We help market gardeners enhance the quality and marketability of their produce.
Market gardeners depend on superior flavor and color of their produce to attract customers. They must also manage pests and diseases on their farm, often while navigating organic standards. Fortunately, AEA’s NOP-compliant products can help growers solve all these problems.
Our management system is designed to maintain proper nutrient balance, which fosters healthier plants and reduces the need for pesticides by building plant immunity. It also creates healthier soils which can release the soil’s mineral reserves, and reduce the need for inputs over the long run.
We offer three lines of NOP-compliant products for Market Gardeners:
Seed Treatments
• Biocoat Gold™ is our most popular product: a dry mycorrhizal seed inoculant.
• SeedFlare™ is a liquid seed treatment that supplies the mineral nutrition seeds and seedlings need to thrive.
Soil Primer
Our soil primer is designed to keep your soil teeming with biology. It is applied in fall and spring, and many market gardeners apply it every time they flip a bed.
Soil Primer consists of three products applied at once:
• Rejuvenate™ provides food and shelter for soil bacteria
• SeaShield™ provides support for soil fungi
• Spectrum™ is an inoculant to add many microbe species to your soil
Foliar Nutritional Sprays
MacroPak™ and MicroPak™ make a fantastic 1-2 punch in a regular foliar spray to supply a wide range of nutrients needed by growing crops.
• MacroPak provides the macronutrients N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S
• MicroPak provides the micronutrients S, B, Co, Cu, Fe, Mo, Mn, and Zn.
• Accelerate™ gives a boost to continuously flowering crops like tomatoes, curcubits, and broccoli.
Healthy Plants Make Healthy Soil
When plants have the nutrition they need, they photosynthesize more efficiently and send their excess sugars into the soil, where they feed soil microbes. This is a very efficient way to build soil health.
Products for Market Gardeners
Shop >Application Rates and Timing:
Seed Treatments
Our seed treatments help seed germinate faster and more evenly, and provide the nutrition and biology for seedlings to get off to a great start.
BioCoat Gold™
Use 1 gram per pound of seed. Mix with seed before planting.
SeedFlare™
Use 1 – 4 milliliters per pound of seed. Add SeedFlare to seed in a small lidded container and shake gently to mix.
Soil Primer
Soil Primer can be effective any time of year, but is most effective in the fall, when it can contribute to humification and break down crop residues, and when flipping beds, when it can act as “cover crop in a jug.”
Dilute at least 25:1 with water to allow products to soak into the soil.
Rejuvenate
For soil primer, use 1-2 gal per acre (6 oz per 1000 sqft). Combine with SeaShield and Spectrum and sprinkle on soil.
Can also be used in foliar sprays at a rate of 1 quart per acre (3 oz per 1000 sqft).
SeaShield
For soil primer, use 1-2 gal per acre (6 oz per 1000 sqft). Combine with Rejuvenate and Spectrum and sprinkle on soil.
Spectrum
Use 50 g / acre (¼ tsp / 1000 sqft). Mix with water for at least 5 minutes before adding to the rest of the mixture.
Foliar Nutritional Sprays
If using a backpack sprayer, remove the tip filters to keep them from clogging. Dilute at least 10:1 with water.
MacroPak
Start with bi-weekly applications of 1 quart / acre (or 3 oz [87 ml] / 1,000 sqft). Rates can be adjusted based on observed crop response or nutritional needs of the plant’s Critical Point of Influence.
MicroPak
Start with bi-weekly applications of 1 quart / acre (or 3 oz [87 ml] / 1,000 sqft). Rates can be adjusted based on observed crop response or nutritional needs of the plant’s Critical Point of Influence.
Accelerate
Provides a boost to crops while they’re flowering, and to continuously flowering crops like tomatoes, curcubits, and broccoli. Start with bi-weekly applications of 1 quart / acre (or 3 oz [87 ml] / 1,000 sqft).
A Note on Water Quality
Beware of chlorine in municipal water and high bicarbonates in well water. Those issues can affect calcium availability and potentially affect the viability of our products.
Generally speaking, rainwater is the best water to use for foliar sprays. If you are using well water or municipal water, it’s a must to get your water tested to be aware of any potential issues. If you find high levels of chlorine or bicarbonates, here are some ways to correct them:
Bicarbonates
• The lower, the better. Below 60ppm is ideal.
• Concentrations above 120ppm should be filtered by reverse osmosis, or replaced by another water source such as rainwater.
• Lowering the pH to 6.5 neutralizes about half the bicarbonate in the water. Conventional growers can inject sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid to lower pH; organic growers can use sulfur burners.
Chlorine
• HumaCarb is a very good chlorine binder. If being used to remediate chlorine only, add HumaCarb at a rate of 0.25% of the solution, or 1 qt per hundred gallons.
• You can let small amounts of chlorinated water sit for 24 hours. Much of the chlorine will evaporate.