Introduction of Energen products and methodologies for foreign markets - 2020
Good morning, Welcome to a lecture where I would like to introduce you to the company EGT and to tell you a few words about Energen products. As a guest, we will welcome Ing. Kamil Kraus from the Department of Botany and Plant Physiology with whom we work very closely. Regarding the company EGT, it is the owner of the know-how and at the same time the manufacturer of Energen products and technologies. Besides fabrication of the products we also
prepare methodologies for vegetation management, supplementary nutrition, etc. so that it makes sense, especially in more difficult weather conditions and in more demanding regions. Related to this is our consulting service, which we consider an integral part of our work as a manufacturer and seller.
There is a development team in EGT. You could say a young team, but I am a part of it too. Next to me on the image is Kamil Kraus. He investigates what is happening inside the plants. then there is Lenka Vinšová who works with us as the head of the phytotron, and who manages experiments in the phytotron besides other things. Then there is Klára Machová, who is in charge of grid and operational experiments also provides service work related to laboratory analytics. Of course, as I said, we are a manufacturing company but we also offer consulting service, so next to me on the picture is Petr Král, who is our consulting expert for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Together we work hard in creating cost-effective practices for farmers. It is not just a matter of selling a product, but it is also advising, for example, which variety of wheat is suitable for which region, what procedures to use during a period of stress and how to manage it all, so that there is good efficiency and it does not cost much money. A farmer is always interested in that. Not only what was the yield of the harvest, but also how much was the general cost of it all. That's important. Our exclusive contractual partner is the company AV-EKO Color, which handles for us with the production of our Energen products and at the same time guarantees the quality of the products.
Another of our partners is Energen export, which represents us abroad. They take care of registrations in other countries, they identify strategic business partners, prepare registration experiments. Of course in cooperation with us. I'm in charge of that. Because specialized experimental processes in the international market are my responsability. Energen Export also takes care of international trade. For example, in Russia, in Ukraine, in Georgia, Arabia, European Union. There are currently many countries where we have solid commercial activity.
Regarding this you can see on the map that the countries colored in blue are the ones where we have ongoing experiments, in green besides experiments we have already also a registration (the map dynamically changes with time) for example, green Mongolia should already be red. The orange countries have valid registration, but there is no trade yet. In the red countries, trade is at an early stage or it is already established there. What are our priorities abroad? Definitely it is the Russian Federation. here you see our agronomist Natalia Maljutina, who is very competent in anything related to nutrition and stimulation. She is very hardworking and gives us accurate feedback from local farmers.
In Germany we are represented by a company that also covers our regional sales in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Romania and Hungary. Mongolia is a very interesting country for us, because there are a lot of issues to deal with. It's a difficult territory. Below you can see an image from our visit last year. If Covid allows, we are ready to visit them soon again. In the corner you see me and Edgar Aloyan, who represents us in foreign trade through Energen Export. On the picture we are in Mongolia, we walked in wheat and observed growth characteristics.
When in new territories, we always try to understand their tendencies and what are the priorities there. It doesn't have to be just about our products, we might identify also other issues that are synergistically related to it. On the other picture I am giving a lecture at the Institute of Agriculture in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, where we started extensive cooperation. And because one of our main effects is water retention in the plant
then, of course, we work with the Arab territory. The whole of Arabia is a very strong and important partner for us. These are experiments in Georgia. On the right we stimulated seeds with Energen products Fulhum and Germin. The control field is on the left. Just a curiosity. Our Georgian representation will take care of regional service for us in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Armenia. In more distant territories we must have a commercially and professionally qualified partners. They take care of our interests so that everything works well. We choose reliable people, at the end, it's all about the people. Finally, to Energen products. They are multifunctional products at reasonable prices.
