General information about Albit

Materials used in this chapter are published in book Biopesticide Albit for increasing yields and protection of agricultures against diseases, A.K. Zlotnikov, Ed. Prof. À. Melkumova. All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection, Russia, 2006.

Fig. 1. Yield increase of different agricultural crops, under the influence of Albit (% to control, mean values of all field trials). Crops are listed in alphabetical order.

• Brand-new biotech product showing universal growth stimulation on all investigated plants. Efficiency of Albit has been confirmed in more than 500 field trials on 50 agricultural crops
• With application costs of ca. 3.5-4.0 USD/ha, Albit increases yield of wheat by 16.5%, rice by 19.3%, maize by 11.6%, potato by 20.0%, soybeans by 19.6%, sugar beet by 16.2%, kidney bean by 16.3%, vegetables by 12.0-23.4%, vine and horticultures by 8.5–15.6% on average*
• Albit increases plant drought- and heat-resistance by 10-60%
• Albit is well-compatible with standard chemical treatments, relieving pesticidal stress on agricultural crops. Addition of Albit to herbicides increases yield averagely by 16.6% over control treated with pure herbicides
• Albit increases yield quality (wheat gluten by 0.5–5.1%); application of 1 mL Albit gives ca. 3.4 L of extra canola oil
• Via natural mechanisms of immunization, Albit protects plants against wide range of main plant diseases (rots, rusts, spots, wilts). Application of Albit allows to reduce application rates of chemical fungicides by ca. 50%, conventional fertilizers by 10-30%
• Albit provides stable results from year to year, under different weather, soil and nutritional conditions. Reproducibility of Albit effect is averagely by 96% higher than that of analogous products
• Albit is practically non-toxic for humans, animals and plants (World Health Organisation 4th class of toxicity)
• 10 years of successful use in 45 regions of Russia: from Vologda oblast on the North, to Krasnodar and Stavropol Krais on the South, and from Bryansk oblast on the West to the Russian Far East (Primorye)
• Albit is very compact (1 L is used for treatment of ca. 25 hectares). Shelf life 3 years.

Biological pesticide Albit is developed in Albit Scientific and Industrial LLC by the employees of the Biological scientific centre of the Russian Academy of sciences (Pushchino, Moscow oblast, Russia). Albit is protected by the patent Nr 2147181 «Pesticide for increase of plant productivity and protection from plant pathogens». Industrial technology of Albit’s production was developed within the framework of special-purpose programme «Development of the technology of gaining a universal biopesticide which provides fully-valuable plant growth and protection from plant pathogens». The inventors of Albit have been engaged in development of biological pesticides over 30 years, joining necessary experience to fulfill farmers’ actual requirements.

High efficiency of Albit has been confirmed in more than 250 successful field trials carried out in 1997-2004 by leading scientific institutions: Lomonosov Moscow State university, All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture), All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection RAAS (Russia Academy of Agricultural Sciences), All-Russia Flax Institute, All-Russia Institute of Legumes and Groat Crops, All-Russia Institute of Horticulture, All-Russia Institute of Vegetable Selection and Seed Breeding, All-Russia Institute of Viticulture and Vine processing, Institute of Plant Physiology (Russian Academy of Sciences), All-Russia Soil Institute, Agricultural Scientific Institute of South-East, Ryazan State Agricultural Academy, Kurgan Institute of Grain Growing, Far East Institute of Plant Protection, Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Regional Plant Protection Stations and others.

High efficiency of Albit was demonstrated in long-term field trials on winter and spring wheat, barley, rye, oats, rice, sugar beet, sunflower, corn, flax, potato, millet, buckwheat, soybean, pea, vetch, galega, canola, string bean, lupine, alfalfa, lentil, vine, apple, white and Chinese cabbage, onions, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper, lettuce, eggplants, vegetable marrows, table beet, strawberry, currant, cherry, gooseberry, roses, roses, amaranth, decorative green plantings and wood breeds, lawn grasses, outdoor and greenhouse flowers (total on 50 agricultures).

In Russia, Albit is registered as a plant growth regulator (State registration # 09-00496-0378-1) and fungicide (State registration # 0470-06-107-150-1-1-3-1). Albit is also registered in Ukraine and the European Union. Registration is in progress in other countries.

Fig. 2. On the left: Phase-contrast microscopy of bacteria (Bacillus megaterium) with granules of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). On the right: structural formula of the PHB.

