Some of the most important battles a crop fights happen before it ever sees daylight.
Cold soils, salt stress, and early-season pathogens all collide at the seed, and the outcome of those first few days can shape the entire season. Increasingly, companies working in biologicals are looking underground, earlier than ever, to tip the odds in a seedling’s favor.
In this short conversation, Sarah Budde Rodriguez of Tidal Grow breaks down why pairing chitosan with beneficial microbes is gaining attention — and why timing, formulation, and synergy matter more than buzzwords.
What you’ll hear in this conversation:
- Why chitosan acts as a natural “starter signal” for seeds and soil microbes
- How chitosan and beneficial microbes work together to strengthen early immunity and root development
- Which early-season stresses this combination helps address most consistently
- What growers might actually notice in the field during emergence and early growth
- Why rate and formulation can make or break biological performance
- Why this chitosan–microbe pairing matters now, not years down the road
Before yield maps and harvest results ever come into play, crops have to survive their first test underground. This conversation zooms in on that moment — and on a biological partnership designed to help seedlings get out of the gate stronger.
