Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

The Institute for Sustainable Horticulture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University will bring its horticultural expertise to partner with Lucent Biosciences Inc. to explore the value of a proprietary natural carrier system which retains plant nutrients in the root zone and available as the plant demands. Such a carrier has the potential to prevent loss of nutrients required by food crops during flooding and catastrophic weather events which normally leach nutrients out of the root zone. The natural composition of the carrier avoids some of the shortfalls of standard chelated micronutrients. The project will evaluate the longevity of the carrier in horticultural media under various conditions with 3 diverse crop types, the response of each crop to a range of concentrations of a representative micronutrient, Manganese, and compare its mode of action to industry standard chelated Manganese. Climate change challenges will bring significant value to a natural nutrient carrier able to keep nutrients in place for both the agriculture and landscape industries. Lucent will benefit from the expertise at ISH to address early fertilizer product development challenges, and KPU will benefit from expanding its ability to work with local industry. Students and new grads will benefit from the opportunity to participate in applied research in support of climate-change resilience.*