Nov 12, 2025
Case Study: See How One No-Till Farmer Turned Residue Into an Advantage
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Biological, fertilizer, plant growth regulator, pesticide, biostimulant… all of these are types of inputs you’re already using or considering to increase your yields. When you find an input that really works, it can be as essential for your growing season as water and sunlight.
For many growers and retailers, the challenge isn’t finding more products. It’s finding the few inputs that consistently pull their weight across acres, crops, and seasons. That’s where PhycoTerra® stands apart. PhycoTerra is a microalgae-based product that feeds hungry microbes a balanced meal in each of the four spheres on the farm: the spermosphere (seed), rhizosphere (soil), phyllosphere (plant) and detritusphere (residue).
While bacteria and fungi have been around since the dawn of time, farmers haven’t had a way to leverage them to increase yields, until now. By feeding a more diverse range of microbes for a sustained period of time, PhycoTerra is a truly unique way to improve yield potential in any field.
#1: Notable ROI
For farming to be sustainable, it has to be economically viable. That’s why all of our products are priced for retailers, distributors and growers to achieve notable returns on investment. This is achieved through feeding microbiology, which in turn:
- Improves NPK availability and uptake
- Improves water-holding capacity up to 10%
- Reduces abiotic plant stress
- Promotes natural residue breakdown for clearer seedbeds and more consistent emergence
- Supports earlier planting in the spring via warmer soil temperatures and planting up to three days earlier
For growers, that can mean more uniform stands, better stress tolerance, and higher yields. For retailers and distributors, it means selling a product that’s easy to stand behind season after season.
“There is a plateau when you use NPK and normal farming practices that most farmers can’t overcome. By adding biostimulants, like PhycoTerra Soil Amendment for residue management, we were able to get over that plateau.”
– Chad Rubbelke, Owner of Rubbelke Farms
#2: Nutrient-Dense Microalgal Food Source
While some products may be marketed as microbiological food, the reality is, many of those products lack a full range of nutrients that bacteria and fungi need to start and sustain their jobs. Think of most microbe food as a candy bar for your invisible workforce.
Candy may be good for a jump start, but it’s not an ideal meal for sustained effort.
PhycoTerra, on the other hand, is more like a turkey sandwich.
Farm soil is often depleted of the carbon needed for beneficial microbes. By providing microbes with a nutrient-dense and well-balanced diet, bacteria and fungi can work for a longer period of time. This is true regardless of which sphere you’re feeding microbiology in.
Given that 75% of soil microbes are dormant due to a lack of a good food source, feeding them a well-balanced meal is essential to improving soil health and yield potential.
#3: Feeds a Diverse Population of Bacteria and Fungi
Feeding microbiology isn’t just about sustained efforts. It’s also about engaging a wide range of bacteria and fungi to support crop health. The more abundant and diverse your active microbiology, the better.
Many biostimulants have a high C:N ratio compared to PhycoTerra, which can lead to immobilization of soil nutrients. When this happens, nutrients become inaccessible for your crops. With microalgae as the main ingredient, PhycoTerra contains the ideal balance of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins, feeding a wider range of microbiology.
#4: Easy Integration
All PhycoTerra products are easily integrated into a grower’s current system. There’s no special equipment needed to apply PhycoTerra and it won’t clog your screens. It has high mixability and is compatible with just about everything.
All PhycoTerra products are added at low rates. It takes up minimal space on your seed or in your sprayer, allowing you to add the other inputs your field needs. In almost every situation, you never need an extra pass.
When our product isn’t feeding hungry microbes in your field, it’s safe on your shelves. It’s pasteurized, non-living, and shelf-stable. There are no special storage requirements.
For multiple uses, just be sure to seal the container after each use and store in a dry, cool place.
#5: Field-Proven Trials
Many agri-products boast impressive results in the lab, but fail to perform in the field. At PhycoTerra, we know that if it doesn’t produce in the field, it’s not worth a thing.
That’s why we’ve conducted over 500 third-party trials, on 47 unique crops, in 12 countries. More often than not, the results were clear that PhycoTerra made a notable impact on a grower’s yield potential.
