Impact of Biological Inputs on Strawberries

TrueAlgae completed BeCrop® Trials to understand the effect their product, TrueSolum®, had on strawberries. TrueAlgae submitted 72 samples, 3 replicates per time point from 3 geographical locations: Location 1 at SweetLife Strawberry Station (Plant City, FL), Location 2 at Strawberry Ranch (Plant City, FL), and Location 3 at Eastside Ranch (Salinas, CA).  The CA location had to be excluded from the results because there were significant differences between the treated and the control at Time 0 (pretreatment) making this location’s data unreliable.  

Location 1: TrueSolum significantly modified the bacterial and fungal composition of the microbiome, explaining 11% and 7% of the changes seen over time in respective populations.  

Increasing trends were identified in the abundance of siderophore producing bacteria (chelating molecules that increase iron bioavailability) in the TrueSolum treated plots compared to the control.  Microbes influencing zinc, manganese, and sulfur transport increased in the TrueSolum treated plots throughout the study compared to the control.

Location 2:  TrueSolum had a significant effect on the bacterial and fungal composition of the microbiome, and explained 10%  and 6% of the changes in the microbiome seen over time respectively.

TrueSolum caused increases in bacteria influencing Zinc, Manganese, Calcium and Copper transport throughout the study with significant increases in siderophore producers (517%, p=.01) at 30 days after the initial application compared to the control.  

Discussion:

There were key similarities between both studies that shed light on the mode of action of TrueSolum.  TrueSolum significantly changed both the bacterial and fungal populations (the microbiome) compared to the control in both trial locations.  These changes were treatment effects and not simply seasonal or crop effects.  In both locations, the TrueSolum plots had higher levels of siderophore producing bacteria compared to the control.  Siderophores are iron-chelating compounds produced by microorganisms when iron is scarce to help scavenge iron from the environment and transport iron across cell membranes.  The iron is used by not only microbes, but also plants.  There are many reasons they are important in agriculture such as iron uptake for plant growth, enhanced chlorophyll production, improved tolerance to stresses caused by heavy metals, improved activity of soil microbes, biocontrol properties against Phytophthora, Pythium, Fusarium, and Sclerotinia.  

Microbial siderophore – A boon to agricultural sciences - ScienceDirect