Novel Soil Amendment with Reduced Metal Content for Reducing Metal Uptake by Growing Plants, and Processes for Making and Using Same

Abstract

Streptobacillus is grown on purified chitin obtained by fermentation of micronized shrimp or crab shell material and purification using alkaline media. The chitin is biodegraded by the Streptobacillus and produces plant growth hormones or auxins. From 25 to 50% of the biomass is converted to the auxins. Since the soil amendment including the auxins has a low trace metal content, the soil amendment does not contribute to metal uptake by the treated growing plants. For example, Cannabis plants with a reduced trace metal content can be grown in soil media provided with the soil amendment with an 8 to 10 fold increase in root mass and root growth rates in order to comply with legal limits on the content of trace metals in the plants.

Claims

1. A process of making a soil amendment with a reduced metal content, said soil amendment increasing root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media provided with the soil amendment, said process comprising: a) growing thermotolerant Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus on pure chitin in situ in natural and/or artificial soil media under aerobic conditions; and b) biodegrading said chitin with the Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus in the presence of ample air or oxygen, so as to form the soil amendment with the reduced metal content, said soil amendment acting to increase the root mass and root growth rate of the plants grown in said soil media.

2. The process as defined in claim 1, further comprising seeding or inoculating said pure chitin of step a) with said Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus.

3. The process as defined in claim 1, in which the pure chitin is obtained by a method comprising fermentation of shrimp and/or crab shell material or by another method comprising boiling the shrimp and/or crab shell material in water.

4. The process as defined in claim 3, wherein said shrimp and/or crab shell material is first micronized to particle sizes of from 5 to 100 microns prior to said fermentation or said boiling in water, and is then fermented or boiled.

5. The process as defined in claim 3, wherein the pure chitin of step a) initially obtained from the fermentation or the boiling in water is extracted with alkaline media to reduce metal content prior to obtaining the pure chitin and thus to reduce the metal content of the soil amendment.

6. The process as defined in claim 1, wherein 25 to 50% of a biomass is converted to plant auxins or growth hormones that stimulate growth of the root mass of the plants, wherein said biomass is the a amount of a process mixture comprising the chin, the Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus, and the plant auxins.

7. The process as defined in claim 1, further comprising spreading a plurality of doses, each consisting of from 5 to 30 grams of said pure powdered chitin, in the natural and/or artificial soil media prior to and/or during said growing of step a), in the presence of said plants.

8. The process as defined in claim 7, wherein said spreading is by top-dressing a surface of said soil media in the vicinity of said plants.

9. The process as defined in claim 1, wherein said pure chitin consists essentially of micronized shrimp and/or crab shell material having a particle size of from 5 to 100 microns.

10. The process as defined in claim 9, wherein the shrimp and/or crab shell material has been purified by extraction with an alkaline media.

11. The process as defined in claim 1, wherein said pure chitin is obtained by purification of raw chitin from other chitin sources, said other sources including squid beaks and/or fungi.

12. A soil amendment with a reduced metal content, said soil amendment increasing root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in soil media provided with the soil amendment, wherein said soil amendment is made by a process comprising: a) growing or forming thermotolerant Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus on pure chitin in situ in natural and/or artificial soil media under aerobic conditions; and b) biodegrading said chitin with the Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus in the presence of ample air or oxygen, so as to form the soil amendment with the reduced metal content, said soil amendment acting to increase the root mass and root growth rate of said plants growing in said soil media, while reducing metal uptake by said plants.

13. The soil amendment as defined in claim 12, wherein said pure chitin of step a) consists essentially of micronized shrimp and/or crab shell materials with a particle size of from 5 to 100 microns.

14. The soil amendment as defined in claim 13, wherein the micronized shrimp and/or crab shell materials have been purified by extraction with an alkaline media, in order to reduce the metal content of said soil amendment.

15. The soil amendment as defined in claim 12, wherein said process further comprises seeding or inoculating said pure chitin of step a) with said Streptobacillus and/or Streptococcus and culturing said pure chitin on said pure chitin after wetting said chitin.