Albit contains purified active ingredient (poly-β-hydroxybutyrate, PHB) isolated from soil bacteria Bacillus megaterium and Pseudomonas aureofaciens. In the natural environment, these bacteria inhabit on plant roots and stimulate root growth, protect plants from diseases and unfavorable environmental factors. The formulation also includes balanced starting set of micro and macro-elements (N, P, K, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Mo, Cu, Co, B, I, Se, Na, Ni, Zn) and terpene acids of coniferous extract. Albit does not contain living microorganisms, that makes its activity more stable and less dependent on environmental conditions. Albit combines low cost and low toxicity of biological pesticides, and efficiency, stability and predictability of chemical pesticides.

Increase of yield and plant growth stimulation. Albit stably increases yield of cereals, sugar beet, sunflower, potato, flax, vegetables, legumes, horticultures, fodder grasses averagely by 5-20% (Plant protection and quarantine, Nr 9, 2005). The yield increase of plant species having high undisclosed potential (such as buckwheat and canola) might reach up to 50 % over the control (Fig.1).

In field trials Albit provided averagely 2.25 times higher yield increase than other biopesticides and plant growth regulators. Effectiveness of Albit was practically the same as that of chemical fungicides, which are tenth times more expensive.

Yield quality. Albit increases gluten content in wheat grain by 0.5-5.1% (averagely by 2.3%). Albit also improves yield quality of other crops, for example, increases sugar content in sugar beet by 0.3-2.0%, output of sunflower oil (reports of All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection) and percentage-number of flax fibre by 26–55 % (reports of All-Russia Flax Institute). In vegetables, Albit increases content of vitamins by 6-25 % whereas content of nitrates decreases by 16–26% (reports of All-Russia Institute of Vegetable Selection and Seed Breeding). Joint application of 1 ml of Albit with insecticides provides additionally 5 L of canola oil on average (Plant protection and quarantine, Nr 1, 2005; Plant protection and quarantine, Nr 8, 2007 ).

Protection against diseases. Albit possesses protective activity, suppressing development of the broad range of main diseases of agricultural crops (root rots, powdery mildew, leaf spots, brown rust, fusarioses, septorioses, anthracnose, scab, late blight, black leg, white and grey decay, bacterioses, etc.); Albit is officially registered in Russia as a mean of protection against 26 diseases. Biological efficiency of the pesticide against diseases is 40-90% averagely (Plant protection and quarantine , Nr 1, 2005, Zemledeliye, Nr 1, 2007). Efficiency of Albit against many diseases is not inferior to that of much more expensive chemical means of protection. E.g., the biological efficiency (BE) of Albit against root rots of cereal crops is 59–81% averagely, whereas BE of chemical fungicides is just 40-70% (Plant protection and quarantine , Nr 3, 2005).

Unlike chemical fungicides, Albit is not toxic and does not eradicate pathogens, but it increases the natural resistance (immunity) of plants. Therefore, plants should be treated before appearance of the first signs of disease, and infestation with complex of pathogens must not exceed 30% (in absence of internal infections). At higher infestation level, the biopesticide is recommended to combine (mix together) with chemical fungicides.

Reduction of applications rates of fungicides and seed treatment agents. Treatment of plants with the majority of chemical pesticides causes stress and temporary oppression of the plants, negatively affecting yield and yield quality. Albit relieves the fungicide-mediated stress, and also increases natural protective mechanisms of plants against diseases, that lead to increasing fungicide activity of a chemical pesticide. Therefore, use of chemical fungicides mixed with Albit makes possible application of the lowest recommended fungicide rates, or even using the partial (halved) dose of fungicide with complete preservation of the plant protective effect. Trials of All-Russia Institute of Biological Plant Protection, All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection RAAS, All-Russia Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Scientific Institute of South-East, and other authorities (252 field trials with chemical fungicides and protectants based on benomyl, dimethomorph, dithianon, difenoconazole, carbendazim, carboxin, mancozeb, metalaxyl, propiconazole, sulphur compounds, spiroxamine, tebuconazole, thiabendazole, thiram, triadimenol, flutriafol, copper compounds, cymoxanil, cyproconazole and epoxiconazole) demonstrated that halved dose of a chemical fungicide in combination with Albit is as effective as the full dose of fungicide (Zemledeliye, Nr 2, 2005).

