Dr. Bing-Rui Ni, who headed development of the polymer, presented a research paper at the Seed Treatment Symposium of the British Crop Protection Council in Birmingham, England in February. 

It explained the phenomena of imbibitional chilling injury (ICI) and the mechanism how SB2000, the functional polymer works in alleviating ICI to seed; Due to the great water potential gradient between a dry seed and its surrounding soil, water rushes into the seed very quickly during the first few hours of imbibition. Because the cell membranes haven’t reached the elasticity needed to stand the expansion pressure, they rupture. This will lead to the leakage of sugars and proteins that will invite microbial attack. This can lead to damage or death of the seed. It showed that application of SB2000 on soybean seeds significantly slowed down water uptake during the first several hours of imbibition. Experiment results also showed that application of SB2000 on several crops, such as soybean, dry beans, shrunken corn, hybrid corn, and cotton, significantly improved seed cold vigor and field emergence under cold conditions.

A research paper about the Effect of SB2000 polymer on alleviation of ICI was also presented by Dr. Alan Taylor and Dr. J. Kwaitkowski of Cornell University. It showed a direct correlation between the leakage and hydration rate of the seed. Further, he showed a direct correlation in reduction of hydration (water uptake) and application of Seedbiotics’ SB2000 polymer.

Third party data has shown increases in soybean emergence up to 20 per cent, and yield increases in the 2 to 5 bushel per acre range, using Seedbiotics’ SB2000 polymer.