Prestigious Award for Akzo Nobel Chelates in Asia
Akzo Nobel´s Chelated Micronutrients won a prominent award at the International Conference and Exhibition on Soil-less Culture, which was staged in Singapore in September 2005.
Presented in conjunction with the International Society for Horticultural Science, the company received the International Horticulture Award in recognition of its "excellent contribution towards promoting soil-less plant nutrition technology as a futuristic, environmentallyfriendly technology for growing plants." The honor was accepted by Sumitro Wijaya (Marketing Manager Asia Pacifi c). Akzo Nobel was praised for its worldleading chelated micronutrient expertise, described as the "benchmark" for the sector.
The day after the award was presented, Marcel Bugter, Market Development Manager for chelated micronutrients, gave a presentation on the "Stability of Iron Chelates in Soil-less Culture" showing what Akzo Nobel has achieved during recent years.
The paper, with the title "pH Stability of Fechelates in Soil-less Culture", has just been accepted for publication in Acta Horticulture and is expected to be published later in 2007.
The paper establishes that Soil-less culture could not exist today or in the future without iron chelates for delivering iron to the plant roots. The choice of the best iron chelate in soil-less cultures is discussed by making use of a speciation calculation model showing that Fe-EDTA is often not stable enough and Fe-DTPA, or Fe-EDDHA or Fe-EDDHMA, are the products of choice.
The need for chelation of Mn, Zn and Cu is also discussed and their infl uence on the stability of the iron chelate when the A and B tank solutions come together in the final nutrient solution; as well as the consequences of a high Cu or Zn level in the nutrient solution for the stability of the Fe-chelate.
In fact elevated levels of copper and zinc will result in lower concentrations of iron in the nutrient solution and use of chelated copper, zinc and
manganese results in higher iron availability.
Access to Akzo Nobel technical information and articles
After publication the paper will be made available along with all SDS´s, MSDS´s, URS´s and label information via AIM.
Author: Marcel Bugter, Akzo Nobel
Published: February 2007