For example, trials of All-Russia Institute of Legumes and Groat Crops (Oryol oblast) demonstrated high efficiency of spring barley presowing treatment with combination of Albit and decreased dose of flutriafol/thiabendazol based fungicide (Vestnik RAAS, Nr 2, 2007). Treatment with such combination provided considerable acceleration of plant growth and 28.9% yield increase over untreated control (in variant with full dose of fungicide yield increase was just 17.1%), and total suppression of root rots (Fig.3).

Fig. 3. Growth of spring barley var. Vizit after presowing seed treatment with full dose of chemical protectant (1) and decreased dose of fungicide + Albit (2) (All-Russia Institute of Legumes and Groat Crops), 2005 (left picture) and 2006 (right picture)

Owing to reduction of the dose of chemical fungicides and fungicidal seed treatment agents, Albit make possible considerable reduction the cost of plant protective treatments (by 20-45%).

Reliving herbicidal stress. Besides their main functions (protection of plants from weeds), pesticides always cause stress to plants which they are devoted to defend. To reduce pesticide toxicity, special substances called ‘antidotes’ (antistressers) - might be used. Application of Albit as an antidote together with herbicides saves up to half of the yield of cereals, sugar beet, soybean, flax and other cultures. Antistress activity of Albit is especially pronounced in case of winter cereals treatment in EC stage 20-29 (tillering). The plants, weakened by winter, herbicides and root rots, respond to Albit treatment with dramatic increase of productivity (up to 10 centners/hectare under field conditions).

In field trials, application of Albit together with herbicides provided considerable yield increase of all major crops (Table 1).

For example, trial of Orenburg State Agrarian University demonstrated that Albit increases effectiveness of all herbicides commonly used in this region (Fig. 4).

Ðèñ. 4. Efficiency of combined application of Albit and herbicides on spring wheat
(field trials of Orenburg State Agrarian University, 2005)

By now, the antidote activity of Albit was has been proven in combination with herbicides based on 2,4-D amidosulphuron, haloxyfop R-methyl, desmedipham, dicamba, quizalofop-p-tefuryl, clopyralid, metsulfuron-methyl, tralkoxidim, triasulfuron, tribenuron-methyl, trifluralin, thriflusulphuron-methyl, phenmedipham, fenoxaprop-ethyl, florasulam, fluazifop-p-butyl, quizalofop-p-ethyl, chlorsulfuron and ethofumesate (data of 105 field trials).

In a similar way, due to its antidote activity, Albit applied together with insecticides against plant louses, leaf beetles, Swedish fly, Colorado beetle, caterpillars and other insect pests increases plant productivity by 5-93% over control (treatment with insecticide alone).

It is known that treatment of wheat by insecticides against shield-backed bugs reduces accumulation of gluten in grain. Addition of Albit to the insecticides increases gluten content by 1.2–4.6% comparing to the treatment with insecticide alone. Combination of Albit and insecticides provides pronounced positive effect also on canola. (Plant protection and quarantine, Nr 8, 2007).

In summary, combined use of Albit with fungicides, insecticides and herbicides increases their efficiency by 5 - 93 %. According to head of one of the advanced farms-consumers of Albit , only together with Albit all fungicides he used before started working with their full capacity, i.e., providing 100% of the effect declared by their producers. Thus, joint use of Albit and standard recommended means of plant protection provides their high reliability and effectiveness.

Drought resistance. According to data of Institute of Plant Physiology, Albit increases ability of plants to endure drought (increased temperature and moisture deficiency) by 10-60 %. Now Albit is the only pesticide officially registered in Russia as a mean of increase of drought resistance of cereal crops (The List of Pesticides…, 2006). Increased drought resistance remains for several months after treatment with Albit. Due to Albit, at the time of drought in 2003, farmers of Krasnodar krai harvested high yields of wheat and barley (50-70 centners/hectare), same as those level of normal 2002. The analogous effect was observed in the 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2007 drought years in different regions of Russia.

Composite fertilizer. Due to the promotion of soil nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization by soil bacteria, Albit increases coefficients of mineral nutrient uptake by 18-47%. In result, plants use available nutrients more efficiently that makes possible reduction of mineral fertilizer rates. According to data of the Department of Agrochemistry of the Moscow State University, application of Albit is capable to replace up to 18 kg of a.i./hectare of nitric fertilizers and 14 kg of phosphoric ones. (Bulletin of All-Russia Institute of Fertilizers and Agrochemistry, Nr 113, 2000)

Reliability. Experts in agriculture know well, that the result of application of even highly effective pesticides can noticeably vary depending on year, field specificity, agricultural background, phytosanitary conditions, terms of treatment. One of the purposes of Albit development was overcoming of low reproducibility, which is a common defect of most of the biological pesticides. Reproducibility can be quantitatively characterized by the ratio of standard deviation of all experiments and the arithmetical mean (variation coefficient CV). According to averaged CVs of all field trials, the ability of Albit to provide stable yield increase was 2.48 times higher than that of the other bioformulations and 12% higher than that of chemical pesticides. Therefore, high reliability and reproducibility (Fig. 5) is one of the main advantages of Albit.

