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Nanofertilizers in Hydroponics - what are their potential? · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, the go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, and today's episode is all about nanofertilisers.
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  So what do we mean when we talk about nano, nanotechnology and things like this?
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  It's basically anything that is 1 to 100 nanometers in size. So what is a nanometer?
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  Well, when we think of a meter, we obviously know what a meter is.
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  If you're anywhere outside of the US.
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  And then a centimeter, a hundredth of a meter, a millimeter is a thousandth
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  of a meter. And you can just about see that with the naked eye.
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  We'll divide one of those millimeters by a thousand and you get a micrometer
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  and divide one of those micrometers by a thousand.
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  Again, you get a nanometer.
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  And so these are particles of fertilizer that are one to a hundred nanometers in diameter.
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  So these are compounds that would not normally be soluble, but when you put
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  them to nanoscale, they do interesting things.
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  And so they can be absorbed by plant cells and other cells, and they can move
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  systemically, whereas they wouldn't have moved systemically before.
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  So there's been a lot of interest in nanofertilisers over the years,
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  and we're going to talk about some of them so first of
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  all why might you want to use a nano fertilizer higher nutrient
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  use efficiency would be the first one if you can put a
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  much smaller amount in but get it absorbed better maybe through a foliar application
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  rather than a soil drench that's just going to be wasted and be absorbed by
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  the cells in the leaf and the foliage you could get targeted and controlled
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  release over certain time periods and certain temperatures and greater uptake at the roost surfaces.
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  So studies have shown that nanofertilisers can increase nutrient uptake by over
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  30% and beef yields by over 20% in soil systems and hydroponic systems.
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  However, that is with a caveat and I'll talk about that later.
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  Now, a lot of nanofertilisers are iron oxide nanoparticles.
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  And they're 30 nanometer super paramagnetic particles. They show promise in hydroponics.
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  And it's thought that they can increase iron levels in things like potatoes
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  and even starch concentration.
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  However, iron wouldn't have been my first choice to experiment with when it
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  comes to nanofertilisers.
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  Because yes iron oxide is insoluble in
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  water but there are loads of soluble forms of
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  iron and when you think about solubility a soluble
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  form of iron is even smaller than a nanoparticle and so things like iron chelates
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  are readily available for both hydroponics and soil cultivation so why why start
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  with iron when that's one of the nutrients you can get into plants on folias
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  very easily as long as it's chelated.
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  So my first choices would have been silicon and boron.
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  Silicon, while not an essential element, strengthens cell walls,
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  improves disease resistance and tolerance.
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  So nanosilica could bind to roots, it could bind to the flowers,
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  the fruits, the cells, and it could provide silicon in an easily absorbable form.
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  And crucially, it could do it without any pH issues or without the need for
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  synthetic solvents and surfactants.
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  So that would have been my first choice and my second choice would
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  have been boron because this boron is essential for cell division and reproduction
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  improves chlorophyll photosynthesis but boron is one of the few nutrients that
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  there's not a good chelated form of it utreema were working on a chelated form
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  of boron that uses natural chelation but it would have been a good one for.
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  Nanotechnology there's lots of people who've looked at nanotechnology over
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  the last 10-15 years there's
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  a lot of nano fertilizers coming out of taiwan i think
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  they're manufactured and you can get them they they're because
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  they're they're basically a suspension fertilizer a suspension
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  fertilizer is a is a product where the fertilizer
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  ingredients are not actually solubilized they're floating around
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  in an emulsion or suspension and they
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  weigh a lot because of that so you could they're often very heavy
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  you can get silicon nano fertilizers out of
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  taiwan there's a lot of research done at nottingham trent university in
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  the uk by dr gareth cave and there they
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  were linking the nanoparticle to an amino acid for even more improved delivery
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  because they'd seen a lot of effects positive effects on animal nutrition so
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  they were looking to expand that into plant health and they launched a range
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  called nano nine i think that was in the hydroponic industry for a.
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  But, you know, it's not potentially the end of that story.
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  Obviously, we've talked about the enhanced uptake delivery, better control release dynamics.
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  When we talk about controlled release, controlled release fertilisers are often
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  like granules that involve plastics and non-biodegradables.
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  So if you could get a biodegradable controlled release nanofertiliser, that would be great.
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  But what are the problems, what are the issues that stop nanofertilisers being commercialised?
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  And the big one is that you get particle aggregation
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  that they can scale the nanoparticles can clump together
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  reduce bioavailability and
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  so a nanoparticle suddenly becomes a microparticle
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  and it's it's particle its performance
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  its properties radically change then stability
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  in solution coated nanoparticles must resist
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  ph and nutrient impacts iron nanotrials show
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  good stability though but we've seen clumping in our
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  lab with with nanoparticles over time and then
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  there's regulatory oversight nanoparticles face growing scrutiny
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  and they in certain countries they
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  may be banned and nanotubes as
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  well if you ever looked into nanotubes there's a lot of research looking at nanotubes
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  could improve water uptake in roots but at the same time they
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  could also be highly toxic to humans so i think they
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  are banned and nano fertilizers might be banned in the us let
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  me know if you've listened to this podcast and you know whether
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  nano fertilizers are allowed in the us that would be interesting so
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  if you've ever researched to use nano fertilizers and seen a good effect compared
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  to standard fertilizers let me know a lot of the early studies showed really
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  really high increases in yield that were too good to be true a former boss of
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  mine used to he used to work for.
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  I think he used to work for DuPont, said if you see a study that shows an increase
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  in yield above, I think it was like 10%, you can just ignore it.
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  So, you know, increases yield of 80%, that's really, the plants must have been
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  growing in suboptimal conditions.
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  So they must have been stressed, highly stressed to see an effect that dramatic.
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  So, but you know, nanofertilisers remain a potential really interesting area,
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  especially in those nutrients I talked about, silicon and boron and
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  potentially other you know some of the macronutrients as well
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  if we could deliver them if we could stop phosphorus lockouts
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  that would be a really good one more calcium and phosphorus
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  from stop them from interacting when mixed together in
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  standard fertilizers that would be good and that's already happens
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  in gold leaf and liquid gold the calcium and phosphorus don't interact with
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  its unique technology but there could be other options for once once arable
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  crops hit the soil to stop calcium and phosphorus from interacting so keep an
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  eye on it keep an eye on research coming out of the universities and see where
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  chemistry and biology interact and where.
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  Academia and industry interact.
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  So I'm Dr. Russell Sharps. Thank you for tuning in to Hydroponics Daily.
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  If you would like to know more about nanofertilisers, if you want to discuss
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  them further, just email me or comment on one of the, wherever you are getting
• 7:49
  this, and I'm more than happy to talk about it, or can even do a clarification.
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  If you've got a novel nanoproduct, that you'd like to talk about in hydroponics
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  or in horticulture in general, then drop me a line.
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  And if you are in the nano industry and someone's sent you this episode for
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  you to listen to, then you owe that person a pint.
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  And if you could do me a favor as well and screenshot your podcast provider
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  on your phone as you see this and then share it to social media and say,
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  I listened to this and it was a really good episode.
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  That would be amazing because that would help me grow the community listening to Hydroponics Daily.
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  Until tomorrow, that's been Hydroponics Daily, nano fertilisers.