I think that what we provide especially regarding retention of water in the plant, doesn't have much competition. It sounds arrogant, but we'd love to do comparative experiments if someone challenges us, because we know that our effects are very strong. We also manufacture humic substances. We do our own tests of humic substances during production, to maintain quality. We are constantly working on that. Today we already know in which segments of humic substances primarily affect the root system. So we prepare our products to increase performance and we continuously test the performance of the root system in a phytotron. As for the basic effects of Energen products: number one is the formation of roots.
Every company that deals with stimulants must have a quality, efficient system for work with roots, because the roots are the basis of yield generation, especially in water-scarce regions. In the beginning, this is what you need to work with. Second: Water retention in a plant. This is closely related to the roots. The ability to retain water in the plant is in high demand these days, which is positive for us. We were also pleased that when we did registration exams, some registration authorities secretly, without our knowledge, they tested us against other competing products and then they said: "Your products were the best." We are not a big company, so it is great to know that we have these capacities that make it easy for us to get our clients.
Third: Nitrate reductase activation. This effect is very important. Whether you want to affect the quality of wheat or in the main growth period, when the plants have dynamic growth and there is often deficiency in the processing and incorporation of nitrogen. This is very useful when you want to help the plantation to prosper. We help incorporate the nitrate form of nitrogen into amino acids over four times faster. That already speaks for itself. Fourth: Supportive fungicidal and bactericidal effect. This is provided by the different products of the CLEANSTORM series. The fungicidal effect is very high, we tested it in comparative experiments, in classical fungicidal experiments against synthetic fungicides. and the results are very good for us, we are very pleased. As for the fifth point, each stimulation complex must also stimulate, that is:
acceleration of growth, increase of the leaf area and general stimulation effect. It is a must, that has to be part of it. In as the final point: Increased production of sugars and aromatic substances in plants, it is interesting for example for sugar beet or vines. It is also interesting for example for strawberries, which smell beautiful and are firmer. All fruits and vegetables become more aromatic. There is a very interesting commercial effect. And when our clients are happy, so are we.
The first product I will talk about is GERMIN FH, which together with FULHUM PLUS is used to stimulate seeds. For example, for wheat we use 0.5 l of Germin and 0.5 l of Fulhum per tonne of seed. Do not confuse this with dosification per hectare. This is then divided. At the end this is not very expensive, comparing the yield it brings. In addition, for example talking about winter wheat, in fall, you don´t need to worry about herbicides when stimulating.
Because stimulation always regenerate also the weeds, but in this case it will be mixed with the seed. What is the effect? It does a great work with the roots. It has a supply of nutrients for the beginning. The seeds will always welcome some nutrients. It will also break down proteins into hormone precursors and by this activating hormonal activities, and what I consider to be an important competitive advantage is the breakdown of starches into sugars, which means fast release of energy, This will give strength and balance to the sprouting. And of course, it also increases the energy of germination. As for the induction of germination, here we have an example on the poppy seed, where we prepared custom made composition for the company Labris, a large producer of poppy seeds.
It was interesting to see how at first the plant directed its energy into the richly branched delicate root system. All plants do that. You cannot see that above the ground. As an example I will give some information from Mongolia, which could illustrate this. The control field, which was not stimulated wheat shot up quickly, it was higher, light green. The stimulated plants were smaller and dark green. After the first rain, everything turned around and where it was treated with Germin and Fulhum, it came out very strong, because the stimulated wheat was creating roots. It waited above and all the work started underground, first taking care of the roots. Now I will ask my colleague Ing. Kraus for a few words, because he has been working on this subject for a long time. Hello, thank you for the introduction. I would like to say something about the treated variant of poppy seed.
This variant was custom made. The aim was to create such a chemical composition which will help the germination and growth of young poppy plants. Because poppy is one of the smallest seeds we sow and its sprouting, for this reason, is often problematic.
