Garden Fertilizer Making Waves in Ag Industry Pool

Garden Fertilizer Making Waves in Ag Industry Pool

By SHANNON BURKDOLL,
The Prairie Star editor
Wednesday, March 2, 2005 3:42 PM MST

MOIESE, Mont. - A fertilizer originally designed to feed roses is making waves in agricultural production, increasing crop yields for a fraction of the cost of conventional fertilizers.

That's exactly what Ernie Foust of Moiese, discovered after giving Monty's Plant Food a chance.

"Originally I wasn't interested because I'd heard the song and dance of those new products too many times," said Foust, who, with his family, raises certified seed potatoes, grain corn, wheat, alfalfa and cattle. "They all say it will cost a little more but you make a lot more. It doesn't always come true."

After several times of visiting the Foust place, Chuck Ibey of Missoula, who sells Monty's Plant Food in the western region, left some samples for Foust to try at his own leisure. Foust gave Monty's Plant Food a shot when he decided against changing hand lines to fertilize the corners of his corn field. At harvest, the corners of the corn field produced 20 bushels more than the center and cost $17 an acre less than Foust's regular fertilizer program.

"That's when it got my attention," he said.

Foust, still somewhat skeptical, decided to test Monty's Plant Food in different intervals and on different crops.

"Straight fertilizer yielded 111 to 121 bushels per acre, 50 percent fertilizer and Monty's yielded 132 to 134, and straight Monty's yielded 132 to 134 bushels an acre," he said. "The straight Monty's cost me $27 total per acre, and the straight fertilizer cost me more than $100 per acre."

Lake County Montana State University Extension agent Jack Stivers of Ronan, Mont., joined Foust in experimenting with Monty's Plant Food and found the combination of 25 percent regular fertilizer and Monty's produced the best results.

"He did the same thing, and found that straight Monty's yielded 4.5 to five tons more at one-third the cost of straight fertilizer," said Foust. "And 25 percent fertilizer with Monty's out-yielded the straight Monty's by five tons."

Foust said he plans to use one-fourth of his straight fertilizer program combined with Monty's on his corn crop this spring, which will cost him between $30 to $40 per acre versus more than $100 per acre.

Corn isn't the only crop on which Foust has tested Monty's Plant Food. He has also used it on his hay and pasture.

"It yielded 5.5 to seven tons per acre every time," said Foust. "It paid for the cost of the Monty's and some extra, but that's an 8-year-old stand that is due to be replanted. That's a decent yield average for Lake County."

Foust has been using Monty's Plant Food for three years, and plans to continue doing so. While Monty's produces promising results when used in a fertilizer combination, Foust said he is most impressed with its effectiveness in a chemical kill situation.

When he first tried Monty's in a chemical situation, Foust said he'd sprayed broadleaf pesticides and rinsed his tank out three times before spraying Monty's on some alfalfa. Instead of seeing a growth difference later, Foust said the leaves were curling and browning, indicating the plants had been poisoned.

"I now use it as a tank cleaner," he said. "Monty's is bipolar and makes a positive charge, locks onto the chemical and takes it with it through the plant."

Intrigued, Foust mixed Monty's Plant Food with Roundup<+z7>®<$z$> in an attempt to eliminate some volunteer potato plants in his cornfield.

"Roundup isn't supposed to kill volunteer potatoes," said Foust. "But the combination worked good. I used a pint and a half of Monty's with the Roundup. It normally costs me about $26 an acre to spray volunteer potatoes and there is still some left over, but with the Roundup Ready corn, Roundup and Monty's it costs me just $6 an acre and fries those volunteer potatoes."

Now, Foust uses Monty's as a surfactant, costing between 15 and 30 cents per acre. "I'm really pleased with it," he said.

Though Foust was the first in Montana to give Monty's Plant Food a chance, it's catching on.

Ibey said the carbon-based, bipolar plant food has produced outstanding results in cereal crops near Choteau, Mont., as well as in Scobey, Mont., and Glasgow, Mont. In fact, when used on feed barley and hay crops, Monty's Plant Food produced lower nitrate levels and higher digestibility numbers than the best fertilizers on the market, said Ibey.

Monty's Plant Food has also been used to reclaim soils thought to be useless due to radioactive materials left in the ground.

"It's being used as a new technology for reclamation cleanup because Monty's allows plants to access nutrients in the soils that were thought to not be there," said Ibey.

Unlike other fertilizers or plant foods, Monty's is made with a minute amount of salt and no chlorine, which gives it a more sustainable power with the plants on which it is applied, said Ibey.

"Plants use 100 percent of Monty's," he said. "Other fertilizers leach into the ground water or evaporate into the air. Since Monty's is bipolar, it locks together with other nutrients found in the soils and stays there. It doesn't go anywhere but into the plant."

Monty's Plant Food isn't perfect. It does have its limitations, according to Foust.

"A big problem with Monty's comes up when people don't put it on the way they're supposed to," he said. "The first time you put it on your crop, it will boost the plant up real quick, but if you wait too long until the next application, the plant will suffer and it will take some time for it to recuperate."

Ibey said he recommends producers apply 16 ounces per acre about four times throughout the growing season, beginning with a seed start. That will run producers about $5 to $6 an acre per application on all crops.

Foust said he purchases Monty's Plant Food in the 2.5-gallon jugs, and it costs him about $27 per acre for all four applications.

"They come in bigger containers and that would probably be cheaper, but that would be for the big fertilizer users," he said. "I've been applying it with my chemicals for my corn. Monty's is designed to go through the plant leaf like a chemical, that's why it works so well with the chemicals. Monty's has food-grade phosphorus that locks onto the chemical and transports it through the bottom of the plant roots. The plant is dead before it even knows it's sick. It's the best bang for a buck that I've seen in quite a while."

While Ibey is marketing Monty's Plant Food for agricultural production, he said those with house plant can also enjoy its benefits if sprayed onto the plant every time it is watered.