Patent Application
20210032175
The present invention relates to an improved process of producing a soil amendment with a reduced metal content that promotes reduced uptake of trace metals by growing plants, particularly by plants growing in natural and artificial soil media provided with the soil amendment, and, more particularly, to an improved process of making a soil amendment that reduces uptake of metals by plants growing in soil media treated with the soil amendment when the soil amendment increases root mass and root mass growth rates so that they are several times greater than normal root mass and root grow rates occurring without the presence of the soil amendment.
The present invention also relates to a novel soil amendment with a reduced metal content that increases the root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media treated with the novel soil amendment when the root mass and root growth rates are increased so that they are several times greater than normal growth rates occurring without treatment of the soil media with the soil amendment and the growing plants have a reduced metal content, especially a reduced trace metal content.
The present invention also relates to a soil amendment for growing plants with a reduced metal content, which contains an economically produced plant auxin or growth hormone that promotes plant growth and increases root mass, so that uptake of metals by the growing plants, especially Cannabis plants and cabbage plants, is reduced.
Many organic fruits and vegetables uptake trace metals as part of their metabolism. In certain plants, especially hemp plants such as Cannabis, where metal uptake is high, there is concern regarding the effects of the metals taken up by the growing plants, especially when the harvested plant is subject to solvent extraction, because there are concerns about the long term effects of consumption of harvested plant products containing comparatively high amounts of trace metals.
Some states in the USA have restrictions on the amounts of certain trace or trace heavy metals that may be present in a Cannabis plant. The new process of the present application reduces the amounts of these undesirable metals in the Cannabis plant in order to comply with state legal requirements.
Soil amendments are known in the farming and horticulture arts to provide soil with better properties for growing plants and/or for improving the yields of a crop and/or the quality of the plants that are grown. The size and growth rate of various plants can be increased by adding a soil amendment to the soil media or growing media in the vicinity of the roots of the plants.
However, some soil amendments that will improve plant size or growth rate may comprise disadvantageously large amounts of metals, especially trace metals, which may exceed the legally required limits for these metals. Thus, there is a need for soil amendments that provide good results for growing plants and reduce the uptake of undesirable trace metals by the growing plants.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel soil amendment with a reduced metal content that increases the root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media treated with the novel soil amendment, but without increasing the metal content, particularly the trace metal content, of the grown plants.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel low cost, rapid, and efficient process for making the aforesaid soil amendment of the present invention with the aforesaid benefits.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a novel process for growing plants, such as cabbage plants or Cannabis plants, in the presence of a soil amendment that greatly increases the root mass and root mass growth rates of the growing plants, but has a reduced metal content so that the uptake of the metals by the growing plants is reduced, in order to comply with legal requirements for metal content of harvested plants.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a process for growing plants, such as cabbage plants or Cannabis plants, in natural or artificial soil media with a novel soil amendment that increases the root mass and root mass growth rates of the plants several fold over the root mass and root mass growth rates for the same plants grown in the same soil media but without the novel soil amendment of the present invention, while simultaneously reducing the metal content, especially the trace metal content, of the plants grown with the assistance of the soil amendment.
In one aspect of the present invention, which satisfies the above-described objects, and others which will be made more apparent herein after, a first process of making a soil amendment with a reduced metal content, which increases root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media provided with the soil amendment, comprises:
a) growing a thermo-tolerant auxin-producing Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus on pure chitin in situ in natural and/or artificial soil media under aerobic conditions; and
b) biodegrading the pure chitin in the presence of ample oxygen and the auxin-producing Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus, so as to form the soil amendment with the reduced metal content, which acts to increase the root mass and root growth rates of plants growing in said soil media.
The auxins or plant hormones in the soil amendment produced by the biodegradation have been determined and characterized as 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and its dimer.
Alternatively, another process for making the soil amendment with a reduced metal content, which increases root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media provided with the soil amendment comprises:
In a further alternative process of making a soil amendment with a reduced metal content, which increases root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media provided with the soil amendment, the process comprises:
Other aspects of the present invention include the soil amendments that are made by the above-described alternative processes and also methods of growing plants in soil media with the soil amendments with reduced metal content, particularly reduced trace metal content, so as to increase the root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in that soil media.
Various methods of effectively providing plants growing in natural or artificial soil media with a soil amendment so that their root mass and root mass growth rate are increased are known from the prior art.
For example, the soil amendment of the present invention, which comprises 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and its dimer, could be leached into roots (root absorption) from the wet powder resulting from making the auxins in situ. Other methods include leaf absorption and use of hydroponics, i.e. mineral nutrient solutions containing the auxins.
The term “soil amendment” is well known in the horticulture and farming arts. By definition the term “soil amendment” means a non-nutrient plant additive for improving plant growth and plant properties—in the case of the present invention the soil amendment additive increases root mass and root growth rates but without increasing the metal content of the grown plants because of a reduced presence of the metals in the soil amendment.
Preferred embodiments of processes for making the soil amendment with reduced metal content are described herein below.
During the first process, in which the soil amendment is produced in situ in soil media in which the plants are grown prior to or during the growing of the plants, pure chitin is preferably seeded or inoculated with the auxin-producing Streptobacillus at the beginning of or during the growing or culturing step a). A Streptococcus also may be used.
In a preferred embodiment of the first process the pure chitin may be obtained by fermentation of shrimp and/or crab shell material or by boiling the shrimp and/or crab shell material in water, e.g. tap water or sea water.
Prior to fermentation or boiling in water the shrimp and/or crab shell material is advantageously first micronized to particle sizes of 5 to 100 microns when performing the first process described in the above Summary.