Fig. 5. Reproducibility of Albit and other formulations. (averaged results of all 250 field trials). Reproducibility of Albit is accepted as 100%.

Acceleration of plant growth. Due to intensification of physiological and biochemical processes, Albit accelerates the changes of phenological stages of agricultural crops by 3-12 days. As a result, duration of the vegetative period required to obtain the high-grade yield is reduced, that in some cases makes possible earlier harvesting and obtaining of stable yield of southern cultures (sugar beet, soybean, winter canola, vegetables) in more northern regions (Plant protection and quarantine, Nr 11, 2005).

Economical efficiency. Cost of Albit is considerably lower, than that of analogous products. Presowing seed treatment of 1 tonne of cereals or foliar treatment of 1 hectare with Albit costs about 88 roubles (3.5 USD). Application rates of Albit for most crops are about 40 ml per tonne of seeds for presowing treatment, and 40 ml/hectare for treatment of vegetating plants. Full cycle of Albit treatment for cereals (presowing + 2 vegetative treatments) takes averagely just 90 ml of Albit per hectare, that corresponds to 198 roubles (7.92 USD)/hectare.

The net profit of Albit application averages from 500 to 15000 roubles/hectare (20 - 600 USD); the profitability varies from 200 to 2000% depending on the crop, year and climatic conditions.

For example, the average increase of winter wheat yield under the influence of Albit in Russia is 5.0 centners/hectare. At the recommended wheat grain price of 500 roubles/centner the profit is 2500 roubles/hectare. Subtrackcting the cost of the pesticide (198 roubles/hectare for 1 presowing and 2 vegetative treatments), the net profit of Albit application on this crop will make 2302 roubles/hectare. Since Albit is commonly applied in mixture with chemical pesticides at the scheduled chemical pesticide treatments, application expenses are not taken into account Accordingly, each rouble spent for application of Albit brings 11.6 roubles of payback (1060% profitability).

In multiple trials conducted on the main agricultures, the profitability of Albit under field conditions was not lower than 200 %.

Albit requires very low application rates. For foliar spraying on most agricultural crops, concentration of Albit 1 ml/10 l is recommended. Albit solution of this concentration is used for foliar sprayings, watering, root and extra-root fertilizing, trickle irrigation, soil saturation. It is desirable that the solution gets onto the plant leaves.

Instead of performing separate treatments with Albit, you may add 10 ml Albit/10 l working solution of standard herbicide, insecticide, fertilizer treatments (for details see above).

Since 1999, Albit has been successfully used in farms of Amur, Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Lipetsk, Moscow, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Oryol, Penza, Perm, Rostov, Ryazan, Samara, Saratov, Sverdlov, Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Yaroslavl oblasts, republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Mordovia, Altay, Krasnodar, Perm, Primorye and Stavropol krais (totally in 45 regions of Russia). The main indicator of high necessity of Albit is stable 1.5-2 fold increasing of its annual sales in Russia (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Regions of Russia where Albit is used, data of 2010 (marked with more intensive color)

Consumers of Albit are farms with different financial opportunities, ranging from individual farms to agroholdings. Farms apply Albit together with chemical pesticides to increase their efficiency, to reduce cost of treatment and to improve yield quality. Our partners are the largest and most advanced cereal-growing farms of Krasnodar krai (OSC Chapaev breeding farm , Kuban breeding farm, Yug AgroBiznes agroholding), collective farm of Roslyakov V.M. (wheat yield harvested in this farm under conditions of Tyumen oblast (Siberia) is 60 centners/hectare), the largest flax growing farms of Russia (Biyskaya L’nyanaya Companiya (Biysk flax company) of Altay krai), the most profitable sugar beet growing farms of Russia Pamyat Kirova OSC of Tambov oblast, KhoperAgroProdukt LLC of Krasnodar krai (yield of sugar beet is 110 tonnes/hectare), advanced potatoes growing farms Merisistemnye kultury of Stavropol Krai, Elitnyi Kartofel of Moscow oblast, State Pedigree Farm ‘Verkhnemulinskiy’ of Perm krai, Pushkinskoe experimental farm of Nizhniy Novgorod oblast, Voskhod agricultural company of Primorye krai, etc.

