14 Sep 2018

Forest company predicts a revolution in silviculture with new fertilizer from Umeå

Holmen, a Swedish forest company, has successfully been using arginine as a liquid fertilizer in its nurseries for fifteen years and now the organic fertilizer Argrow, from Arevo, is available in solid form too. This enables seedlings to continue being fertilized once they have been planted in the forest. Research results have shown that forest seedlings much prefer arginine to nitrate as a source of nitrogen.

Classic fertilizers contain high amounts of nitrates as a source of nitrogen. The disadvantage is that nitrates easily leach out, with a negative impact on watercourses and wells as a result. Unlike nitrate, arginine is organic and has a positively charged molecule that is bound in the soil. This means that the nitrogen, essential to plant growth, is not washed away by rain or watering. This is a big advantage for both the plant and the environment.

-Argrow is a liquid fertilizer that produces a large number of fine, small roots and efficient and eco-friendly nitrogen usage, says Daniel Hägglund, head of seed and seedling operations at Holmen, in a press release. He continues -Argrow is now used for the 35 million seedlings we grow in our nurseries every year.

That arginine produces better root systems, rapid growth and a high survival rate was discovered and patented by the company SweTree Technologies (STT) that has worked with Holmen to produce the new fertilizer Argrow. Development and marketing is now managed by the company Arevo AB. In 2017, Arevo participated in North Sweden Cleantech and Business Sweden's joint venture "Steps to Export", an acceleration program for internationalization.

Holmen's nurseries in Friggesund and Gideå have long used the organic fertilizer Argrow. The fact that it is now available in solid form makes it possible to also add the fertilizer when the seedlings are planted in the ground. In 2016 and 2017 trials of the granulate were conducted on seedlings in the field. And according to Daniel Hägglund, the trials are looking promising. If the results in 2018 are equally positive, he thinks the method is here to stay.

-I personally believe that this may herald a silviculture revolution in Sweden, Daniel Hägglund says in the press release.

 

Photo Bertil Axelsson, compilation of Holmens text by Maria Klintenäs

Read the press release from Holmen here ->