Farm and Ranch March 4, 2010 Potato growers across the Northwest reported improvements in both yield and quality of their 2009 harvest when using Zeba®, a novel corn starch-based soil moisture management technology. Kevin Hamilton, a vice president for Absorbent Technologies, the manufacturer and marketer of Zeba, explains how the product works.

Hamilton: “I think it is more the total crop production and cycle from the time you plant till the time of harvest. And we are helping to retain water in those critical areas. You have the up and down cycles of irrigation processes. So we are trying to even out the stresses of when you get to the peak amount of water and then we get the lower water levels and how we can help minimize those cycles and the stresses it puts on the plant. But in addition to that is the characteristic of Zeba that it can aid in holding the water soluble nutrients in place too so they don‘t leak through the soil profile and allow that plant to use that more effectively and also help the grower benefit from that investment.”

In Idaho, potato harvest results across nine fields resulted in 2.6 tons per acre more potatoes and improvements in both 6- and 10-ounce payables, which netted growers an additional $328 an acre after covering the cost of Zeba, In Washington, MHB Farms of Marlin, Zeba treatments resulted in an additional 2.7 tons of payable potatoes per acre.

You can learn more about this soil moisture management technology at

www.zeba.com

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.