When you look at the right side of the presentation, where is a treated variant by Energen Germin and Fulhum, so you can see the induction of root system formation, very fine root hairs, from the hypocotyl which is the locality where the green part connects to the root system, up to the tip of the root, where then there is a elongating growth. On the contrary, the control variant has a beautiful length, that we are used to, but there is the absence of root hair, which is then very important in the later development of that poppy. This is because a richly branched root will have it much easier to absorb nutrients from the soil solution around the root and at the same time it will have it much easier to absorb water that might be in short supply. Such a root system will be much more efficient than the root system of the control plant, although that one has a slightly longer root than the stimulated variant. Thank you.
I would like to add an observation to what Kamil Kraus said, because not so many countries grow poppies. We are talking about a poppy for food. And now about another product, which is Energen FULHUM PLUS. It is based on modified humic substances, which means that it works predominantly with roots. For this reason, it belongs to the beginning of the development, when it will be the most useful. We can use it, for example, in the main period of growth in dry periods, when drought begins to reduce the roots but the drought is not complete. It may still promote secondary root formation or maintain the root system which is very important because, for example, during the grain filling period in wheat, you need to have a powerful pump down there which is crucial for how the assimilates will fill the grain. It is therefore good to use it even during the period of main growth, in the case
there is a situation where the roots will naturally regenerate due to weather. It also contains substances to support and absorb nitrogen, which is logical and it all belongs there... So support to the work with nitrogen and a mild effect on water retention in the plant. We don't need a very strong effect, because we use it predominantly in the first half of the vegetation, when moisture is normally available. And if it weren't, we would add for example, a small amount of Energen CLEANSTORM, which in the amount of 0.1 l / ha can ensure the water retention effect. Here we have brief look to a field of hard wheat. On the left you can see the effect of Fulhum.
It also has other effects but I just wanted to show a result that can be seen with the naked eye, especially when it was combined with extra-root nutrition and if the vegetation is properly managed, the growth dynamics are far superior to the untreated variants. Energen Fruktus PLUS is intended to support the formation of seeds and fruits and has a very positive effect on their growth. It has humic substances, which means that it still works with roots, which is also very important but it already affects the size of the fruit. This is interesting for vines, where it affects the amount of sugar and extractive substances. It does the same, for example, in apricots and peaches. Also in strawberries... It is a product that can reduce, in the second half of the permanent growth, the content of nitrogenous substances in malting barley (for beer), which is important because sometimes because of weather the nitrogenous substances go up due to late mineralization of nitrogen.
The effect here is in increasing the size of the seeds and not diluting the endosperm. Of course the best it is when there are early precipitations, then it will occur naturally. But if there is a risk of delayed nitrogen mineralization, this FRUKTUS application can play a very important role. 0.1 - 0.2l of Fruktus in repeated applications in malting barley instead of Cleanstorm, which shouldn´t go there because it supports work with nitrogen, and this 0.1 - 0.2 l / ha has a very good water retention effect in the plant. Fruktus has a very strong water retention effect. This is for me a very interesting picture. Last year we got photos from Georgia. They cut fruit on twigs and 21 days after harvest
they wrote, called, and sent more photos saying "It actually also increases the storage life of the fruits". We consulted with Kamil and we discovered that there is an increase of energy-rich substances, sugars , the energy remains in the fruits and together with the water retention effect in the plant leads to preventing loss of water. So not only it influences yield creation, but also increased storage life. Energen CLEANSTORM is our flagship for drought. Same as Fulhum is for roots, Cleanstorm is really an universal product.
It can very positively affect the development of the plant, in big temperature fluctuations, when it receives big temperature stress. Then, even a lower dose (0.2-0.3 l / ha) can protect it very well. A half a liter dose will do that without a doubt. It increases the intake and processing of nitrogen. Therefore it works well with cereals, it increases their nitrogenous substances but it can also influence aromatic substances in fruits and seeds, it can also make them bigger, not as much as Fruktus, but it will increase the size of fruits and seeds. However it will increase dramatically the proportion of aromatic substances and
what it also can do, is to improve the health. When we compared it in experiments with fungicides, we got excellent results. In the case of many diseases we achieved 95% of the effect of hard core fungicides. We have specified the dosage here, you can read it, but in practice the two most used doses are 0.2 liter in repeated applications for water retention in plants and about 0.5 - 0.7 l / ha to improve the health. For that the dose must be higher, it contains plant extracts that help a lot with the health condition.
