Experts always know best. When you get sick you go to the expert, your trusted doctor. When television networks cover a high-profile court case, they turn to legal experts for analysis and opinion. If you need major repairs on your machinery, your best bet to get working again is to take it to an expert mechanic. Indeed, no matter what the issue, there’s something about consulting an expert that puts your mind at ease. You know that you can trust in their advice based on a history and a relationship

With this in mind, it should be reassuring to know that a doctor of mechanical engineering at a leading university says that while blended fertilizer is good, granular fertilizer such as Rainbow Plant Food is the best fertilizer money can buy. A recent study investigated by Dr. Carl Wassgren offers scientific methodology that indicates it is nearly impossible to blend common pulverized fertilizer materials in adistribution that allows for even and consistent spreading of nutrients into the soil.

Sure, higher yields inevitably lead to higher profits, but there’s more. Even distribution of fertilizers maximizes the yield from each individual plant, which stems from balanced soil fertility – something few commodity growers ever think about. Dr. Wassgren’s study suggests that by using granular products such as Rainbow Plant Food, growers can not only make more profit but also make their soil more fertile for harvests down the road. We’ve preached the Granular Advantage for years; now, it appears, the experts concur.

Separate, but not Equal
In the study, Dr. Wassgren tests the behavior of different fertilizer products distributed with a spinner spreader. Over the course of his research, Dr. Wassgren measures the size distribution, mass density, aerodynamic resistance, and friction coefficients of each product, mathematically determining that granular products spread more evenly than the blended and pulverized ones, across the board. In today’s economy, it’s impossible for a grower to afford multiple trips across a field in order to fertilize it. The solution, is to go granular.

Rainbow people have long known how blended fertilizers segregate and result in uneven crop yields and poor sales. Traditional products begin to segregate the moment they leave the blender, thanks to natural sorting and sifting processes that occur as the products make their way to the spreader. Dr. Wassgren lays out the guidelines for growers to predict what kind of product segregation they can expect from the spinner. Then, of course, he reminds them that the most efficient alternative is a product that transcends blending from the beginning – a product like Rainbow Plant Food.

Just the Facts

The equation is simple. High crop yields and enhanced-quality crops earn growers more money, and the best yields will be achieved by superior fertilization, which can only occur with consistently even application. Growers have two options – to apply individual pulverized nutrients independently, or to use a complete and homogeneous granular fertilizer. “Our findings,” Dr. Wassgren says, “suggest that a complete fertilizer, compared to a blend, is the most efficient way to distribute multiple nutrients.”

Here at Rainbow Plant Food, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Thanks, Doc.

Read the complete study: Granular Fertiliser Particle Dynamics On and Off a Spinner Spreader
Written by: A. Aphale; N. Bolander; J. Park; L. Shaw; J. Svec; and C. Wassgren