#6: Backed by a World-Class R&D Lab
While field tests are essential, our lab is the foundation for supporting growers and improving yield consistency. That’s why we have a state-of-the-art and world-class R&D lab, run by certified agronomists. This gives us the opportunity to explore new ways, and better ways to support growers.
Whether it’s creating a new product, or improving an existing one, our lab is the foundation to supporting growers and improving harvestable yields.
#7: Improves More Than Just Yield Potential
Farming for the long haul isn’t just about your next harvest, it’s about every harvest, every year. PhycoTerra acts as a long-term investment for your farm.
Crops are only able to reach their full potential in healthy soil. A crop’s genetics determine its maximum potential yield, but whether or not it realizes that potential is determined by the environment where it’s grown.
Since each sphere is connected, supporting the microbiology in one sphere positively impacts the next sphere. When done season after season, soil health increases, reducing abiotic stressors. Healthy soil mitigates these stressors through:
- Increasing water-holding capacity and infiltration helps mitigate droughts and floods
- Mineralizing and carrying vital nutrients to plants
- Resisting erosion so topsoil can support yields
As one of the most important assets to growers, soil health can make or break a farm’s long-term and short-term yield potential.
#8: Produces Results Across Crops, Soil Types, and Moisture Levels
PhycoTerra isn’t a product that only works with certain conditions, or on certain crops. Rather, it’s an input that transcends weather, soil types, and crop categories.
Some of the crops we’ve tested PhycoTerra on include:
No matter the weather, PhycoTerra can help improve yield potential in two ways: Water management and stress management. Healthy soil is key for combating both too much moisture and too little.
Healthy soil with stable aggregates increases water-holding capacity, water productivity and water infiltration. Soil holds onto water during times of drought, and moves it away in times of flooding. The more active your microbiology, the more likely your soil is to reduce erosion and nutrient runoff in times of excess moisture.
A healthy, diverse, abundant and active microbiome in the soil and on the crop can also help reduce abiotic stress for crops. Phyllosphere and rhizosphere microbes can improve stress tolerance, enhance photosynthesis and nutrient absorption, and protect crops from pathogens.
Your soil type still matters, but PhycoTerra® is designed to work across soil textures, from sand to clay, by feeding the microbes that live there. From sand to clay, the microbiology on your farm needs to eat. By feeding them a well-balanced meal, they’re able to get to work supporting your crops.
#9: Makes Other Inputs Go Further
No one applies an input with the intention of letting it go to waste. Yet, it happens every day on farms all around the world.
Fungicides and Pesticides: It’s estimated that pests account for 20% to 40% of the crops lost worldwide. While herbicides and pesticides can help deter threats, creating disease-suppressive soil adds another layer of protection for crops. This happens when beneficial microbiology is able to outcompete pathogens for resources, among other defenses.
Fertilizer: Unlocking nutrients for plants to access requires a healthy, active microbiome. They break down complex organic compounds into simpler compounds plants can actually absorb. Ensure that all of your fertilizer is accessible to your crops with a healthy, active microbiome.
Live Biology: Inoculating your seeds? Adding biology? When introducing living biology to the soil, it needs a readily available, easily digestible food source to get activated and established. Don’t send them out into your field without a meal.
#10: Full season support for your crops and farm microbiology
Every farm has four spheres of influence (seed, plant, soil and residue), which are home to distinct microbial groups that interact and support one another. At PhycoTerra, we’ve created a product for each sphere of influence so growers can feed microbiology at key growing stages.
When microbes are fed and active, the spheres work together in a continuous cycle of impact resulting in improved soil and plant health, nutrient availability and crop resilience for higher yields and ROI.
PhycoTerra is unique in that it provides growers with year-round support, and presents opportunities in each season to maximize yield potential.
Ready to find out what kind of difference PhycoTerra could have on your farm? Want to learn more about getting PhycoTerra on your shelves?
Fill out a contact form to speak with a regional sales manager about the impact PhycoTerra could have on your farm.
All data is accurate as of January 2026. For updated metrics, please visit our trials page.