And of course, we must apply repeatedly, in the case when we cannot use fungicides. And here you can see the anti-stress effects in durum wheat. The effect can seldom be seen just with the naked eye. sometimes yes. You will usually discover the effect at harvest, when you might find out, for example, that the grains are larger and the overall yield is higher. But sometimes it happens that it is directly visible like this and you can take a picture. At this point I would like to pass the word to Ing. Kamil Kraus from the Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, who is our partner that tells us what happens inside the plants.
Before, during experiments, we could evaluate only what was visible or what we could measure. Weight of grains, nitrogenous substances, we were able to measure that but now, because of our cooperation with Kamil, we know ten times more and ten times faster about what really happens inside the plants. So over to him and he will tell us what he does. There are three basic topics which we study regarding the individual development and the effects of preparations on plants in field conditions. The first is the induction of memory agents against hydric stress and the associated types of stress. I would like to say that when we discovered the substance that influences this, we achieved very interesting results.
This substance will tell us about the degree of drought exposure of the plant and at the same time we can induce it, thanks to which the plants are more resistant to drought, but not only drought they are also more resistant to frost. There is also increased resistance to fungal diseases and possibly other pathogens. We don´t know everything yet, there is ongoing research about it. The substance is called proline and we will talk about it in the next presentation, if you are interested in looking at it. Due to the breakdown of this energy-rich substance, which protects the plant and helps it cope with drought, cold, or salinity or some disease there is large amount of energy released and this helps the plant to regenerate. At the same time, this works with the second point, which is the accumulation of energy in stressed plants. Due to the accumulation of energy-rich substances, there is not only an accumulation of proline, but also sugars Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, is a substance that is rich in free energy, it can bind it whenever it´s needed and helps the plant cope with stress. And to the last point. If the stress subsides, it starts raining, in gets warm or the pathogen is removed, the regeneration begins. It is always better for the plant if it has in stock
sufficient amount of energy-rich substances, because it is able to regenerate easier and faster and to regenerate and to recover the loss compared to the control group. Another interesting area that is becoming increasingly relevant worldwide is organic production. Because of that we developed two quality, powerful products for organic farming and we are working on expanding the range with two more products. The first product is the universal Energen ALGAN. Before releasing, we have been testing this for a long time.
Before we started with algae (Algan is built on algae extracts), I tested algae from several manufacturers and there are two manufacturers who extract from long tidal areas with big changes in temperature in winter and summer and this induces not only substances that are in all algae and promote root formation, but also very rich phytohormonal life and anti-stress substances. I can confirm that the algae we use from Acadian sea ltd. are about the best in the market. There are also Asian and South African algae, which are excellent but mainly for root formation. They lack the other superstructure effects that have algae from very long tidal areas. Energen ALGAN is registered for organic farming and it is very effective in the formation of roots, but it can also retain water in the plant quite well.
These are synergetic effects that are very important in organic farming these days. It will also increase sugars in fruit. Therefore it is a universal product which can be used during the whole period of vegetation, from young plants to the period of fruit formation and ripening. You can also use it to stimulate seeds, but in one or two years we will register a new interesting product for organic farming exactly for this. CLEANSTORM E. I have already introduced you to the CLEANSTORM product. This E indicates that it is suitable for organic farming.
It does not contain some substances present in the classic Cleastorm, for logical reasons, because they do not belong in organic production, but to make up for it, the plant extract effect is stronger there. There is a richer assortment and higher concentration of plant extracts. This means that the effect of increasing the tolerance threshold to fungal diseases is the strongest of our products. It can also affect positively the creation of sugars and aromatic substances, as well as water retention in the plant.
