Soil additives for promoting seed germination, for prevention of evaporation and methods for use

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11111436-B2
Application number	US-201816109855-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 23, 2018
Priority date	Aug 20, 2010
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed are methods of improving germination rates of plants/crops, as well as preventing or arresting water evaporation loss from targeted soil areas, which allows for improved water usage efficiency by crops, plants, grasses, vegetation, etc.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of decreasing water evaporation from soil, the method comprising:
introducing a bulk additive to a target soil area, wherein the bulk additive is in an aqueous mixture or in a dry or semi-dry form;
wherein the step of introducing the bulk additive to a target soil area comprises applying the bulk additive to the surface of target soil area then mixing the bulk additive into the target soil area at a predetermined depth less than three feet to block the water from migrating toward the soil surface to be susceptible to evaporation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the soil is selected from the group consisting of clay soil, sandy soil, silty soil, peaty soil, loamy soil, chalky soil and any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the soil is clay soil.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the soil is soil characterized by a mean particle diameter (D50) of less than or equal to 50 μm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive is introduced in semi-dry form, wherein the semi-dry form bulk additive contains between 0.5 and 15% moisture or water; and
wherein the bulk additive is selected from the group consisting of unwashed guar gum, washed guar gum, poly(methacrylic acid), poly(acrylic acid), polyacrylate, poly(ethylene glycol), phosphonate-end capped polymers, polyethyleneoxide, poly(vinyl alcohol), polyglycerol, polytetrahydrofuran, polyamide, a derivative of any of the foregoing and a combination of any of the foregoing,
wherein the bulk additive has an absence of polyacrylamide.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the bulk additive is in semi-dry form containing between 8 and 15% moisture or water.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the bulk additive is in granular form.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the bulk additive comprises granules of cationic HP guar.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the bulk additive encapsulates all or a portion of a seed.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the bulk additive is applied by itself.

11. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the bulk additive is selected from the group consisting of unwashed guar gum, washed guar gum, poly(methacrylic acid), poly(acrylic acid), polyacrylate, poly(ethylene glycol), phosphonate-end capped polymers, polyethyleneoxide, poly(vinyl alcohol), polyglycerol, polytetrahydrofuran, polyamide, a derivative of any of the foregoing and a combination of any of the foregoing; and
wherein the bulk additive has an absence of polyacrylamide.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive is poly(acrylic acid).

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive is selected from poly(methacrylic acid), poly(acrylic acid), polyacrylate, poly(ethylene glycol), phosphonate-end capped polymers, polyethyleneoxide, poly(vinyl alcohol), polyglycerol, polytetrahydrofuran, polyamide, guar, unwashed guar gum, washed guar gum, cationic guar, carboxymethyl guar (CM guar), hydroxyethyl guar (HE guar), hydroxypropyl guar (HP guar), carboxymethylhydroxypropyl guar (CMHP guar), cationic guar, hydrophobically modified guar (HM guar), hydrophobically modified carboxymethyl guar (HMCM guar), hydrophobically modified hydroxyethyl guar (HMHE guar), hydrophobically modified hydroxypropyl guar (HMHP guar), cationic hydrophobically modified hydroxypropyl guar (cationic HMHP guar), hydrophobically modified carboxymethylhydroxypropyl guar (HMCMHP guar), hydrophobically modified cationic guar (HM cationic guar), guar hydroxypropyl trimonium chloride, hydroxypropyl guar hydroxypropyl trimonium chloride, starch, corn, wheat, rice, potato, tapioca, waxy maize, sorghum, waxy sorghum, sago, dextrin, chitin, chitosan, alginate compositions, xanthan gum, carageenan gum, gum karaya, gum arabic, pectin, cellulose, hydroxycellulose, hydroxyalkyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, carboxymethylhydroxyethyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, cationic hydroxyethyl cellulose, cationic starch, a derivative of any of the foregoing or a combination of any of the foregoing, wherein the bulk additive has an absence of polyacrylamide.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive is a polymer according to formula:

wherein n is an integer of from 1 to 1000;
wherein R1 comprises at least one phosphonate group, silicate group, siloxane group, phosphate group, phosphinate group or any combination thereof;
wherein R2 or R3 are each independently a hydrogen, or a branched, linear or cyclic C1-C6 hydrocarbon with or without heteroatom;
M+ is a counterion or hydrogen;
wherein “D” is absent, a linear or branched C1-C5 hydrocarbon group, a C1-C5 alkoxy group, oxy group (—O—), iminyl (—NH—), or substituted iminyl (—NR—), wherein R a C1-C6 alkyl, a C1-C6 alkoxyl, a C1-C6 hydroxylalkyl, a C1-C6 alkoxyalkyl or a C1-C6 alkylalkoxyl.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive encapsulates all or a portion of a fertilizer or fertilizer granule.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein bulk additive is in the dry form.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive is in granular form.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive comprises granules of cationic HP guar.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive encapsulates all or a portion of a fertilizer or fertilizer granule.

20. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the bulk additive is selected from the group consisting of carboxymethyl guar (CM guar), hydroxyethyl guar (HE guar), hydroxypropyl guar (HP guar), carboxymethylhydroxypropyl guar (CMHP guar), cationic guar, hydrophobically modified guar (HM guar), hydrophobically modified carboxymethyl guar (HMCM guar), hydrophobically modified hydroxyethyl guar (HMHE guar), hydrophobically modified hydroxypropyl guar (HMHP guar), a derivative of any of the foregoing and any combination of any of the foregoing, wherein the bulk additive has an absence of polyacrylamide.

21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising contacting a top layer of the target soil area with a surface additive,
wherein the surface additive is selected from the group consisting of carboxymethyl guar (CM guar), hydroxyethyl guar (HE guar), hydroxypropyl guar (HP guar), carboxymethylhydroxypropyl guar (CMHP guar), cationic guar, hydrophobically modified guar (HM guar), hydrophobically modified carboxymethyl guar (HMCM guar), hydrophobically modified hydroxyethyl guar (HMHE guar), hydrophobically modified hydroxypropyl guar (HMHP guar), a derivative of any of the foregoing and any combination of any of the foregoing.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the surface additive is granular form.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein surface additive comprises granules of cationic HP guar.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk additive comprises cationic guar which encapsulates all or a portion of a fertilizer or fertilizer granule to improve the germination rate.

25. A method of improving germination rate of a plant or crop by decreasing water evaporation from a target soil area, the method comprising:
introducing a bulk additive to a target soil area, wherein the bulk additive is in an aqueous mixture or in a dry or semi-dry form;
wherein the step of introducing the bulk additive to a target soil area comprises applying the bulk additive to the surface of target soil area then mixing the bulk add

Assignees

• Rhodia Operations

Inventors

• Cristobal Galder
• Metivier Pascal
• Castaing Jean-Christophe
• Ji Pengfei
• Chen Zhiyun

Classifications

• A01G22/45

  Tobacco · CPC title

• C09K17/38

  Siloxanes · CPC title

• A01G22/25

  Root crops, e.g. potatoes, yams, beet or wasabi · CPC title

• A01G22/40

  Fabaceae, e.g. beans or peas · CPC title

• C09K17/52

  Mulches · CPC title