An Alternative to Fungicide Seed Treatments
We have been looking for an alternative to chemical fungicides for some time now and have trialed a number of different biological products. EcoTea™ came on our radar screen a few years ago and last year we decided to try it in on our own crops on our farm. We were very pleased to find that EcoTea enhanced yield results on a dryland cereal field (in comparison to normal seed treatment); and was equivalent to fungicide seed treatment on an irrigated pea field. These field size trials were very encouraging for us.
So in 2026 we are ramping up and expect to apply EcoTea™ to our seed on at least 1/3 of our farm acres. We will again compare these results to conventional fungicides.
While we are still evaluating the product ourselves, we are impressed so far and will be making EcoTea™ available to our customers in 2026 so that they can also trial the product on their farm.
EcoTea™ liquid seed dressing can be applied through our on site seed treaters as an alternative to conventional fungicide. It can be combined with an insecticide (to address wireworm issues or pea leaf weevil issues for example) but can not be combined with fungicides.
EcoTea™ is a combination of plant beneficial microbes for your soil and crops. EcoTea™ contains bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes and mico-invertebrates, which together, facilitate the bio-availability of nitrogen, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper to the plant. These elements provide the nutrition needed to help plants thrive. When applied to your seed as a liquid seed dressing prior to seeding, EcoTea provides nutrients that encourage earlier germination and cold tolerance (enhanced seed vigor) for your crop's emergence. Additionally, the crop benefits from the symbiotic relationship between EcoTea microorganisms and your soil biology enhancing the plants ability to better use the nutrients within the soil allowing plants additional resilience in dry or reduced nutrient situations.
There are many anecdotal benefits attributed to EcoTea™ but the main benefits that we are focusing on are:
- early germination and improved seed vigor (ability to germinate in colder conditions);
- enhanced ability for plants grown from seed treated with EcoTea liquid seed dressing to utilize soil nutrients;
In trials EcoTea™ improved plant germination in cold germination settings by 14% in 86% of the combined laboratory and field studies.
In trials with reduced Nitrogen and Phosphate levels, EcoTea™ allowed plants to still achieve comparable or higher yields compared to plots where more fertilizer was used.