16. The soil amendment as defined in claim 12, whereby the plants growing in the soil media including the soil amendment have a root mass and a root mass growth rate that is from 6 to 10 times greater than the root mass and the root mass growth rate of a control group of the same type of plants growing in the soil media without the soil amendment, and said plants growing in the soil media with the soil amendment have a reduced metal content.

17. The soil amendment as defined in claim 16, wherein said plants are cabbage plants and said root mass growth rate of said cabbage plants is 6 to 10 times greater than said root mass growth rate of said cabbage plants grown in the control group that was not provided with said soil amendment.

18. The soil amendment as defined in claim 16, wherein said plants are Cannabis plants and said root mass growth rate of said Cannabis plants is 8 to 10 times greater than said root mass growth rate of Cannabis plants grown in the control group that was not provided with said soil amendment.

19. The soil amendment as defined in claim 12, comprising 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and a dimer thereof, as active ingredients.

20. A process of making a soil amendment with a reduced metal content, said soil amendment increasing a root mass and root mass growth rate of plants grown in the presence of the soil amendment, said process comprising: a) forming an aqueous suspension of a chitin particulate in aerated and/or oxygenated aqueous media; b) seeding or inoculating the aqueous suspension of the chitin particulate with an auxin-producing Streptobacillus in order to culture or grow at least one layer of the Streptobacillus on the chitin particulate; and c) biodegrading the chitin particulate by means of the Streptobacillus so that after a predetermined time period a soil amendment comprising a mixture of plant growth promoting auxins that increase the root mass and root mass growth rate of the plants grown in the presence of the soil amendment but without increasing the metal content of the plants.

21. The process as defined in claim 20, wherein the chitin particulate of step a) is micronized to a particle size of from 5 to 10 microns.

22. The process as defined in claim 21, wherein the chitin particulate of step a) is made by a process comprising fermentation of shrimp and/or crab shell material.

23. The process as defined in claim 22, wherein an unpurified chitin obtained from the fermentation is purified by extraction with an aqueous alkaline media.

24. The process as defined in claim 20, wherein the chitin particulate consists essentially of micronized shrimp and/or crab shell material and said micronized shrimp and/or crab shell material is boiled in aerated or oxygenated water with ample oxygen so that the thereto-tolerant Streptobacillus blooms on the micronized shrimp and/or crab shell material

25. The process as defined in claim 24, wherein the micronized shrimp and/or crab shell has a particle size of from 5 to 100 microns.

26. The process as defined in claim 24, further comprising spinning the aqueous suspension of the chitin particulate and the predetermined time period is at least 24 hours.

27. The process as defined in claim 24, wherein the aerated or oxygenated water is tap water or sea water.

28. The process as defined in claim 20, wherein the auxins comprise 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and a dimer thereof.

29. A soil amendment made by the process as defined in claim 20.

30. A process of making a soil amendment with a reduced metal content, said soil amendment increasing root mass and root mass growth rates of plants grown in natural or artificial soil media provided with the soil amendment, said process comprising: fermenting or boiling an aerated or oxygenated aqueous suspension of micronized shrimp and/or crab shell pieces continually supplied with ample air or oxygen in order to spontaneously bloom a plant-auxin-producing Streptobacillus that coats the shrimp and/or crab shell pieces in the suspension, so as to biodegrade the shrimp and/or crab shell pieces to form the soil amendment; wherein said soil amendment consists essentially of the plant auxins formed during the biodegrading.

31. The process as defined in claim 30, wherein the micronized shrimp and/or crab shell pieces each have particle sizes of from 5 to 100 microns.

32. The process as defined in claim 30, wherein the micronized shrimp and/or crab shell pieces are purified by extraction with an alkaline media to produce the soil amendment with a reduced metal content.

33. The process as defined in claim 30, wherein the plant auxins are 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer, and a dimer thereof.

34. A soil amendment made by the process as defined in claim 30.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0042] The objects, features and advantages of the invention will now be illustrated in more detail with the aid of the following examples, with reference to the accompanying figures in which:

[0043] FIG. 1 is a photograph of cilantro plants grown in natural soil without any soil amendments; and

[0044] FIG. 2 is a photograph of the same type of cilantro plants grown in the same natural soil as in FIG. 1, but with an effective amount of the soil amendment according to the present invention (comprising 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer and its dimer) added to the natural soil, which shows the effectiveness of the soil amendment of the invention in growing larger cilantro plants under the same conditions as the smaller cilantro plants shown in FIG. 1.