On the other hand, the more small-scale farms use Albit as a less expensive alternative of chemical fungicides.

Albit has been highly appreciated by experts. Annual Russian Innovations contest is carried out for the purpose of promotion of innovations in Russia and selection of the most perspective scientific high-tech developments. Organizers of contest are journal Expert and Financial Corporation Sistema with support of Department of Education and Science of Russian Federation. The winners are the best innovation projects in the field of aerospace technologies, nuclear-power engineering, electronics, biotechnology, medicine, etc. In 2003, Albit was the only product in the field of agriculture which reached the final of the competition.

Application. Albit is used for presowing seed treatment and foliar sprays of plants. In most cases, Albit is not applied alone, but in course of scheduled treatments with fungicides, herbicides and insecticides.

The main ways of using Albit are:

• As an antidote, Albit is used with herbicides, increasing yields of cereals, sugar beet, sunflower, buckwheat, soybean, and flax averagely by 16.6% (up to 68%). Addition of Albit to herbicides (just 88 roubles/hectare of additional expenses) provides 1.2–9.9 centners/hectare of average extra yield of cereals, 25.7 centners/hectare of sugar beet, 6.8 centners/hectare of buckwheat. Treatment with Albit also protects plants from drought and leaf diseases.
• Presowing seed treatment of cereals, sunflower, soybean, millet, pea è buckwheat. t is possible to use combinations of Albit with the minimal recommended doses of fungicides, or (depending on the infection level) to replace them partially or completely with Albit. Since for the majority of crops the cost of treatment with Albit is less than 50 roubles/tonne of seeds, the total cost of seed treatment might be reduced by 25–90%. Seed treatment with Albit provides additionally 3.8 centners/hectare of winter wheat, 3.7 centners/hectare of spring barley, 3.0 centners/hectare of sunflower, 4.7 centners/hectare of soybean, 2.4 centners/hectare of pea. Protection of plants against root rots and advancing immunization against soil and leaf infections are also provided.
• Joint use of Albit with insecticides is capable to increase productivity of cereals, potato, vegetables by 36.1% on average (in case of (canola up to 93%) in comparison with pure insecticides. Spraying of wheat with combination of Albit and insectoacarycides against chinch increases gluten content in grain by 1.2–4.6%.
• Application of Albit together with mineral fertilizers makes possible reduction of fertilizer application rates averagely by 10-30%. Addition of Albit to solution of urea or to other liquid nitric fertilizers, helps to avoid stress (burns) of plants.
• Protection of apple and vine, that makes possible 2-3 fold reduction of chemical fungicide amounts, and harvesting of ecologically pure organic production through partial replacement of scheduled chemical fungicide treatments with Albit.
• Pre-planting treatment of tubers and foliar spraying of potato with Albit in alternation with chemical fungicides partially replaces the chemical treatments.
• Treatment of vegetables, which makes possible partial or entire replacement of growth promoters, fungicides, and fertilizers.
• Stimulation of fodder grasses (galega, alfalfa, clover, vetch) regrowth after skewing.
• Induction of flowering of decorative plants and increasing its duration.

For the detailed application recommendations of Albit, please refer to the officially registered Application recommendations.

Preparative form of Albit is fluid paste with pleasant coniferous smell that easily mixes up with water. The formulation is packaged in 1 litre plastic bottles, 16 bottles in box.

According to results of toxicological expertise, Albit is reckoned among 4th class of danger (lowest toxicity), whereas majority of pesticides relates to more dangerous 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes of danger. Thus, one important feature of Albit is its harmlessness for humans, animals and plants. Due to its safety Albit is used in technologies of organic farming.

Shelf life of Albit is 3 years at the temperature from -20 to +25°Ñ.

The recommended retail price of Albit is 100 US dollars/litre (maximal), the minimal one is 88 US dollars/litre (including VAT).

Manufacturer: Albit Scientific and Industrial LLC (Albit LLC)
(142290 Moscow oblast, Pushchino, Ðrospect Nauki, 5)

For updated information about Albit, please see our Internet site
www.albit.ru (Russian) and www.albit.com (English, might contain incomplete and/or obsolete information).

For purchasing Albit and consultations, please refer to our official dealers.
The nearest dealer can be found here.

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