pathogenic.

This holistic approach makes NoPath a potent solution for maintaining a pathogen-free environment without the use of synthetic chemicals.

NoPath Mode of Action

2. Trianum: Fortifying the Root Zone

Problems with soil-borne diseases are on the rise, causing severe crop losses. Our Koppert solution, Trianum P, performs well to control these diseases both in greenhouses and outdoor crops.

Trianum is based on the unique hybrid strain T-22 of Trichoderma harzianum that protects plants against various soil-borne pathogens such as Pythium, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia and Sclerotinia.

Additionally, Trianum increases the plant’s resistance to stress caused by diseases and suboptimal conditions in nutrition, water and climate.

The efficacy of Trianum is comparable to that of a chemical fungicide, but whereas chemicals cause stresses on the plant, Trianum makes the plant more resilient to stress.

How does Trianum work?

After applying Trianum, the fungus rapidly starts to grow. It creates a barrier around the roots to protect the plant from soil-borne diseases, while competing for food and space. Trianum actively attacks fungal pathogens by breaking down their cell walls. These modes of action can be summarized as follows:

  • Competition for Space: Trianum outcompetes harmful fungi for space around the plant roots, preventing pathogens from establishing.
  • Nutrient Competition: Trianum deprives pathogens of the nutrients they need to grow, limiting their development.
  • Pathogen Parasitism: It grows around the mycelia of harmful fungi, breaking down their cell walls and killing the pathogens.
  • Plant Strengthening: It enhances root systems and improves nutrient uptake, leading to stronger, more resilient crops.

Trianum not only provides immediate protection but also boosts the plant’s own defense mechanisms and supports plant growth and uniformity offering long-term resilience.

Trianum-P Mode of action