The power of rescued food waste is being harnessed to lessen farmers’ dependence on synthetic fertilizers. A bio-organic formula using food waste developed by Mississauga-based Nurture Growth that contains more than 20 microbes lets plants fix their own nitrogen and has been shown to boost yield and make plants more resilient.
Why it matters: Under the national climate plan, the Canadian government envisions a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. That includes reducing the use of chemical fertilizers.
“We are providing the plant with a buffet of microbes to let the soil microbiome figure out what the plants need, and the micro-organisms are naturally responding,” explains Nurture Growth Co-founder and CEO Le Luong. “Chemical fertilizer stimulates the plant and with Nurture Growth, we stimulate the soil, and the soil feeds the plant.”
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Luong first arrived in Canada from Vietnam more than 40 years ago and her sponsors were corn, soy and forage producers, so she grew up familiar with farming and growing crops. In 2015, through a community initiative she was working on, she met her co-founder, who had developed a biofertilizer using food waste. Thinking back to her agricultural roots, she was convinced the product could make a difference on the farm.
“We decided to just focus on specialty crops in the beginning – I went to vineyards, giving people free fertilizer. It was hard, but when we got them to try it, their plants were healthier and they were getting higher yields,” she recalls.
And not only were yields increasing, but so was the sugar content or Brix level in crops like grapes, apples, peaches and berries, she adds.
Field trials with Ontario vineyards resulted in 17 to 53 per cent higher yields, and Brix increases of 2.6 to 6.3 depending on the variety. Trials with bok choy showed a 30 to 50 per cent yield increase and longer primary roots and more secondary roots on the plants, which makes them better able to hold moisture. Tomato trials resulted in a 33 per cent increase in crop yield.
The first commercial vineyards started using her product in 2017, and it’s now in place at a dozen locations with 10 more in Ontario and two in Napa Valley, California starting this year.
Hidden Bench Vineyards & Winery in Beamsville has been using Nurture Growth since 2019 after vineyard manager Joel Williams met Luong when she was visiting vineyards in the area. Hidden Bench has been certified organic since 2013 and grows wine grapes on 80 acres.
“Nurture Growth is a foliar supplement that is applied to the canopy and taken in through the leaves of the plant. It’s applied to all grapes that we farm and is incorporated into our spray program every 14 days or so, depending on weather conditions,” Williams says.
“The canopy seems to respond well to its use as we are seeing a nice, lush canopy with more upright growth. Since its inclusion into my spray program, crop yields have been good as well as ripeness of the fruit,” he adds.
Meng Karbach owns Food 4 Life market garden in Fenwick, where her principal crops are certified organic garlic and tomatoes. She’s seen dramatic impacts in her garlic, tomatoes and cucumbers since starting with Nurture Growth in 2018 – and she’s been trialing the product on apples too.
“In garlic, I’m getting about 30 to 45 per cent incremental size growth every year, and the Brix content has gone up,” she says. “In fruit-bearing plants, Nurture Growth increases the Brix level, and the higher the sugar content, the less pest pressure I’m seeing.”
Luong is focusing her company’s growth on high value commercial crop production like grapes, tree fruit, cannabis, garlic, and ginseng, but the product is also currently available for consumer use through Amazon, and retailers like Home Depot, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Lowe’s and Rona.
Nurture Growth was just selected as a member of the inaugural cohort of the THRIVE Canada Accelerator, led by Silicon Valley-based SVG Ventures, a global investment platform that has been helping start-up founders and entrepreneurs around the world for over a decade.