To obtain the pure chitin used in step a) of the above first process the chitin initially obtained from the fermentation or the boiling of the shrimp and/or crab shell material is extracted with alkaline media to remove metals to purify the chitin, in order to reduce the metal content of the plant amendment. Also, the micronized shrimp and/or crab shell material may be extracted with alkaline media to reduce the metal content of the amendment.
During the first process of making the soil amendment 25 to 50% of a biomass consisting of a total amount of the reaction mixture containing the chitin and the Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus is converted to plant auxins or growth hormones for stimulating growth of root mass of growing plants. The plant auxins are 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and a dimer thereof.
In a preferred embodiment of the first process a plurality of doses, each consisting of a predetermined amount, for example from 5 to 30 grams, of the pure chitin, are spread over and in the natural and/or artificial soil media prior to and/or during the growing plants of step a), in the vicinity of growing plants. The soil media should be moistened with water and ample air or oxygen should be provided during growth for culturing the Streptococcus on the chitin. The spreading of soil amendment of the invention may be by top-dressing a surface of said soil media in the vicinity of said plants.
Alternatively, in the first process the pure chitin consists essentially of micronized shrimp and/or crab shell material with a particle size of from 5 to 100 microns that has been extracted with alkaline media to reduce trace heavy metal content.
In other embodiments of the first process the pure chitin that is used to start the process may include or be derived from other natural sources including squid beaks and fungi. It is conceivable that the chitin could be manufactured by an artificial chemical process.
In the case of the second alternative of the process for making the soil amendment in which the chitin is first processed to produce the soil amendment with the growth stimulating auxins and reduced metal content and then later added to the soil in which the plants are growing, a preferred embodiment includes spinning an aqueous chitin suspension of chin particles in water, such as sea water, and continually supplying air or oxygen to the chitin suspension to ensure the presence of ample oxygen amounts during spontaneous development of the auxin-producing Streptobacillus on the respective chitin particles in the suspension. After spinning the suspension for a predetermined time, for example 24 hours, biodegradation of the chitin takes place to produce the soil amendment comprising the plant auxins that increase root mass and root mass growth rates. The auxins have been characterized chemically and comprise 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and a dimer thereof.
To ensure that the soil amendment of this second process has a reduced metal content the chitin may be extracted for example with alkaline media to reduce the naturally occurring metal content in the chitin. The initial source of the chitin may be a micronized shrimp and/or crab shell particulate.
In the third alternative process for making the soil amendment according to the invention an oxygenated aqueous suspension of shrimp and/or crab shell pieces is continually supplied with ample oxygen is fermented or boiled in water, in order to spontaneously bloom a plant-auxin-producing Streptobacillus that coats the shrimp and/or crab shell pieces in the suspension, so that the Streptobacillus biodegrades the shrimp and/or crab shell pieces after a predetermined time, e.g. 24 hours.
One preferred embodiment of this third process includes spinning an aerated or oxygenated aqueous suspension of micronized shrimp and/or crab shell pieces with a particle size of 5 to 100 microns in water, such as tap water or sea water, and continually supplying air or oxygen to the suspension to ensure the presence of ample oxygen amounts during spontaneous blooming or development of the auxin-producing Streptobacillus on the shrimp and/or crab shell particles in the suspension. After spinning the suspension for a predetermined time, for example 24 hours, biodegradation of chitin in the particles takes place to produce the soil amendment comprising plant auxins that increase root mass and root mass growth rates without an unacceptable uptake of metals by the growing plants.
As noted above, the auxins have been characterized chemically and comprise 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and a dimer thereof.
The objects, features and advantages of the invention will now be illustrated in more detail with the aid of the following examples, with reference to the accompanying figures in which:
The soil amendment according to the invention used to grow the plants shown in
The cilantro plants shown in
A video is available from the applicants shows the structure of the larger root ball of the grown cilantro plants of
Example 2 In addition to the above tests of the effectiveness of the soil amendment according to the invention in promoting growth of root mass and root mass growth rates, samples of the soil amendment were subjected to an elemental analysis by ProVerde Laboratories, Inc., 420 Fortune Blvd., Milford Mass. 01757. The tests were performed in accordance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and they showed that none of the 25 elements, (mostly metals), were present in an amount greater than an environmentally acceptable allowed maximum amount. The results for some of the most environmentally critical metal elements are shown in the following Table I.
Other samples confirmed the conclusion that the soil amendment of the environmental is environmentally acceptable according to MA state standards.
Shrimp shell material or shrimp meal is micronized to a particle size of 5 to 100 microns. The resulting particulate is purified, e.g. by extraction with an alkaline solution and other procedures as needed to obtain a pure chitin particulate.
The pure chitin particulate is introduced to a spinning aerated gallon of salt water (5 grams per gallon of water). After 24 hours an auxin producing Streptobacillus that blooms on the pure chin particulate biodegrades the pure chitin to form the auxins comprising 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer and its dimer.
While illustrative examples of one or more embodiments of the present invention are provided hereinabove, those skilled in the art and having the benefit of the present disclosure will appreciate that further embodiments may be implemented with various changes within the scope of the present invention. Other modifications, substitutions, omissions and changes may be made in the choice of plants grown, the root enhancing auxin and its amount, the nature of the soil media in which the plants are grown and the type and amounts of the metal contaminants as well as the process conditions that reduce contaminating metals, without departing from the spirit of the inventive process.
Accordingly, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.
What is claimed is new and is set forth in the following appended claims.
This utility application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/874,726, filed Jul. 16, 2019, which is hereby incorporated in the following disclosure in its entirety. This continuation-in-part application claims the benefit of priority for that part of the inventions described herein below that is also described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/874,726 under 35 U.S.C. § 119 (e).
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62874726 | Jul 2019 | US |