It is again very universal. It can't work with nitrogen. There is no support for work with nitrogen, because the active substance for this is not suitable for organic farming. In terms of dosage, again, 0.2l per hectare is enough to retain water in the plant. 0.4l will increase the proportion of sugars 0.6 l / ha or more has a fungicidal effect. It is not a fungicide, but it can improve the plant's ability to resist fungal diseases, especially with true fungi. The effects are surprising. Here you can see some experiments we did in wheat. We deliberately chose very healthy varieties of wheat, there were more varieties, but I chose those that give us typical examples of the effects. The first was the Balitus variety To explain, the blue column is the untreated control group, the red is the classic fungicide and the green is variant treated with ALGAN and CLEANSTORM E.
These products are purely organic. In the first Balitus variety, you can see that the fungicidal treatment was significant and had good results, but we had a comparable fungicidal effect. And because there were very stressful conditions at the time of the experiment, the year 2019 was very stressful in our country and the plants were under pressure, probably we can see also results of the anti-stress, stimulation and health supporting effect. If we look at another variety, Rivero, here is a dominant effect of the classical fungicide and the plant did not need to work so much with the health condition, yet the effect of the fungicide was there and compared to the variant without treatment or the one treated with our products, the result was not so significant.
Another group of varieties represented by RGT Cesario. Here the health shape was good and the anti-stress effect was well managed. It had a grain size decrease, but that happened everywhere, even with a fungicide. However, the yield was balanced. The last variety was Partner, a very interesting variety that has a good health condition so the fungicidal effect was minimal, but it reacted very well to the water retention effect in the plant. In this case the dominant effect was the stimulation. We constantly do such experiments and no matter how it turns out, we want to know how the varieties will react, so that we can later give advice, for example, so we don´t recommend unnecessarily our products for a given variety that does not need us, and on the other hand to do that where we know that it will be effective.
This is related to what I said at the beginning to make the client happy with the consulting and with what we advise economically, to avoid unnecessary applications. It is evident from this graph that either we are comparable to the classic fungicidal treatment, which was of a very high quality, there were 3 fungicides used... that if the fungicide went up, then it needed stronger treatment, but we never got below the level of the control group in the experiments, even when the plant didn't need us that much at the moment.
Next part is about the methods of our work and here I would like to say that one of the first steps we do is testing, whether it is influencing seeds or roots in a phytotron, but this again research and here I will let speak again Kamil Kraus. Thank you. In resaerch, we go through all stages of development. From the primary stages, when our colleague Lenka Vinšová in the phytotron in Ústí nad Labem tests the first mutations of individual products. In the first phase, we dissolve the product in the proportion that will be used in the field experiments or to any following experiments, then we apply it to the tested plants in the phytotron. We try to cover the widest possible range of plants so there is corn and wheat for monocots. For the dicotyledonous there is canola and sunflower and we can also mention soy. On these plants we perform basic individual morphological, fysiological measurements.
That is: the length of the root system, the weight of the root system, the height of the aerial part, the weight of the aerial part, from which we calculate the ratio of the underground and above-ground part. With this process we measure all plants. Subsequently, if we have a problem or we see that it would require further investigation, Lenka takes samples and contacts us. We then analyze the samples in the laboratory to find out what is chemically happening inside the plants.
When the tested plants pass through this cycle, we move them to a more operational system, the greenhouses. This takes place in the form of cooperation with the Czech Agricultural University, where I work as a specialized technician. I test individual preparations on various mixtures of substrates. They can be special, very sophisticated inert substrates, which you can see at the top left. That is silica glass. It is a loose culture that acts as a mechanical restraint so that the plant stays put, but has a huge advantage: if I apply a chemical substance to a plant in this substrate, it is not affected by any effect that could be hidden or formed in another organic substrate that is commonly used. After testing in inert substrates we continue the experiments in other types of loose substrates. Peat or other types of sterile organic or inorganic substrates that are similar to classical soil. On the pictures you can see the corn in the top left, on the right there are potatoes in various stages of development and in the lower left corner there is a mixture of different species after the experiments in the phytotron, and there is corn, sunflower and canola.
