For over a decade, the team at Redox Bio-Nutrients has been working on a biostimulant product founder Darin Moon says offers a complete change of perspective on how plants use applied nitrogen.
“For me, I didn’t believe these results for three years,” he says. “But now, we can’t ignore it any more.”
What Moon discovered became RDX-N, a bio-nutrient product enhanced with botanical extracts available in liquid formulations to be applied with synthetic nitrogen.
“When applied with synthetic nitrogen, it is optimized by 50%, so in other words rates can be reduced–dramatically,” Moon says. “It’s a monstrous claim. We aren’t throwing that number out lightly.”
He cites Redox research showing trials measured through yield with an 80% win rate comparing treated and untreated 200 units of nitrogen, split applied in corn.
Redox has worked with RDX-N in 13 crops including corn, rice, celery, lettuce and melons.
Flipping conventional approaches to improve nitrogen uptake, RDX-N isn’t a nitrogen stabilizer nor does it drive a soil microbe environmental response. Instead, it targets plant metabolism.
“We are suffering from nitrogen toxicity,” Moon says. “For so long, we’ve applied nitrogen without understanding the other processes surrounding it. Now, we’re relearning how to apply nitrogen to plants for optimization.”
With its novel approach, RDX-N is formulated to enhance nitrogen optimization through the plant’s metabolic pathway.
“80% of all nitrogen the plant takes up is in nitrate form, but it has to be converted to ammonia and then amino acids inside the plant. The key is metabolizing the nitrate–that’s what this product does. Otherwise, a plant loaded with nitrate is not only inefficient it’s also more susceptible to disease, insects and not filling out its ear until the right environmental conditions come along,” Moon says.
He adds this product launch in tandem with increased interest in soil health, environmental effects, and economic ROI, will elevate understanding of nutrient use in plants.
“We aren’t trying to turn the world upside down but rather offer a way growers don’t have to spend any more money but are able to cut rates potentially in half. There’s a cascade effect to retailers and distributors as it could mean lower volumes on barges, rail and truck,” Moon says.
With its liquid formulation, RDX-N can currently be blended with UAN and other liquid fertilizers. In the future, the team aims to provide a dry formulation of RDX-N.
“We believe this is an industry disruptor and will make a difference to the bottom line for growers,” Moon says.
