Small Business/SBIR

Research Unearths New Vegetation Science

A SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH (SBIR) contract between NASA and Boulder Innovative Technologies (BIT), a Colorado company, has spawned a new science called zeoponics, which offers numerous commercial applications using a superior plant nutrition system. Research using zeolite, a naturally occurring group of more than 50 minerals, is expected to be directly applied in the International Space Station and future Advanced Life Support missions to extraterrestrial bodies, such as Mars and the Moon.

ZeoponiX, Inc., of Louisville, Colorado, is a BIT spinoff company that holds exclusive rights to this patented zeoponic technology. The company is manufacturing ZeoPro™, a combination of a nutrient-charged zeolite and slowly dissolving substances that contain phosphorus and other nutrients. ZeoPro™ delivers nutrients in a plant demand-driven fashion. The product also offers superior water retention and lower leaching levels.

Zeolite can be adapted for a variety of uses, but a major application is plant nutrition. Made of a special crystalline structure that is porous, zeolite remains rigid in the presence of water.

"Rather than [humankind] trying to second-guess the exact timing of nutrient needs for the plant, with zeoponics, the plant does the regulating of the nutrients as it needs them," explained ZeoponiX Chief Executive Officer Richard D. Andrews. "With only the addition of water, plants will grow in the zeoponic medium for multiple growth cycles."

Plants are considered critical to prolonged space exploration, supporting astronauts with water, oxygen and food and helping recycle waste products as part of a regenerative life support system. NASA scientists at Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers have been studying ways to sustain plant growth in space environments. Zeolite helped solve the problem of an efficient hydroponic system, and the word "zeoponics" was created.

The initial market of turf—golf greens and specialty playing fields—has expanded to include agriculture and many types of horticulture, such as commercial greenhouses for floriculture, vegetable horticulture and environmental horticulture (nurseries, tree farms and so on), according to Andrews and ZeoponiX President James W. Shaw. Consumer zeoponic products will include specialty fertilizers and growth mediums, as well as potting mix blends.

"The product is technically innovative, and specifically formulated products are being designed to serve the targeted markets," Shaw said. Distributorship arrangements have been established in many U.S. geographic areas and abroad.

The products are environmentally friendly and greatly reduce the release and loss of nutrients into ground water and runoff. This results in lower overall nutrients applied to achieve equal or superior plant growth and performance. A growing awareness and increasing environmental regulations are focusing on the overuse of fertilizers and the negative impacts on the environment. Zeoponics can help alleviate this problem.

For more information, contact Richard D. Andrews at ZeoponiX.
Call: 303/673-0098, E-mail: rdajws@zeoponix.com
Or contact James W. Shaw at ZeoponiX.
Call: 303/673-0098, E-mail: 0098rdajws@zeoponix.com
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

Plant sustenance research has generated a new science that offers several applications for a plant nutrition system with many benefits. This system greatly reduces nutrient release and loss into ground water and runoff.