These tests run constantly, we study different substances in different concentrations and mutations . Then comes the last phase, the grid experiments. These are performed by Klára Machová, who supervises the course of these experiments in the classic operational outdoor environment. We try to cover the largest possible range of species. Wheat, barley, sunflower, corn, potatoes, etc. We are trying to evaluate results on many different plants.
Until recently, we did mainly the morphology of plants, so we dug out plants, checked the root condition, calculated the number of shoots, or the height of the plant number of branches, planted number of pods for canola, length of ears for cereals, counted the number of grains in the ear and other measurements of the okometric type. Now we are trying to move to the primary science, when we take samples for analyzes in the laboratory to find out how the plant behaves inside and to observe its metabolism and its final reaction to the given substance in the outdoor environment. And now, over to Jarda. Of course, we also do grid experiments at experimental stations, and I have been experimenting with wheat varieties since 2010 . We usually choose different varieties that we have on two levels of nutrition, extensive and intensive, to know how in the extensive each variety performs and what potential they have for good economics while in the intensive we try to find out which varieties have the highest yield potential. These is an interesting information. We also test with varieties with good health condition. These are things that farmers are interested in regarding economics. The farmer wants a non-procumbent, healthy variety
efficient with the management of nitrogen. These days this is important, that the plants can function even in difficult conditions and are resistant in drought. Along the nutrition experiments we test physiological variants, where we have untreated control fields, to get genetic information and next to that we do auxin applications, where we dilute the vegetation, and there, under different weather conditions, will stand out the varieties with highly productive ears and on the other hand there is support for the formation of roots and offshoots, there we will identify varieties that have a problem with root formation, because they usually appreciate it and sometimes even outperform the varieties, which were excellent in the control variants. All this together gives us complex information to know what we are talking about in the field because it's very important to know what a person is talking about in the farms. We are constantly verifying the effects of anti-stress applications, in separate experiments. For that Kamil Kraus takes samples to the university laboratory. We also have cooperating farms. This is Farm Chmel, the owner is my colleague Vojtěch Švarc he is an agronomist who is very innovative, always trying new technologies. Our products are tested there with new methodologies of field management, for example, in interlinear plantations or
in other interesting methods that have a great future, especially in regions where moisture conditions are not ideal or with poor soil conditions or even when we are considering regeneration of the soil. To bring more life into the soil to have better absorption capacity, etc. These are the right paths to take into the future. Also, we organize field days, or better the field days are organized by Petr Král, our Czech and Slovak representative and advisor, at the Král Farm. As you can see, there is a fairly large assortment of varieties. For us, the location is interesting because it has a very poor sandy soil and when it does not rain there for two weeks, it is really visible. There the drought strikes very quickly and hard, so we test there varieties of wheat to see how they tolerate lack of water, their genetics. We don't even test our products much there.
This is a supplement to our counseling knowledge. You can watch the individual videos on our YouTube channel, so far they are only in Czech, but in time we will work on subtitles or give separate lectures. We also work in experimentation very closely with commercial partners. Not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. This is the basis for the farmer to get acquainted with our products and our methodologies. to give us his feedback and that is how we to learn the environment specifics for the individual farms. This is honest work, it is not possible to do it in any other way. Then there is our YouTube Channel , where you are watching this video, where we offer extensive advice for the convenience of our customers. In the future, we will try to document our work abroad whenever I will be physically there. We also have an email newsletter for the Czech Republic and Slovakia,
where we regularly point out key moments, that there is some kind of change and action needs to be taken. This is very important. Thank you for your attention and I hope to see you one day also in person. Have a nice day.
2020-12-20 00:31