EXAMPLES

Example 1: Comparison of the Size of Cilantro Plants Grown in Soil Media with and without the Soil Amendment of the Invention

[0045] FIGS. 1 and 2 compare the sizes of cilantro plants grown with and without the soil amendment according to the claimed invention under the same conditions. FIG. 1 shows the control group.

[0046] The soil amendment according to the invention used to grow the plants shown in FIG. 2 contains an effective amount of the plant auxins (comprising 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer and its dimer) produced by biodegradation of pure chitin obtained by fermentation of micronized shrimp or crab shell material as described herein above using a Streptobacillus microorganism. FIG. 2 shows the effective results of adding the soil amendment according to the invention to the soil media in the vicinity of the cilantro plants.

[0047] The cilantro plants shown in FIG. 2 are clearly several times larger than the cilantro plants shown in FIG. 1 (control group), which proves that plants grown in soil media having the soil amendment according to the invention are many times more larger than those grown in the soil media without the applicant's soil amendment. Thus, cilantro plants grown with the soil amendment according to the invention have larger root mass under otherwise identical growing conditions.

[0048] A video is available from the applicants shows the structure of the larger root ball of the grown cilantro plants of FIG. 2.

[0049] Example 2 In addition to the above tests of the effectiveness of the soil amendment according to the invention in promoting growth of root mass and root mass growth rates, samples of the soil amendment were subjected to an elemental analysis by ProVerde Laboratories, Inc., 420 Fortune Blvd., Milford Mass. 01757. The tests were performed in accordance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and they showed that none of the 25 elements, (mostly metals), were present in an amount greater than an environmentally acceptable allowed maximum amount. The results for some of the most environmentally critical metal elements are shown in the following Table I.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE I Amounts of Critical Metal Elements Found in a Sample of the Soil Amendment According to the Invention Conc,* LLD, Limit,** Metal Symbol (ppm) (ppm) (ppm) Status Magnesium Mg 265.7 0.50 Pass Chromium Cr 1.13 5.0 45 Pass Nickel Ni 1.49 0.50 1.50 Pass Copper Cu 1.19 0.50 3.10 Pass Zinc Zn 1.06 5.00 15.0 Pass Arsenic As 0.03 0.004 15 Pass Cadmium Cd 0.01 0.001 5 Pass Mercury Hg <0.0 0.002 9 Pass Lead Pb 0.22 0.002 400 Pass *ND, none detected to lowest limits of detection (LLD) **Limits according to MA Dept. of Public Health, Environmental Media Protocol for Growing Media, Exhibit 4

[0050] Other samples confirmed the conclusion that the soil amendment of the environmental is environmentally acceptable according to MA state standards.

Example 3: Exemplary Methods of Making the Soil Amendment According to the Invention

[0051] Shrimp shell material or shrimp meal is micronized to a particle size of 5 to 100 microns. The resulting particulate is purified, e.g. by extraction with an alkaline solution and other procedures as needed to obtain a pure chitin particulate.

[0052] The pure chitin particulate is introduced to a spinning aerated gallon of salt water (5 grams per gallon of water). After 24 hours an auxin producing Streptobacillus that blooms on the pure chin particulate biodegrades the pure chitin to form the auxins comprising 3-4-deoxyglucosamine monomer and its dimer.

[0053] While illustrative examples of one or more embodiments of the present invention are provided hereinabove, those skilled in the art and having the benefit of the present disclosure will appreciate that further embodiments may be implemented with various changes within the scope of the present invention. Other modifications, substitutions, omissions and changes may be made in the choice of plants grown, the root enhancing auxin and its amount, the nature of the soil media in which the plants are grown and the type and amounts of the metal contaminants as well as the process conditions that reduce contaminating metals, without departing from the spirit of the inventive process.

[0054] Accordingly, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

[0055] Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.

[0056] What is claimed is new and is set forth in the following appended claims.