Ag1000™ Case Study

Ag1000 is a concentrate that is commonly used for farming and agricultural purposes. In greenhouse trials, it is has shown to suppress certain pathogens and diseases. When it was used on pepper plants, Ag1000 was able to protect the plants against Phytophthora disease for up to 4 weeks.

When combined with other products, the effectiveness of Ag1000 could be compromised. UC Davis conducted an experiment to determine the compatibility of Ag1000 with common fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides.

Fungicides and Insecticides on Lactobacillus spp

The first products that were tested were fungicides and insecticides. There were three replications of each treatment and a water-only control. In trial 1, Ag1000 was added to each pesticide solution to make a 1:1000 concentration and in trials 2 & 3, there was a concentration of 1:500.

Each dish was compared to an Ag1000™ only dish to compare the rate of survival. Trials 2 and 3 high higher survival rates than trial 1, makings a 1:500 concentration recommended over 1:1000. Most treatments had survival rates of 80% of higher and did not differ significantly from the control.

Fungicides and Insecticides on Yeast

The results varied a great amount when testing Ag1000 on yeast. Many of the treatments had a higher survival rate that was significantly greater than the control. Products suchs as Systhane, Hachi-Hachi and Terraguard had a survival rate that was significantly less than the control. In some treatments such as Chipco and Pipron, the yeast survival suffered from substantial reduction but they were not significantly different from the control at the 1:1000 concentrations.

Effect of Ag1000™ on Oil Based Pesticides

One concern about Ag100 is that it may cause oil based pesticides to become inactive. To test this theory, Suff Oil-X and Avid was tested against chrysanthemum aphid. The survival rate of aphids treated with Suff Oil-X combined with Ag1000™ was only about half of the survival rate than when using Suff Oil-X alone. When combining these two materials, it could signify that Suff Oil-X against chrysanthemum aphids can increase the effectiveness of Ag1000.

Effect of Ag1000™ on Fertilizers

The final test to be performed was the compatibility of Ag1000 with fertilizers. The experiment was conducted using Technigro 17-5-17 Plus, provided by Teraganix and a custom blend from UC Davis.

The UC Davis blend is comprised of two separate solutions, fertilizer A and fertilizer B. Fertilizer A is for calcium nitrate and fertilizer B is for all other nutrients. When there are 2 elements in high concentration, calcium does not mix with phosphorus. Therefore, only fertilizer B was tested in this experiment.

Survival was calculated relative to the control. First the Teraganix fertilizer was tested. After 3 minutes, the Lactobacillus spp had a survival rate of 92% or higher. However, after 60 minutes, the Lactobacillus spp declined significantly. When the UC Davis blend fertilizer was tested, it did not have any effect on the survival of Lactobacillus spp, in any concentration of Ag1000. Further work is needed to identify the reason why the two fertilizers had such different effects on Lactobacillus spp survival.