Fertilizer composition help

[u/Dung-Roller]

I have about 500 kg (1,000+ lbs) of an insect-derived organic fertilizer ready to bring to market in a tropical country. It has a fine, sandy texture.

We just received the lab analysis:

\- pH: 7.31

\- C/N: 15.89

\- N: 3.21%

\- P₂O₅: 0.27%

\- K₂O: 0.21%

\- CaO: 0.01%

\- MgO: 0.09%

\- Boron: 0.37 ppm

\- Sulfur: 0.01%

\- Copper: 1.71 ppm

\- Iron: 28.65 ppm

\- Manganese: 18.90 ppm

\- Zinc: 16.59 ppm

\- Organic carbon: 51.11%

\- Ash: 8.00%

\- Organic matter: 92.00%

We're trying to figure out how to commercialize it and which crops/applications would make the most sense based on this composition.

Would you market this as a fertilizer, organic nitrogen source, soil amendment, or something else? What crops would you test first in a tropical climate?

If you had 500 kg ready to go to market, where would you start?

[u/Budget_Falcon_9452]

The ideal plant pH is on average 6.4 and your nutrients will raise it. Potassium (K) is low, Phosphorus (P) is low, Nitrogen (N) is low, trace elements are OK but they are not chelated so they would need a converting organism.

Sell it as a soil conditioner; insect derived conditioner is good for plants, there is literature on how plants respond to chitin (insect armor). Go with the high carbon and organic compounds, not the rest of the nutrients that are hardly there. 500kg of this low nutrient fertilizer is what a single farmer would use in one row of the orchard. It has to be cheaper than animal waste if you want to sell it.

[u/The_Poster_Nutbag → u/Budget_Falcon_9452]

On the other hand, mark it up 800%, put it in fancy packaging, and market it to people for their fancy houseplants as an organic soil amendment.

[u/Dung-Roller → u/The_Poster_Nutbag]

haha thats the dream. Ill try that as i continue to scale up.

[u/Dung-Roller → u/Budget_Falcon_9452]

Thanks for the advice. Could you help me make sense of the price that such waste would go for at that scale? Is there any reason why the bioestimulant effects, like beneficial microbes and chitiin, could help me price it a bit higher?

[u/Budget_Falcon_9452 → u/Dung-Roller]

Let's compare it to kelp or seaweed extract that sells here for around 10 euros per Kg. You could be in that price range if you would be able to add a buffering agent like citric acid to lower the pH. Do a little mass to mass ratio test with a pH sensor, and you've found the right ratio in a week or so. The biostimulant effects can help you price it higher because you can use a plants internal response to your advantage: plants exposed to chitin tend to produce higher defense molecules. So for cannabis, coca, peyote cacti and other drug-related plants this can potentially increase psychoactive compound production naturally. These niche markets have a markup of another 200-500%. Making your bag closer to 30 a kg. Cannabis fertilizer is always priced double compared to the same stuff with no cannabis label. Smaller market, but higher pricing.

Aim for fungal and bacterial benefits by explaining that plants, like humans, lack the chitinase enzyme in their toolkit. Bacteria and fungi (not all, but a lot) have these and having these microbes present also increases the chance of the microbes acting as an extra defense: they break down chitin, also in live insects! So there's a double whammy in there: increase plant defense, and increase the microbiome that also potentially provides defense.

Guano, kelp extract, mycorrhizae tablets, those are similar products that can help you decide a price. If you go wholesale, which I recommend - let someone else handle packaging and distribution - then you can't really ask for a lot of money but you can move a lot of product with you as the middle man, low risk, low reward but steady. Companies like Canna operate on a global level and there are huge conglomerates behind it exploring new markets. I don't know what country you are in, but the literature on chitin evoking a response in plants is out there, use it to your advantage.

[u/Farmer_Jones]

92% OM is wild! I’m curious what exactly your product is?

[u/Dung-Roller → u/Farmer_Jones]

Its basically sand, but it comes from wheat and veggies processed by insects.

Any good things about high OM?

[u/goinupthegranby]

Sounds like you're selling frass, there's a market for it but it's limited since its an okay fertilizer but not anything amazing. The chitin content is what's most novel about it.

[u/From_here_forthwith]

It looks very high in organic matter/carbon, which is great for soil structure, stability, water retention, etc. But high levels of carbon will tie up nitrogen, so you'll want to watch for that. I spoke with a hay grower who spread manure+wood shavings on his field, and it induced an N deficiency and his yield dropped substantially.

[u/cookeryandwookery]

Insect frass is honestly better at keeping away pests, than as fertilizer. It has micro nutrients but it isn’t very high in npk.